GARY COOPER IN "SEVEN DAYS LEAVE".

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 13, 21 August 1930, Page 5

GARY COOPER IN "SEVEN DAYS LEAVE".

THE STORY.

Mr.*. Dowey (Beryl Mercer), an 018. i ScoU-h scrub woman, frets ""because everyone in London, except herself, is , doing something for England in the War. Her three friends, also elderly j ckarwonidh, boast of their sons at the Front; ,<he has none. But in a newspaper, she reads of the heroic exploits of a private in the Canadian "Black Watch", a regiment of Highlanders. His name is the same as hers.. She forthwith 'adopts' him, wears a"Black Watch." badge, and boasts of her son.J The "Kiltie" (Gaiy, Cooper), soon afterwards, „is given leave, and comes to London. Sick of the war, rebellious in- spirity'&e'i.sready, £6 desert. "A Y. M. C. A. worker meets him, and tells j him' that he knows his mother. Dowey, an orpka.ru is amazed, but silently allows hinficftf .. to-be taken to Mrs. Dowey's j quaant, one-room home. Alone with her, Dowey rails at her deception. She timidly defends herself; "I wanted it to be my war, too". Peawuaded to stay to tea, he soon is won by the old lady's pathetic sweetness, and by the. loneliness fihat has driven her to her daring course of action. He grudgingly accepts, but infOTins her she is on. probation'as 'his 'Mother. . - That night, she is the delighted envy of h.or three old cronies, when he takes tier on a, spree. At home, after a fine dianer and tiie theatre, she fondly tucks him into bed. The next day their round of pleasure is interrupted. In a pojblk house, two English sailors chide D»wey about his kilts. A jQLst fight ensues, ami spreads to the street. Military Police break it up.: Angry, Dowey curses the army and his uniform, but his "mother finally pulls .him out of the row. She is broken up by his attitude, but -lie dispels her gloom by /taking her to the best restaurant in London. Over tfaeir champagne,-lie tells her he didn't moan his rash words. But, that night he is still undecided al^put deserting. The next ■*day, hei! faitn' viii hinv sends him back to .the Front. Before -3ie docs, he awkwardly "proposes" to her. She sobs with joy as she agrees to be his "mother", and as he tells her that his decision is recorded in the xeeords. . In a Flanders dugout, Dowey receives a cake from his " mother'f, and plans the time wihen he can take hei^ibaek to Canada. JHc is despatched to raid a German machine-gun nest.: He never eo»es back. ■> . In her Friday Street home in London, Mrs. Dowey -receives, the medals foiv bravery, awarded posthumously to her "son", She puts them away tenderly, and with scrub bucket in hia-nd, marches off to work, with head held hig&.