The Cowboy and the Lady

The Cowboy and the Lady is a 1938 American Western romantic comedy film directed by H.C. Potter, and starring Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon. Written by S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, based on a story by Frank R. Adams and veteran film director Leo McCarey, the film is about a beautiful socialite masquerading as a maid who becomes involved with an unpretentious, plain-spoken cowboy who is unaware of her true identity. The Cowboy and the Lady won an Academy Award for Sound Recording (Thomas T. Moulton), and was nominated for Original Score (Alfred Newman) and Original Song ("The Cowboy and the Lady" by Lionel Newman and Arthur Quenzer). Plot Mary Smith (Merle Oberon), daughter of presidential hopeful Horace Smith (Henry Kolker), has lived a cloistered life free of any scandal. Although she is devoted to her father and supports his political aspirations, she longs for a life of her own. Believing she needs some excitement in her life, Mary's free-spirited Uncle Hannibal (Harry Davenport) takes her dancing at a nightclub, which the police raid for gambling. When Horace learns that press reporters have discovered Mary's name on the police report, he sends his daughter off to the family's Palm Beach, Florida mansion. For Mary, Palm Beach during the off season is a place of loneliness and boredom. She asks her two housemaids (Patsy Kelly and Mabel Todd) if she can go along with them on a blind date with some cowboys from a visiting rodeo. The two maids reluctantly agree. Feeling sorry for the inexperienced Mary, they coach her on their three-step "system" for getting a man interested: flatter him, get him talking about himself, and play on his sympathy with a hard-luck story.