Seven Days Leave (1930)

IMDb plot summary: About a young Canadian soldier (Gary Cooper) wounded while fighting in World War I. While recovering from his wounds in London, a YMCA worker tells him that a Scottish widow (Beryl Mercer) without a son believes that he is in fact her son. To comfort the widow, the soldier agrees to pretend to be her Scottish son.

Directed by Richard Wallace. Stars Gary Cooper, Beryl Mercer, and Daisy Belmore.

Seven Days Leave tells the story of an unmarried older lady who lies about having a soldier son, so she can have some manner of social status. But when the soldier whose name she took for her imaginary son's name shows up, he's less than pleased that she's pretending to be his mother. This is a strange little movie, but it works as a story, primarily because both the leads here are doing a great job. Beryl Mercer plays the older woman with great vulnerability so we feel for her even as she's entangled in her own lies, and Gary Cooper's cold grumpiness works well as a foil for her. This was apparently based on a play, and I feel that, in how much of the relationship is built through conversation. Once Cooper appears, it's all about their interactions, and most of the other characters all but disappear, and it works. It's a sweet little film with likable performances that is different from the other films of the time period in the story it tells.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Seven Days Leave (1930)

beat Burning (#1987 → #2032)

lost to The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (#991 → #989)

lost to Murder by Death (#1488 → #1412)

beat Winnie the Pooh (#1735 → #1740)

beat The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (#1611 → #1629)

beat Hell's Angels (#1549 → #1560)

beat Rachel Getting Married (#1518 → #1520)

lost to Cinderella (#1503 → #1499)

lost to Say Anything... (#1510 → #1442)

beat The Tragedy of Macbeth (#1514 → #1516)

lost to The Green Mile (#1512 → #1508)

beat Forbidden Planet (#1513 → #1515)

Final spot: Ranked #1537/3979 on my Flickchart, 61%.