Six Definitive Films: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Cary Grant.
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“There’s no point in being unhappy about growing older. Just think of the millions who have been denied the privilege.” – Cary Grant
Known as one of the greatest Hollywood film stars of all time, Cary Grant stood alongside the likes of James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn as the greatest actors of mid-century Hollywood. With a strong leading personality, Grant enjoyed 34 years in the industry, working with some of the finest filmmaking minds, including Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Walters and Howard Hawks.
Born in Horfield, Bristol in 1904, Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach) endured a difficult childhood with his father suffering from an alcohol addiction whilst his mother was also brought down with clinical depression. Teaching her son to sing and dance at the age of four, his mother occasionally took him to the cinema and the theatre whereby he would develop a taste for performance.
Taking his hand to the theatre, Grant developed his ability and broadened his acting skills, touring with the acrobatic group called The Pender Troupe where he would eventually perform at the New York Hippodrome to an audience of 5,697. Unbeknownst to Grant, it was here that a Hollywood star would be born, with his career in the arts was about to take a major turn. Starting his film career in 1932, let’s take a look at the six definitive films that illustrated the extraordinary life of Cary Grant.
Cary Grant’s six definitive films:
This Is the Night (Frank Tuttle, 1932)
Taking his performances to the next level, Grant appeared in the Broadway play Nikki where he was seen as a potential future star of Hollywood, with Paramount later picking up the 27-year-old for a five-year contract.
Establishing himself as a suave, masculine star, Grant exuded a natural charm that made him stand out among his peers, making his feature film debut in This is the Night directed by Frank Tuttle. Though the actor disliked his supporting role as Stephen Mathewson, even threatening to leave Hollywood he hated it so much, his performance garnered positive reactions from critics who praised his performance and publicised his blossoming fame.
Sylvia Scarlett (George Cukor, 1935)
Experiencing a tumultuous first few years in the industry, Grant was forced to endure a string of financial failures in the likes of Born to Be Bad, Kiss and Make-Up and Wings in the Dark, with Paramount finally concluding that the actor was surplus to requirements.
Loaned out to RKO pictures, Grant’s prospects picked up slightly in 1935 when he was cast in Sylvia Scarlett as a cockney wheeler-dealer, featuring alongside the ever-alluring Katharine Hepburn. Whilst the film didn’t perform well financially, the film earned Grant some much-needed critical publicity, with the actor himself noting the film as the one project that would forever change his career.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937)
Having gained critical acclaim, Cary Grant appeared in Big Brown Eyes, Topper and The Toast of New York before he would gain further commercial recognition for his performance in the romantic screwball comedy, The Awful Truth.
Appearing alongside Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy, Grant showed off his comic talents, using his time working in vaudeville in his early career to inspire his performance. Receiving critical and commercial success, the film would establish the actor as a significant Hollywood star, illustrating him as a versatile actor capable of being a sophisticated leading man and a screwball comedian.
Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941)
Enjoying the height of his industry success, Grant was in high demand, starring in ten films from 1937-1941 including His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story and Penny Serenade. Next would come to his next major career turning point.
In his first of many collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Grant starred in Suspicion alongside Joan Fontaine whom he found rather temperamental on the set of the film. Perfectly showing off the actor’s versatile acting capabilities, Grant was celebrated as a mysterious, murderous young man in the film, well-balancing the alluring charm and dark insidiousness that was necessary for the role.
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (Irving Reis, 1947)
Seeing sustained success throughout America during WWII, Grant was still seen as a torch of Hollywood pride in 1947 where he would play an artist in the comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.
Featuring Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, the film was praised for pulling off its slapstick comedy and became one of the year’s highest-performing films in the process. Representing one of Cary Grant’s final critical and commercial successes before his slump at the dawn of the 1950s, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer was a timeless ode to the performer Grant once was whilst signposting his imminent industry demise.
North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
By far Cary Grant’s most iconic role came late in his career, after the highs of his 1940s success and the lows of his stagnation in the 1950s, when he appeared in his fourth and final collaboration with the great Alfred Hitchcock, North by Northwest.
Starring in the film that followed an advertising executive who becomes embroiled in a case of mistaken identity, Grant was celebrated for his professional performance and his nuanced approach to the occasional moments of levity in the film. Recognised in contemporary cinema as one of the greatest films ever made, North By Northwest represented one of the actor’s final ever cinematic successes, as his Hollywood stardom ebbed away into the 1960s.
Starring in his final screen role in Walk Don’t Run in 1966, Cary Grant stepped away from the industry at the age of 62 when he embraced his life as a grandfather, passing away 20 years later in 1986. Recognised as one of the most commanding Hollywood stars of the 20th century, Cary Grant will long be remembered as a cinematic great.
What Hollywood film star Cary Grant did in Bristol exactly 50 years ago
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Fifty years ago this week Hollywood superstar actor Cary Grant was in Bristol celebrating his 68th birthday and happily posing for the cameras at the Avon Gorge Hotel against the stunning, but overcast, backdrop of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
This was the time of year he regularly returned to the city of his birth - but it wasn’t only so that he could visit his mother, Elsie, and treat her to a slap-up cream tea at the hotel.
From the late 1940s onwards the handsome, big-screen leading man would often be found, not only in the panto audience at the Hippodrome, but also backstage, where he would make friends with performers from the British comedy scene, according to biographer Graham McCann.
Read next: Unseen archive photos show classic scenes of Bristol from the 1960s
It was the kind of clever slapstick comedy he loved and his only regret was not being able to appear in the joyful seasonal productions himself.
(Image: Getty Images)
Comic performances on stage that Grant appreciated in Bristol over the years included Ted Ray, Freddie Frinton, Richard Hearne (Mr Pastry), George Formby, Bruce Forsyth, Morecambe and Wise and Freddie “Parrot Face” Davies, and back in California he would also champion British comedy actors who were touring the States or trying to break into the movies.
When the by-then retired Grant was in Bristol in January 1972, it was comedian Roy Hudd who was topping the bill at the Hippodrome in Dick Whittington, alongside pop heartthrob Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits fame. McCann relates how the starstruck comedian bumped into Grant in the foyer of the Clifton Hotel and was stunned to learn that the movie star not only knew his name, but was actually coming to see his performance in the panto that night.
Cary Grant had a troubled childhood, but he never forgot the place he came from. He was born Archibald Leach on January 18, 1904, at 15 Hughenden Road to Elias, a tailor’s presser, and Elsie in the Horfield area and attended Bishop Road Primary School. His elder brother, John, died in infancy and his mother suffered from depression as a result.
(Image: Getty Images)
When he was nine, his father admitted his mother to the Bristol Lunatic Asylum at Glenside Hospital, telling the boy that she had gone on a long holiday, and later that she had died. The feeling of abandonment was to haunt the five-times married actor all his life, affecting his relationships with women.
Archie’s passion for comedy and slapstick was fuelled by his trips as a young boy to the pantomime with his father. He won a scholarship to Fairfield Grammar School, but was eventually expelled. He was much more interested in hanging around the docks or backstage at the local music hall theatres, initially working the lights in the evenings at the Empire.
It was at the Hippodrome that Archie cut his showbiz teeth with the Bob Pender Stage Troupe, learning acrobatics, juggling and stilt walking. When they sailed to New York, he went with them and spent ten years as a touring performer before changing his name to Cary Grant in 1931, and catching the Hollywood attention that transformed his career.
(Image: Alan Grifee)
As a good-looking, debonair leading man with a British American accent that belied his roots, he went on to make more than 70 films, including classics like North by Northwest, Arsenic and Old Lace, Notorious, Vertigo, Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, The Philadelphia Story and the Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion and To Catch a Thief. Among his A-list leading ladies were Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Deborah Kerr and Katharine Hepburn.
(Image: United Archives/Getty Images)
It was when his alcoholic father died in 1935 - the same year that Grant established his movie career playing a Cockney in the film Sylvia Scarlett - that he discovered his mother Elsie was still alive and in a mental institution in Bristol.
He bought her a house in Westbury Park, where she lived until moving into a nursing home in her later years. Five-times married Grant visited Elsie regularly; in 1966 even leaving his baby daughter Jennifer with her grandmother in Bristol while he and fourth wife Dyan Cannon took a trip to London.
(Image: Barbara Evripidou)
Cary Grant died in November 1986, aged 82 and in 2001, a statue of the actor was unveiled in Millennium Square, Bristol, to mark the 70th anniversary of his arrival in Hollywood.
Every two years the Cary Comes Home weekend festival takes place in Bristol to celebrate the actor’s roots and develop new audiences for his films. The next event is planned for November 18-20 and marks Bristol’s designation as a UNESCO City of Film.
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Gal Gadot ‘starring in remake’ of Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief
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Gal Gadot is reportedly planning to star in a remake of the Alfred Hitchock romance thriller To Catch A Thief.
Based on a mystery novel by David Dodge, the 1955 Hitchcock movie starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in the principal roles.
Apparently in addition to starring in the movie Gal will also be a producer, as will her husband Jaron Varsano, according to The Wrap.
Glamour queen: Gal Gadot is reportedly planning to star in a remake of the Alfred Hitchock romance thriller To Catch A Thief
Paramount Pictures has reportedly enlisted Eileen Jones, who wrote on the Lethal Weapon television series, to pen the screenplay of the remake.
Cary Grant stars in the old film as John ‘The Cat’ Robie, a retired jewel thief who has reformed his lifestyle and settled in the Riviera.
Although he once went to prison for his misdeeds, he and his gang been allowed to remain out on parole because of their wartime work for the Resistance.
However when jewel robberies begin again near where he lives in the French Riviera, the police suspect he may be involved.
Throwback: Based on a mystery novel by David Dodge, the 1955 Hitchcock movie starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in the principal roles
‘What I can’t understand is how this thief can imitate me so perfectly,’ says Robie. ‘It has to be someone who knew every detail of my technique.’
The only way he can stay out of prison is to catch the current serial burglar, thereby proving that he himself is not the culprit.
As part of his scheme he woos Grace Kelly’s character Frances, the daughter of a rich widow whose huge jewelry stash has made her a target for the new ‘Cat.’
The new version of To Catch A Thief is not Gal’s only current venture into territory previously covered by Old Hollywood.
Romance for the ages: Cary Grant starred in the old film as a retired jewel thief while Grace Kelly featured as the beautiful daughter of a rich widow
She is also starring in and producing an upcoming movie about Cleopatra, which has generated blowback on account of her being white.
Gal, an Israeli who served in her country’s military in accordance with its draft, is playing the legendary queen of Egypt.
Though she was ethnically of Greek origin, Cleopatra has attracted ‘whitewashing’ controversies over the white actresses who have played her.
Gal addressed the controversy on BBC Arabic last month saying: ‘First of all if you want to be true to the facts then Cleopatra was Macedonian.’
A fine romance: Sparks fly between the two while Cary’s character Robie is trying to avoid being jailed for a string of robberies the police think he is guilty of
The international film star, who is also a co-producer on the film, claimed: ‘We were looking for a Macedonian actress that could fit Cleopatra. She wasn’t there, and I was very passionate about Cleopatra.’
She added: ‘People are people, and with me I want to celebrate the legacy of Cleopatra and honor this amazing historic icon that I admire so much.’
Gal threw down the gauntlet for other filmmakers to come up with competing versions of the story: ‘You know, anybody can make this movie and anybody can go ahead and do it. I’m very passionate that I’m going to do my own too.’
Although the project was originally going to reunite her with her Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, Kari Skogland has since taken the job.
Triumph: The movie won an Academy Award for its cinematographer Robert Burks and got other nominations including for its costume designer Edith Head
Patty is staying on in a producing capacity and diverting her energies to other directorial ventures including the next Wonder Woman, Variety reported.
During a recent InStyle interview Gal teased the Cleopatra film and assured audiences that ‘we’re going to celebrate the Cleopatra story.’
Gal shared: ‘We’re going to show not just how sexy and appealing she was, but how strategic and smart, and how much impact she had and still has on the world we’re living in today. I’ve watched all the Cleopatra movies throughout history, but I feel like we’re telling the story the world needs to hear now.’
Giving interviews: Her latest news comes after she defended her upcoming Cleopatra movie, which has generated blowback on account of her being white, in InStyle
The role was most infamously played by Elizabeth Taylor, whose 1963 film was a titanic flop and kicked off her turbulent affair with her co-star Richard Burton.
Elizabeth was barred from entering Egypt to film because she converted to Judaism for her husband Eddie Fisher - whom she had stolen from his first wife Debbie Reynolds - and because she backed what an Egyptian general called ‘Israeli causes.’
Other white actresses to play Cleopatra over the years include Dame Judi Dench, who herself felt she looked wrong for the role.
Rise to fame: Cleopatra is not the first time Gal’s casting has been controversial - Wonder Woman also wound up in political hot water over her service in the Israel Defense Forces
Her objection however was not based on ethnicity - ‘Are you sure you want a menopausal dwarf to play this part?’ she said when asked to take the role onstage.
Cleopatra is not the first time Gal’s casting has been controversial - Wonder Woman also wound up in political hot water over her service in the Israel Defense Forces.
Her leading role in the film caused it to be banned in Lebanon, Tunisia and Qatar, and a ban was considered in Jordan but eventually not imposed.
A story of transitions: Live theater returns to Chelsea’s Purple Rose with ‘Under Ceege’
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Read what you will about the city of Inkster and its economic woes or crime problems but playwright Jeffry Chastang, who grew up there, sees a different Inkster.
He sees a city that felt like home, a city with a unique and complicated history that dates back to Detroit’s housing shortage after World War I and policies that restricted where Blacks could live.
“My family has been here almost 100 years,” said Chastang. “They moved here in 1927.”
Inkster figures prominently in Chastang’s new play, “Under Ceege,” making its world premiere Wednesday at Chelsea’s Purple Rose Theatre, one of Michigan’s premiere regional theaters.
The play — which centers on a multigenerational family living in an Inkster housing complex, including an adult son who wants his mom to move to a better area and doesn’t understand why she wants to stay — is the Purple Rose’s first live production in nearly two years since COVID-19 hit.
Katie Hubbard, the Purple Rose’s managing director, said the theater did a virtual reading of “Under Ceege” during the pandemic and everyone fell in love with the story and characters.
“There are so many great Detroit specific references that our audiences will love,” said Hubbard. Chastang’s work “is new to the Purple Rose as well as the artists and understudies that make up this cast. The play supports so much of what we want this return of the Purple Rose to be. Inclusive, diverse, and welcoming to new and returning artists and patrons, yet remaining at the heart of our mission to create new original work.”
And for a play that Chastang says is really about transitions — a family in transition in a city also in transition — that’s appropriate for the Purple Rose, which also is in the midst of change after its longtime artistic director, Guy Sanville, stepped down last fall amid allegations of creating a toxic workplace. A search for a new director is ongoing, said Hubbard in a message to patrons on the Purple Rose’s website.
“Under Ceege” takes its name from a nickname for the son in the play, Cary Grant or CG for short. Ceege lives with his mother, Lucky, whose father has just died. Together, they live in the same Inkster housing complex — and play the lottery — where Lucky has spent her entire life. But her son wants her to consider moving to Annapolis Park Historic District, a Westland neighborhood with neat ranches.
Director Lynch Travis believes many will be able to relate to “Under Ceege,” especially for families with different generations and adult children trying to determining what’s best for older ones.
“You want the best for them,” said Travis. But “maybe your idea of what the best is doesn’t match theirs.”
Inkster, located 14 miles west of Detroit, became home to thousands of Black workers in the early 20th century because of a lack of housing in Detroit and redlining practices. In 1920, Detroit Urban League President John Dancy found 140 acres in Inkster without restrictive covenants to build homes, according to The Henry Ford.
“That’s how a lot of Henry Ford’s Black workers got to Inkster,” said Chastang. “That’s how my uncle and aunt and another couple who they came from Georgia with got to Inkster, moved to Inkster. Henry Ford built a lot of homes for his Black workers in Inkster.”
Ford has been criticized for his paternalism, but “I always say you have to put it in the context of the times,” said Chastang. “It was light years better than what they left behind, particularly in the South.”
“Under Ceege” opens with the death of Lucky’s father, Ceege’s grandfather. And while her son wants her to move, Lucky plans to die in the same complex where she’s spent her life.
“She was strongly rooted there,” said Chastang, who in his 50s lives in Westland now but has family still in Inkster.
Growing up Inkster, Chastang remembers feeling the city’s transition when segregation lifted and people could live wherever they wanted. But even as negative stories dominant Inkster, “there were so many beautiful people there,” he said. “It’s so much more than that.”
‘Under Ceege’
at the Purple Rose Theatre, 137 Park Street in Chelsea.
Thursday through March 12
Go to https://www.purplerosetheatre.org/
Arsenic and Old Lace: A Hysterical Classic
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Arsenic and Old Lace, a black comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant, is just as funny now as it was in 1944.
Shot over the course of eight weeks in late 1941, the film wouldn’t see the light of day until 1944. Broadway plays are always a great source material for films. However, Broadway producers were always worried that movies would impact their attendance. At least, this was the case during the Classic Hollywood era. Because of this, many movies would not be released until after the run on Broadway ended. Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander reprise their role in the film. However, Boris Karloff stayed in the show so that the play wouldn’t lose money during the film’s production. Raymond Massey steps in for Karloff in the film. Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, who would win an Oscar for Casablanca, adapt their screenplay from Joseph Kesselring’s play.
On Halloween, Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), a writer, marries Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). Ironically, Brewster has denounced marriage. Anyway, they go back to their Brooklyn neighborhood so Elaine could pack. Mortimer uses this time to visit his aunts, Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair), and mentally ill brother Teddy (John Alexander). Teddy believes that he is President Theodore Roosevelt and always charges up the staircase. Anyway, Mortimer discovers a body in the window seat. Naturally, he assumes that it’s because of Teddy. He becomes horrified to learn that his aunts are culprits. Moreover, they are serial murderers!
Just when things couldn’t get worse, Jonathan Brewster (Raymond Massey) returns home with Dr. Herman Einstein (Peter Lorre). Nobody wants him home and it shows. Like his aunts, he is also a serial murderer and brings the body of Mr. Spinalzo with him. I love how they go for hardly any lighting when people are moving dead bodies around. While all of this is going on, Mortimer is trying to commit Teddy to the Happy Dale Sanitarium. He realizes his family has a history of mental illness and decides that he can no longer go forward with his marriage. Chaos continues to ensue as both the cops–including aspiring playwright, Officer Patrick O’Hara (Jack Carson)–and Dr. Witherspoon (Edward Everett Horton) show up. Listen, I’d tell you what happens next but you really should see for yourself.
Unlike a lot of the studio players during this era, Grant was a free agent. Grant had commitments for one film a year at both Columbia and RKO. To make the film, Warner Bros. loaned out Humphrey Bogart to Columbia for Sahara. Of his $150K salary to work on the film, he only kept $50K. The rest went to a combination of the British War Relief (Southern California branch), American Red Cross, USO and another $10K to his agent.
One thing that never gets old while watching this film is Cary Grant’s facial gestures. This is never more true than seeing his reaction after opening the window seat. Grant is one of the best comic actors of all time and his reaction is gold. I mean, how would you react to discovering a corpse? Grant described his performance as being “way over the top.” It was a film that he felt “embarrassed doing it.” The actor felt he “overplayed the character” and that “Jimmy Stewart would have been much better in the film.” Regardless of Cary Grant’s thoughts on the film, Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the best comedies of all time.
DIRECTOR: Frank Capra
SCREENWRITERS: Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein
CAST: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, with Raymond Massey, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, Peter Lorre, James Gleason, and Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, John Alexander, Grant Mitchell
Warner Bros. released Arsenic and Old Lace in theaters on September 23, 1944.
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