Oh were we??
I couldn't sleep last night. So I watched, back to back, Notorious and Holiday. 2 Cary Grant films.
Seeing them back to back like that made me realize that he is a wee bit underestimated in terms of his range.
Yes, he always plays the same kind of guy. It looks like he wears the same costume in each of his films.
Cary Grant was not like today's actors who feel that they must play someone mentally ill, or physically misshapen in order to be taken seriously as a talent. That wasn't really the way it was back then.
It's not a good or a bad thing - just the truth.
But - Notorious, an Alfred Hitchcock film - with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains - is a truly frightening psychological thriller. Very very good. Cary Grant's character in that is a bit jaded - he falls for the girl - but at the back of his mind he always thinks of her as a whore. He can't get past it. So their banter back and forth has that charge - that charge of a man who deeply wants something, and actually feels quite vulnerable to this woman - but he has to put her down. And, above all, he is smooooth. By the end, when he goes to the house to save her (marvelous scene) - and finds out, at last, all of the horrible things done to her, he is meltingly tender with her, just a beautiful tenderness - You believe that he would take a bullet for her, he will do the right thing, he will make it right.
Then in Holiday (a very funny little movie, by the way) - he plays a kind of happy-go-lucky working guy who ends up falling in love with a millionairess. The millionairess has a kind of crazy sister, played by Katherine Hepburn. Cary Grant, in Holiday has the same Cary Grant voice, the same Cary Grant suit, the same slicked Cary Grant hair you see in ALL his movies - but the energy is different, the focus is different. The man truly had a gift for comedy. Member Bringing Up Baby? Member Philadelphia Story?
I think half the reason why he was so damn FUNNY in comedies is because of his striking good looks. You just do not expect a man with such good looks to behave like such a GOOFBALL.
Also - there are always seems to be this barely controlled sense of embarrassment in Cary Grant - which he tries to cover up with dignity - and when that is done in a comedic context - it provides MUCH humor.
In Holiday - the way his character relaxes, if he's feeling tense, is to do somersaults, or cartwheels, or do a lovely tumbling combination across the floor. So any time that he is left alone in the millionairess' mansion, he looks around surreptitiously, making sure the coast is clear, and then does a random tumbling routine. It is freakin' HYSTERICAL. And it's not a stunt man. It's actually Cary Grant taking a running lead and then doing a spectacularly messy round-off across the marble floor. I was howling.
So different from the subtle jaded bittersweet tone of his character in Notorious.
Different from the straightforward honest open character he played in North by Northwest.
Different from the bumbling goofy GEEK he plays in Bringing up Baby.
Different from the rakish semi-cruel (but hilarious) character he plays in Philadelphia Story.
His costumes may have always been the same, and he never changed his voice, or his look, or put on a limp, or an accent, or tried to play a sharecropper, or anything like that ... He knew his world, his gifts, where he could fit into a plot ... He didn't try to 'stretch' himself. He didn't need to.
Cool, man.
And I'd never seen Notorious. That's quite a damn fine movie.
One of the finest actors (beside maybe Bogie, Tracey and Stewart) we've produced. He ranks in a class by himself.
I have to say, I've never found him unappealing nor have I thought he was always the same guy. Actually, a lot of people feel that way. Here's what I tell them:
Rent:
An Affair To Remember
Bringing Up Baby
North By Northwest
I defy anyone to say they've seen the same actor. That's right, I said "defy".
Posted by: Alex at June 27, 2004 1:25 PMThere will never be another Cary Grant...................so far, anyway.
That he is so underestimated may be because of his face.... similar to what David Brooks said this morning on Book T.V. That Sen.John Edwards gets underestimated because of his pretty face. (this guy by the way is a Republican who doesn't like Kerry--just happens to like Edward's sincerity and ability to govern)
Anyway, I love TCM and look forward to seeing his films again, and always notice something amazing and different about him each time.............
Posted by: Peach at June 27, 2004 7:38 PMCary Grant was actually part of a travelling acrobat troupe before he started acting. He would do a little trick, I think it was something like jumping straight to his feet from a kneeling position. IIRC, he could do this when he was 60.
At one point during the release of That's Entertainment, a lot of the classic stars flew over to France for a festival. A lot of them suffered from jet lag. One remarked that the only two stars who hopped off the plane looking unruffled and energetic were Cary Grant and Fred Astaire.
Thank you for bringing up Grant, it reminded me that I need to buy Arsenic and Old Lace.
Notorious is a KILLER flick.
There was something a bit 'funny' about Cary Grant, but whatever it was made him a hell of an actor. Have you seen "Penny Serenade" (saccharine but great performance by Cary Grant), "Only Angels Have Wings" (Cary is not particularly extraordinary but it's possibly the best "golden age of aviation" film ever), or "Charade" (about the classiest, most stylish movie ever made - competes closely with Breakfast at Tiffany's)? If not I strongly recommend a Cary Grant film-o-thon...
Posted by: CW at June 27, 2004 10:55 PMI like Holiday a lot. I can't think of a movie from the 1930s that's held up better.
Posted by: cityislandmichael at June 28, 2004 5:46 AMFrom my imperfect recollection of Holiday, I have an impression that his character in that movie was very similar to the one he played in Bringing Up Baby. Sort of bamboozled. And I keep thinking, everytime I see Notorious, "open your eyes buddy. She's in pain here."
Posted by: michael at June 28, 2004 11:17 AMOh, and another thing. Ingrid Bergman plays one of the most convincing pained drunks I've ever seen. So resigned.
Posted by: michael at June 28, 2004 11:19 AMMichael: The Bringing Up Baby guy though was an absolute bumbling geek. I still remember the pratfall he did where his top hat never moved off his head. Absolutely funny.
The Holiday guy was a bit more in touch with reality, although he was a dreamer and just wanted to live life by his own rules.
And as for his blindness in Notorious - I confess to being blind myself, on occasion, if someone has hurt me. They could have an enormous bloody gash on their forehead and all I will be present to would be: "Wow. You bastard. You hurt me."
I just love that endless descent down the stairway in that last scene. You think they will NEVER reach the bottom!
Posted by: red at June 28, 2004 11:21 AMMichael: Yeah, I agree. Great scene where they're struggling in the car. It looks like a real struggle, not a faked actor-y one, if you know what I mean. She is out of control, and he really has to WORK to get her in control.
Posted by: red at June 28, 2004 11:22 AMYeah, and like the cop -- even in that day and age -- would let her go. Or maybe they would. If so, I want to live then.
Posted by: michael at June 28, 2004 11:25 AMNobody gets to bring up Holiday without my adding my two cents! One of my all time favorites. Not only does Cary do his own stunts, but I believe (just believe) that it really is Kate up on his shoulders when they do that two-person tumble. ("Kate Who?" Need anyone ask?) Given what a jock she was, I wouldn't be at all surprised.
Another great Cary movie that I finaly saw not too long ago is His Girl Friday. Grant's a slick newspaper guy in this one, trying to scoop a prison story. Rosalind Russell is his foil - yow! Lots of snappy cross-talk.
Posted by: Robert the Llama Butcher at June 28, 2004 11:34 AMHis Girl Friday is one of my all-time faves. Isn't she positively the greatest thing ever? When she is screaming into 2 separate phones simultaneously ...
Michael Douglas won an Oscar for Wall Street, doing the same thing - but it was a total steal from Ms. Russell.
Posted by: red at June 28, 2004 11:37 AMSuspicion (1941), another Grant/Hitchcock film. Awesome, you'll love it! --scott
http://imdb.com/title/tt0034248/
Posted by: j.scott barnard at June 28, 2004 12:00 PMFunny you bring up Cary Grant-was looking for a movie from netflix for our family-children 7-18 and wife suggested "Operation Petticoat"-Grant, Tony Curtis and the striking young Dina Merill-Grant even when he's mailing it in-showed the surprising diffidence and goofiness as a submarine commander who unexpectedly has a group of lovely female nurses as passengers.
Grant stepped aside and let the younger Curtis take center stage during his scenes-
Couldn't believe it but this nostalgic journey was surprising fun-
Thanks for helping put it in a litte context
Let me second the nomination for Suspicion - my sister and I STILL argue Grant's motives in that film, and we last watched it together something like 15 years ago.
Red, I searched your site for "arsenic" and turned up zero hits. Having searched, I am now forced to ask - Have you by chance seen Arsenic and Old Lace (dorkafork's comment got me thinking about it again)? A priceless Cary Grant comedy if there ever was one!