They starred in three films together – The Awful Truth, My Favorite Wife, and Penny Serenade. He always said, reluctantly because he didn’t want to hurt his other leading ladies’ feelings, that she was his favorite leading lady. Apparently he whispered to her once, “You’re my favorite. You smell so nice.”
There’s something so zany about them together, but also something so sweet (the scene at the beach in Penny Serenade when, frankly, I think he’s never been sexier or more NORMAL. It’s one of his only times playing a middle-class normal guy. Clearly, they brought out the absolute BEST in one another.
Like another one of the big stars of the day – Bogart – Grant didn’t really work with a floozy lady. There was something wrong in the pairing. Cagney seemed suited to floozies, there was something about him (as an actor, I mean) that WORKED with a kind of floozy broad. But it didn’t seem right with Bogart or Grant. They didn’t do well either with domesticated pretty little things either. No. They did well (and by that I mean: shone – as actors) with women who were sharp-witted, pretty, independent, and gave as good as she got. Women who played the mating game really smartly and wittily (watch how Irene Dunne makes Cary Grant SWEAT IT OUT at the end of My Favorite Wife until he is finally reduced to putting on a damn Santa outfit in order to be allowed to get into bed with her.)
Bogart and Grant needed “ladies”. And by “ladies” I do not mean “good girls” because those two guys didn’t work well with that type either. I mean: women. They needed a very specific type of woman in order to bring out their special individual brand of masculinity (and star quality as well). Ladies. Not doormats. Not polite women, either. God save us from polite women. Not women who succumbed to the stupid rules of society. But women who had their shit together.
Irene Dunne was always the epitome of that. I love it when she gets silly and zany. But when she lets her guard down … it’s exhilarating. Because … she makes you wait for it. She doesn’t give it all away. She reminds me of my friend Kate. She has that same deep-down decency – it radiates off of her – and yet there is also such a streak of utter LUNACY that LOOK OUT when she gets going.
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.
The two of them together. It can’t be topped.
“God save us from polite women.”
And I say – Hear, hear!
… and toallt agree with your assessment of pairing Grant and Bogart with strong women. They never shone as bright as when they “met their match” as it were.
Marisa – yeah, Pauline Kael wrote an amazing essay about Cary Grant called The Man From Dream City (thanks, Stevie, for sending it to me!!) – and she analyzed so perfectly the types of women who set the Grant persona free – and the ones who didn’t really work with him. It was so spot on.
Of course – Grant had a ton of different personae – like: David Huxley in Bringing Up Baby NEEDED the wack-job that was Katharine Hepburn to liberate him. But then Devlin in Notorious is a totally different person – pained, suspicious, mysoginistic, bitter – and he needed the all-consuming love of Ingrid Bergman’s neurotic floozy-gone-good to set him free. But the key there is that Bergman wasn’t a real floozy – like the casually slutty women that Cagney was always with. Bergman was on the run from her own memories – and so her flooziness had a tragic aspect to it. Perfect for Grant’s character to relate to her. If she had been a straight-out floozy it wouldn’t have worked – he never would have been able to trust her in the end.
Marc Elitot’s biography on Grant provides this quote. And I find it telling.
“Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant. I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant; unsureof either, suspecting each. I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.”…Cary Grant.
It’s a weird and unfortunate paradox – as the general place of women in our culture became elevated over time, our societal appreciation for strong, intelligent, extraordinary actresses like Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, Rosalind Russell, Katharine Hepburn and so many others eventually evaporated – along with the roles that demanded them. Even many of today’s best movies lack those sorts of roles…
Susan – yeah, that’s a fantastic quote – so funny.
I wasn’t wacky about the Marc Elliot book, to be honest. Not enough about him as an actor. The best book I read about him was just a flat out appreciation and analysis of his acting throughout his career, with brief biographical notes – it’s by Richard Schickel and it’s been invaluable to me. Because of my whole thing with Cary Grant. Amazing writing.
But yeah, I love that “even I want to be Cary Grant” quote. Very revealing. The Cockney boy from Bristol turning himself into Cary Grant. His success was an act of will.
Another great Cary Grant quote about the cultivation and creation of his own persona:
“To play yourself — your true self — is the hardest thing in the world. Watch people at a party. They’re playing themselves … but nine out of ten times the image they adopt for themselves is the wrong one.
In my earlier career I patterned myself on a combination of Englishmen — AE Matthews, Noel Coward, and Jack Buchanan, who impressed me as a character actor. He always looked so natural. I tried to copy men I thought were sophisticated and well dressed like Douglas Fairbanks or Cole Porter. And Freddie Lonsdale, the British playwright, always had an engaging answer for everything.
I cultivated raising one eyebrow and tried to imitate those who put their hands in their pockets with a certain amount of ease and nonchalance. But at times, when I put my hand in my trouser pocket with what I imagined was great elegance, I couldn’t get the blinking thing out again because it dripped from nervous perspiration!
I guess to a certain extent I did eventually become the characters I was playing. I played at someone I wanted to be until I became that person. Or he became me.”
is it just me, or does the sex appeal just oooze out of this picture? geez.
alli – it’s not just you. :)
And recall Grace Kelly’s remark about ageing:”Everyone gets older-except Cary Grant.”
corwin – ha!!
Not topped? Probably true, but I’d give a close second to Willian Powell and Myrna Loy. Just love them together.
I love those two as well! And Bogie and Bacall. There are many other movie couples I love – I just love Grant and Dunne together the most. (When I make statements like “can’t be topped” Carl – you have to assume the words “in my opinion”. I try to keep the “in my opinion” wording down to a minimum here because it seems stupid to do so on my own blog. Who else’s opinion would it be? I’m writing MY opinion not anyone else’s.)
Bad writing = “in my opinion” in every other sentence.
But yes – the two you mention are DIVINE together.
That actually would be a fun topic:
Favorite Movie Couples??
Rocky and Bullwinkle. (Well, TV Couple, anyway.)
Sexy, sexy pic. God, he’s yummy. So damn focused on his intent!
PS: That was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me, Sheila. I’m so not worthy. . .
Kate
Kate – yes!! You hit the nail on the head. It’s the way his eyes are open … he’s not lost in himself – he is honing in on her!!!
And in terms of worthy?
I have a couple of things to say:
I love my dead gay costume.
Starfish
ancien regime waif-woman
You bursting out into laughter DURING your song DURING the first invited preview of Death in the Family (I’ll never forget huddling backstage with George, and we heard you start to laugh, and I heard George go, “Oh no.” hahahaha)
Bo Deans
etc. I could go on.
BoDeans. That was low, man. But true. The truth hurts and I just have to accept that.
You know I get it.
I get it at the deepest molecular level.
I am now thinking of you bursting into laughter at Derek’s wedding while you-know-who was schmacting his reading.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha