Archie Leach day: 5 Favorite Moments

Here are 5 of my favorite Cary Grant acting moments in films: This list is in no way definitive:

1. Bringing Up Baby – The nightclub scene – when he slips on the olive dropped by Katharine Hepburn and his feet fly out from under him, and down he goes, crushing his top hat under his ass. I guffaw every time I see it.

2. Philadelphia Story – the great 2-way scene between Grant and Jimmy Stewart when Stewart shows up at his house wasted in the middle of the night. I especially love when Jimmy Stewart hiccups, and Cary Grant says, “Excuse me.” That moment was improvised.

3. Notorious – the last scene (my post about it here). Cary Grant’s acting has never been better. Especially the look on his face when he holds her and says, “I was a fat-headed guy full of pain.” Such understatement, but so pained.

4. Holiday – er … practically the whole movie. It’s one of my favorites. I love his lonely little one-on-one scene with Hepburn up in that attic room, when they dance, and banter, and skirt around the sexual tension … Beautiful work. He’s beautiful in that movie.

5. Only Angels Have Wings – the first scene when he and Jean Arthur are alone, in the empty juke joint, at 1 in the morning. The sexual tension and repartee in that scene are out of this world. Out of context it might not read as well as seeing it – but they have the following exchange. She says, as he pours her a drink, “When are you going to get some sleep?” He says, “After your boat sails.” (It has already been established that her boat is sailing at 4 a.m.) Cary Grant makes “after your boat sails” sound positively primal.

Ack! But where’s His Girl Friday?? And North by Northwest? So much more!!