They starred in three films together – The Awful Truth<\/i>, My Favorite Wife<\/i>, and Penny Serenade<\/i>. 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.”<\/p>\n
There’s something so zany about them together, but also something so sweet (the scene at the beach in Penny Serenade<\/a><\/i> 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/i> until he is finally reduced to putting on a damn Santa outfit in order to be allowed to get into bed with her.)<\/p>\n 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 <\/i>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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.<\/p>\n The two of them together. It can’t be topped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading