{"id":5318,"date":"2006-09-16T15:54:30","date_gmt":"2006-09-16T19:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5318"},"modified":"2022-10-11T20:59:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T00:59:00","slug":"hard-to-get","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5318","title":{"rendered":"Hard To Get: Cary Grant\/Dean Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Schickel (I had thought it was Pauline Kael – but I was WRONG WRONG WRONG) wrote this about Cary Grant, and I have always loved<\/i> it:<\/p>\n

Cary Grant, when playing his most famous characters, isn’t playing <\/i>hard to get. He is <\/i>hard to get.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have thought about this so much<\/i> when watching Grant’s films over and over. Think about not just movie stars – but people in real life – who play<\/i> hard to get – because either they’re afraid of commitment, or they like messing with you, or they’re just flat out dishonest. But then there are those who really are<\/i> hard to get. And those people? Please. They’re the ones you never<\/i> forget. I won’t comment on that further cause I’ll incriminate myself and most of my ex-boyfriends.<\/p>\n

But I think that Schickel quote could also be used to describe Dean Martin.<\/p>\n

You’d have to PAY that guy to “play hard to get”. Please. He just was<\/i> hard to get. Not because it was a GAME, but because that was just the way he WAS. Who knows why, and who CARES why.<\/p>\n

This is why his appeal is so long-lasting. Because there’s a mystery at the heart of it. Watch him perform, how intimate he is with his audience, how he uses his voice, how smooth he is, what good humor … but still … there is a sense, somehow, in the same way there was with Grant, that you can never have all<\/i> of him. Whatever is deepest within him was his – and his alone.<\/p>\n

But how wonderful it is – to keep watching him – to keep NOT having all of him – to keep trying to get close to that mystery, close to what it seems like he knows.<\/p>\n