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I've reviewed over half of Cary's movies and placed them in
alphabetical order according to title. Pot Shots are intended as a
rough guide, or Cary Grant primer and should by no-means be taken as
definitive or comprehensive film review.
Pot Shots are rated on the Susan scale. In my favorite movie,
Bringing Up Baby, Cary repeats the word "Susan" to express
surprise, annoyance, fear and love. So I've adapted the universal
"Susan" to express my opinion on CG movies. Four "Susans" is the
best, one is the worst. Anything between 3 and 4 Susans is essential
CG in my opinion.)
Amazing Adventure: A quirky little Depression-era
romantic comedy, in which CG plays millionaire, Ernest Bliss, who
takes a bet that he can't live for a year earning an honest living in
1930s London. It isn't particularly funny, most of the humor is
derived from knocking people over the head with wine bottles, and the
script doesn't leave much room for Cary's light touch. But he pulls
off the physical comedy with his usual elegance and you might be able
to spot the beginnings of his genius, which was to fully emerge the
next year in Topper and The Awful Truth.
"Susan, Susan"
An Affair to Remember (Original review): a movie I wish
I could forget, but unfortunately every twenty years or so somebody
remakes this treacle script into a "new" movie. "Sue"
(That's one-half Susan)
An Affair to Remember (Revisited): It's not really fair
to blame this movie for bad remakes and the fact it's referenced in
Meg Ryan movies. It's not AAtR's fault that it's become synonymous
with tearjerkers. I've really grown to love this movie, because of
the comedy. Critics at the time blasted McCarey for this movie
because it was so saccharine (the singing kids are a BIT much). It
seemed like such a tumble from the cynical snap of McCarey's earlier
film with Grant, the Awful Truth. But An Affair to Remember has some
great comedic moments and wonderful details that are worthy of both
the director and the stars. I'm upping this movie's rating to
Susan,Susan, Sue".
The Awful Truth: CG and Irene Dunne's first,
hilariously funny movie about an estranged couple trying to get a
divorce. Ralph Bellamy costars as the fiancee Cary tries to drive
away with a singing dog. The first half of The Awful Truth
features some of CG's best physical comedy, but it builds to the
sophisticated, witty Jerry the Nipper scene. Dunne plays out one
outrageous lie after another while Cary's quiet reactions and mumbled
protests are priceless. This subtle scene-stealing became a CG
trademark in later films, as Grant became one of the first actors to
really play to the high-tech cameras and microphones that were new at
the time. The Awful Truth is a screwball masterpiece that set
up a formula that was followed closely in My Favorite Wife and
to a lesser extent Bringing Up Baby . "Susan,
Susan, Susan, Sue"
Arsenic and Old Lace: CG is terrific in this screen
adaptation of the stage play. He trips, dives, sputters and generally
makes good use of his acrobatics training. Frank Capra directs and
Peter Lorre costars in this hyperkinetic spoof of the macabre.
"Susan, Susan, Susan"
The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer: Judge, Myrna Loy,
sentences Cary Grant to take care of her precocious kid sister,
played by Shirley Temple. When grown-up charm fails, Cary resorts to
teen spirit to win Myrna's heart and relieve Shirley's angst. The
results are hilarious and bursting with Susanity. (Say, you remind me
of a man...) Loy and Grant make a beautifully combative pair, and
Cary's scenes with Shirley Temple are perfect as he veers from
knowing bemusement to stark terror in his reactions. "Susan,
Susan, Susan"
The Bishop's Wife: CG plays an angel named Dudley who
is sent to save the Bishop (David Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young)
from the Bishop's hopelessly dull careerism. The script is short on
laughs, and David Niven gets the only moment of Susanity, when Dudley
uses celestial angel glue to stick his butt to a chair. In the end,
it's the complexity of Dudley's character, he too is in love with the
Bishop's Wife, that makes it the wistfully romantic forerunner to Wim
Wender's magical Wing's of Desire. It also marks the only time
in Cary's career, apart from None But the Lonely Heart that he
got the opportunity to play unrequited love and as usual he does so
with class, and understatement. There are also a number of Citizen
Kane-type shots, where Cary mysteriously walks into the camera, which
lend the movie a dark, almost expressionistic feel. An odd choice for
a light-hearted fantasy about an angel, yet it somehow works with
Cary's controlled, melancholy performance. "Susan,
Susan, Susan"
Blonde Venus: An early role for CG as Marlene
Dietrich's playboy lover. But this wonderfully-acted drama is all
Dietrich. Grant frequently sinks into the background or appears as an
ornament on Dietrich's sleeve. Hattie McDaniel costars in one of the
few CG movies where he doesn't get the girl. On the downside, this
movie contains one of the most shamefully racist black face scenes
ever filmed, to make matters worse, Director Joseph Von Sternberg
doesn't even list any of the African American actors in the credits.
"Susan,Susan, Sue"
Bringing
Up Baby:
My all-time favorite CG movie. I've seen this flick so many
times, I've started to pronounce the word "leh-pod" instead of
leopard. Katharine Hepburn proves that when it comes to love, there's
no ruse too deceitful and no ploy too obfuscated, as she steals CG
from his fiancee on his wedding day. "Susan,
Susan, Susan, SUSAN"
Crisis: CG plays an American doctor on his
honeymoon who is forced to perform a difficult operation to save the
life of a local right wing strongman, (Jose Ferrar). The doctor's
predicament grows as his wife is kidnapped by the leftist opposition
leader (Ramon Navarro) who wants him to let the tyrant die on the
operating table. The film starts with a didactic stance and the sort
of Mr. Smith Goes to South America speechmaking that would be more
suitable for Jimmy Stewart than Cary Grant. But the thoughtful,
ironic conclusion is perfect for Grant's cool, ascerbic wit. One of
CG's better "serious" performances, with occasional levity provided
by sassy one-liners. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Charade: CG and Audrey Hepburn in a groovy mod noir
flick. The manic plot is as if a serial killer showed up at one of
Holly Golightly's parties. CG and Hepburn are cute together and the
script dishes up enough red herrings to keep you interested up till
the last frame. Charade gets a whole bonus Susan for the
sidesplitting shower scene in which CG sings a burlesque in his
drip-dry
suit. (Click here for an animated Gif of that scene.)"Susan,
Susan, Susan"
Destination Tokyo: It's appropriate the CG started his
career in vaudeville playing a straight man to comedians. Next to
George Burns, he may be one of the most-effective straight men of all
time. Here he plays the iron-jawed Captain Cassidy, whose whacky
submarine crew is called on for an extremely dangerous mission in
Tokyo harbor in World War II. This formula was later used in
Operation Petticoat, of course, with the addition of the
dames. While, low on Susanity at least on Cary's part, Destination
Tokyo is an early example of a war movie that used humor to
defuse tension between battle scenes. Later, John Wayne's
Operation Pacific paid it's respects to this flick by showing
a scene from it. "Susan, Susan"
Dream Wife: CG plays Clemson Reade a bow-tie wearing
salesman who's engaged to State Department ace, Priscilla Effington
(Deborah Kerr). Reade, annoyed by her busy schedule, dumps Effi for
Taji, a princess from the fictional country of Bukistan. The trouble
starts when Taji shows up with her goats, camels and entourage, while
Effi gets assigned to make sure their courtship goes smoothly. Effi
teaches Taji English by reading to her from a book about
Suffragettes, transforming the submissive Dream Wife into a
cocktail-swilling terror. After some belly dancing and madcap brawls
with sailors and Bukistani guards, the whole thing wraps up nicely
with Clemson and Effi at the altar. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Every Girl Should Be Married: CG's real-life wife,
Betsy Drake, plays marraige-minded Annabel Lee. It's a fine line
between nice girl and stalker and Annabel just manages to remain on
the sane side of it as she systematically hunts down her man. If this
happened in real-life there'd be only two words to describe it:
restraining order. Cary plays Madison Brown, the bachelor
Pediatrician (which, by the way, is the sexiest kind of Doctor) and
willing victim. Franchot
Tone (the first husband in "Suzy") is Madison's make-believe
rival and Eddie Albert (Green Acres) even shows up at the end of
Annabel's schemes. Betsy Drake's awkward sincerity makes an
intriguing opposite to the Grant persona. On screen, he's obviously
way out of her league and yet through the sheer force of her will she
makes herself his equal. Their chemistry makes Every Girl Should
Be Married, believable and sweet. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Father Goose: A whacky, feel-good comedy set in the
Pacific theater of WWII (which from my understanding of history,
wasn't terribly funny), along the lines of Operation
Petticoat. CG plays a retired school teacher who's just conned
himself a very nice little yacht, when he gets impressed into
becoming a shoreline plane spotter for the US Navy. Cary is perfectly
charming as the drunken, disheveled, unpatriotic, foul-mouthed
antithesis of his own persona. His situation is further complicated
when he rescues a boat full of schoolgirls and their teacher. They
are all stranded in a less than Edenic tropical paradise and of
course, Caron and Grant get down quickly to the business of playing
Adam and Eve. While Grant and Caron generate some nice sexual
tension, the scenes with Cary and the girls steal the show. My
particular favorite was his handling of the oldest girl's crush on
him, by dipping her for a big kiss and offering to meet her later
that night--the Cary Grant version of your dad catching you smoking
and forcing you to smoke the whole pack. Creative parenting abounds
as he helps a mute orphan find her voice, allows an imaginary
boyfriend to be best man at his wedding and teaches Caron how to fish
with her hands. I loved the ugly Duckling transformed into Prince
Charming role reversal (usually its the woman who gets a makeover and
gets the man). The overall premise and many of the plot devices in
Father Goose were utterly absurd and unbelievable, yet the movie
works because the script is funny and well-acted. Although, I still
don't get all the face-slapping as foreplay scenes. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
The Grass is Greener: CG plays mushroom-digging,
sweater-wearing, Victor Rhyall, an English Earl forced to open his
stately manor to American tourists to pay the bills. His wife,
Deborah Kerr, falls in love with one such tourist, Robert Michum. The
Pugg/Kerr love scenes are merely an irritating precursor to the duel
between Grant and Mitchum which is the main event of the movie. Jean
Simmons rounds out the cast with a reasonable Audrey Hepburn
impression. Unfortunately, much of Stanley Donen's competent
direction is lost on video because he filmed in ultra wide screen
format. Many scenes are marred by grotesquely elongated figures and
others are occupied by talking furniture (the people who were talking
on the edge of the frame get cutoff). CG does get some nice scenes
with Simmons, complete with double takes and double entendres, and if
you squint a little you can almost pretend you're watching
Charade. "Susan, Susan"
Gunga Din: A seriously action-packed movie based on a
poem by Rudyard Kipling, in which CG is the comic relief as a
bumbling cockney soldier. Happily, Kipling, out of vogue during the
PC years, is being rediscovered. Kipling lampooned British
Imperialism, portraying the three young officers as arrogant,
blundering looters who get in over their heads. In the poem, Gunga
Din is supposed to be a teenage boy, but for some reason they picked,
Sam Jeffe, a middle-aged man to play the title role. There is much in
Gunga Din that should make Nineties audiences shudder, such as the
fact Din is merely an extension of the noble savage stereotype. When
the British calvary rides to the rescue to put down the murderous
Thugi cult, the movie blatantly trumpets the imperialist agenda.
Still, the film is a cinematic landmark, combing wit and humor with
mystery and action, really the forerunner to the Indiana Jones films,
and George Stevens black and white cinematography is spectacular.
"Susan, Susan, Susan"
His Girl Friday: an adaptation of another stage play,
The Front Page, which takes a comic look at the timely issue
of journalistic ethics. CG plays a hard-boiled editor who teams up
with his ex-wife, who happens to be an ace reporter, played by
Rosalind Russel. Together the pair chase down an escaped killer for
an interview. A roll-top desk (not a white Ford Bronco) plays an
integral part in a low-speed chase from the dimwitted police. Did I
mention there's a fiancee? There's always a fiancee, and once again
he's played by Ralph Bellamy. This screwball masterpiece has the
fastest dialogue in the history of the movies, wonderful inside jokes
(forget David Letterman, Cary was breaking the fourth wall in 1940)
and the kind of witty, ascerbic script that always gets dubbed by
Nineties critics as "savagely funny. "Susan,
Susan, Susan, Sue"
Holiday: Think of this fantastic flick as the prequel
to the Philadelphia Story, since it had the same director,
writer and two of the same stars. Cary plays Johnny Case, a
hardworking investment banker with a screwball personality. His
fiancee, Julia Seton, has big plans for him in the family bank, but
her Black sheep sister Linda, (Katharine Hepburn) loves him for his
screwball antics. Donald Ogden Stewart's brilliant script targets
wealthy snobs, which Depression-Era audiences loved. You might
recognize the voice of Nick Potter (Edward Horton) from the "Rocky
and Bullwinkle Show," although here he's a playful professor who
gives the stuffed shirt Setons a lecture on living life right. Edward
Ayers gives a bitter sweet performance as the youngest Seton, Ned,
whose drinking problem is a source of pathos and laughs. Director,
George Cukor, keeps this ensemble cast in delicate balance with his
stars as they roam constantly around the Setons enormous house. (The
house won the film's only academy award for best set decoration).
Part of the joy of this movie is that it's almost never static, yet
it doesn't exhaust the viewer like most screwball comedies. As in the
Philadelphia Story, Hepburn plays a young socialite at odds
with most of her family, who comes into her own with the help of her
new working class friends. In Holiday, however, she finds her
salvation not in a one-night fling, but in her playroom and her old
toys. But the highlight of Holiday, is the tumbling. Cary
shows off his vaudeville acrobatics training and even teaches Hepburn
a trick or two. The best scene in the movie has the dignified actress
in a full length gown flipping headfirst off Cary's shoulders and
into a somersault. "Susan, Susan, Susan,
Sue"
The Howards of Virginia: is a historic melodrama set
during the American Revolutionary War. CG plays back country hick,
Matt Howard who is a childhood friend of Thomas Jefferson. Not only
is Jefferson an inventor, a politician, and the author of the
Declaration of Independence, but to the Howard's, he's also a
marriage counselor! When does he have time to build Monticello? The
Revolutionary War gets lost in the shuffle of this busy film. For
example, Valley Forge is merely a backdrop for sibling rivalry
between the Howard's two sons. Although, I believe that CG could play
serious roles well, this is not a good example. Dropping his urbane
facade for a redneck attitude, he comes off as psychotic, slapping
people on the back and shouting in their ears. The Howards of
Virginia is saved from an utter lack of Susanity, by some
interesting love scenes and a rather revealing bath sequence.
"Susan"
Houseboat: CG plays a widower and father of three
troubled children. Sofia Loren plays the utterly charming nanny who
helps him heal his family's wounds. Cary and Sofia are great
together, but the family drama grows old fast, because the child
actors aren't up to the challenge. It also breaks one of my cardinal
rules about sexual tension, namely, keep it as long as possible. Once
the tension between Grant and Loren is resolved there is nothing left
to fuel this bloated gas guzzler home. The movie has quite a lot of
kitsch appeal, what with an appearance by Wurner Klemperer (Col.
Klink from Hogan's Heroes) and a dilapidated houseboat which gets
transformed into a luxury yacht with a coat of paint and a little
elbow grease. Still, it's not bad enough to fall into the Mystery
Science Theater category, and by the end I was bored stiff and
groaning with each added piece of cheese. "Susan,
Susan"
I'm No Angel: Ladies and Gentlemen, may I direct your
attention to the center ring, to the beautiful lady who puts her head
in the jaws of lion and her heart in the hands of a millionaire
playboy! Yes, that's right, the plot of this flick revolves around
the romantic exploits of a lady lion tamer. Only in the movies! But
hemming and hawing over the plot of this movie would be pointless.
What matters is the chemistry between Cary Grant and Mae West which
is greatly improved to the point where she actually seems smitten by
him. West and Grant sizzle in the follow-up to She Done Him
Wrong. Mae delivers sassy double entendres and Cary demurs,
looking SWELL in evening attire. And who wouldn't be? The only
conceivable problem I could find with I'm No Angel is that
Cary doesn't come in to it for the first hour, which drags a bit
without him. But once he arrives, its worth the wait for lines like
this:
Cary: Darling, I could be your slave
Mae: That could be arranged
"Susan,Susan, Sue"
Indiscreet: Ingrid Bergman teams up with Cary again,
this time in an amusing romantic comedy. Ingrid plays an actress who
doesn't mind that she's having an affair with a married man, --a
pretty scandalous way to confront her own personal life. The ironic
twist comes when she finds out he's not really married and breaks off
the affair. Grant and Bergman had a genuine friendship which comes
through in their performances. Grant always felt that she was treated
unfairly by Hollywood and he even accepted an Oscar on her behalf
when nobody in Tinsel Town wanted to have anything to do with the
Swedish femme fatale. Their chemistry is completely watchable despite
the anemic script, and Bergman proves herself to be an adept
comedian. The highlight of Indiscreet, though, is Cary's
absurd dance at an elegant ball. He must have been the inspiration
for John Cleese's Minister of Silly Walks with his goofy impression
of highland dancing. "Susan, Susan,
Sue"
In Name Only: CG plays a wealthy goof ball looking to
divorce his manipulative wife. It takes pneumonia and Carole Lombard
to free Cary from her clutches in one of the few pro-divorce films of
the day. The acting is good, even if the script doesn't measure up:
CG does a wonderful Camille impression while Lombard makes a swell
widow. "Susan,Susan, Sue"
I Was a Male War Bride: CG plays a GI, who upon release
from the army, finds the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately she's
still enlisted. The screwball antics ensue as they try to get around
the bureaucracy of US Army in order to get home and have their
honeymoon. This often-overlooked comedy features some hysterical
scenes of CG in drag on a naval destroyer. Sort of Some Like it
Hot meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Kiss and Make Up: I recently saw this movie
for the first time at a Cary Grant Convention. To see a hilarious
movie like this for the first time with my Warbride friends on the
big screen was one of the biggest thrills of my movie going life.
That a Cary Grant movie this good is out of print, is stunning to me.
That there are more out there that I haven't seen makes me want to
shut off my computer right now and crank up that VCR. That out of
print films like this sit decaying in vaults makes me want to start
breaking into Paramount Pictures and liberating these movies before
they turn to dust. Sorry, enough of the wandering parakeet and on
with the potshot.
Cary Grant plays Dr. Maurice Loman a plastic surgeon and founder of an absurd clinic called the temple of beauty in Paris. He falls in love with his prize creation (Genevieve Tobin) who is already married to Marcel, played wonderfully by Edward Everett Horton. Marcel falls for Dr. Lomar's secretary, Annie, played with Jean Arthur spunkiness by Helen Mack. This leads to one of the most divinely silly scenes in the history of cinema, a love song to corned beef and cabbage. The madness culminates in a crazy car chase through Paris involving ether and bunny rabbits. The back drop to the screwball plot is an ahead-of-its-time satire on the beauty industry. Kiss and Make Up nails the insecurity and masochism that drive that industry in the same way that His Girl Friday blows holes in the nobility of journalism. To quote the projectionist at the screening, "Where's this movie been all my life?" "Susan, Susan, Susan"
Kiss Them For Me: What if Cary Grant had been on the
Love Boat? Well, why speculate when there's Kiss Them For Me
featuring Cary Grant, a long meandering party and enough 60s TV stars
to keep Captain Stubing busy for an entire cruise. As proof that I've
watched too much Mystery Science Theater 3000, I couldn't sit through
a scene with Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink from Hogan's Heroes) and
not make General Bochalter jokes. Nancy Kulp (Miss Hathaway from the
Beverly Hillbillies) and Richard Deacon (Mell Cooley from the Dick
Van Dyke Show) also have bit parts. Too many jokes...must make
fun...
As
for the script, it's supposed to be adapted from a play, about the
pressures of combat on three Navy Pilots on leave in San Francisco
during World War II. But as far as I can tell, the main action of the
plot exists to promote a drink called "Stingers" which get mentioned
in nearly every scene. I can see it now, Joel and the Bots dressing
up in black kimonos (like the one that Cary and his buddies wear
through most of the movie) to give a commercial break lecture on how
to make a Stinger, brought to you by the National Stinger Advisory
Board. Cary makes a gallant attempt to rescue scenes with giggly
Jayne Mansfield who looks positively brilliant next to Suzy Parker,
who couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag. Some of her scenes
with Cary have been dubbed over with Deborah Kerr's voice. Too bad
they couldn't dub over her stiff gestures and slow reactions as well.
Ultimately though, the uneven acting is no match for the overwhelming
Susanity of this flick. Cary delivers dozens of Rat Pack-style
drunken one-liners, and dances around in his kimono while the
Stingers flow. "Susan, Susan, Susan"
Merrily We Go To Hell Apart from sporting one of my
all-time favorite film titles, this movie has very little to do with
Cary, but it is still amusing. You might even say it's "Swell." It's
the story of ne'er-do-well playwright, Jerry Corbett, (Frederic
March), who finally meets and marries the right girl, Joan Prentiss
(Sylvia Sydney). Unfortunately, the wrong girl comes back from his
past and messes with his mind and his marriage. Sylvia Sidney is
adorable as the long-suffering wife, who picks Cary Grant as one of
her diversions when her husband's philandering gets her down. Why
didn't she stick with Cary, I wondered, but you know Hollywood, the
sanctity of marriage must be preserved. So when Jerry finally quits
drinking and sends his femme fatale packing, of course, Joan takes
him back at the last minute. "Susan,
Susan"
Mr Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse: Mr. Blandings,
tired of life in the city, sinks his fortune and his sanity into an
old nag of a country house that would give Bob Villa nightmares.
Myrna Loy plays Mrs. Blandings, who just can't live without closet
space and more bathrooms. Later remade with Tom Hanks as The
Money Pit, Blandings is the original and still the best. There is
something perversely delightful about watching this stuffy ad exec
suffer at the hands of carpenters, plumbers and termites. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Mr. Lucky: CG plays ramblin' gamblin' Joe Adams, who
takes on a dead gangster's persona in order to dodge the draft. He
and his lovable gang of thugs plan to bilk a war charity out of 200
Gs, until Cary falls in love with a beautiful volunteer played by
Loraine Day. Along the way, knitting, cockney rhyming slang (which
somehow becomes Australian??) and a letter from the gangster's mother
describing Nazi atrocities, all serve to help Cary turn over a new
leaf. "Susan, Susan"
Monkey Business: CG plays Barnaby Fulton, a scientist
who invents a fountain of youth formula. He and his wife, Ginger
Rogers, drink it and get very silly. Marilyn Monroe shows off her
legs and next thing you know monkeys are on the loose spraying water
everywhere. Monkey Business: is the prototype for all those
gimmicky animal/body switching comedies that are so popular with the
kids today. But with one key difference: quality acting and directing
make this film a lot classier then say, "Dunston Checks In."
"Susan,Susan, Sue"
My
Favorite Wife:
CG and Irene Dunne star in this screwball comedy, whose plot grows
more absurd with each passing frame of the film. Instead of a
fiancee, CG must contend with a new bride and his first wife who
returns after being presumed dead. Dunne and Grant are genius
together in this hysterical romp that's pure CARY. This film
continues to grow on me and every time I watch it, I find something
new to love. For example, Steven Burkett or Adam is played by CG's
the man rumored to be Cary's long-time companion, Randolph Scott,
which adds layers to CG's reactions and scenes with Scott. And the
leopard print robe (pictured above) is a bit of an inside joke on
Bringing Up Baby. "Susan, Susan, Susan,
Sue"
Night & Day: CG stars in the Cole Porter life
story, directed by Casablanca's Michael Curtiz. The musical
numbers are obviously bluffed (Cary Grant couldn't sing that well)
with campy results. Still, the Grant persona fits well with Cole
Porter's urbane and sophisticated music. The title song is
metaphorical of Grant's bipolar portrayal of Porter as a quiet,
brooding, misfit by night and an extravagant, fun-loving, workaholic
by day. Sadly, however, the script is an unsettling mishmash of
triumph-over-adversity, love story and musical clichés which
leave the viewer skeptical about the happy ending. "Susan,
Susan"
None But the Lonely Heart:
CG stepped outside his usual persona to play Ernie Mott, an oddball
from the East End of London who still lives with his ma. Ethel
Barrymore (above) and Barry Fitzgerald also star in this melancholy
story which is saved from melodrama by CG's talent for quirky humor
as well as for smashing bird cages. June Duprez gives an excellent
performance as Mott's working-class, but glamorous girlfriend in some
of the best CG love scenes ever. Perhaps
its the similarities between Mott and real-life Archibald Leach that
make this movie so touching. "Susan, Susan,
Susan, Sue"
Notorious: Hitchcock builds almost unbearable suspense
as CG plays an American spy who tries to save Ingrid Bergman from her
Nazi husband, played by Claude Rains. Bergman was never more
vulnerable and CG is the original James Bond prototype: smooth,
urbane and cool under pressure. "Susan,
Susan, Susan, Sue"
North By Northwest: Hitchcock gives us suspense, action
and exotic locations in South Dakota in this classic thriller. CG
plays an ad exec (there's that profession again) turned unwitting spy
on the run from the law, villainous James Mason and a plane "dustin
crops where there ain't no crops." The dialogue and situations are
racier than the usual CG movie since it was made in 1959 after the
Hays Code (which governed not only the content but the spirit of
Hollywood movies during most of Grant's career) was all but
dissolved. But his mere presence adds class to all those
double-entendres and train-into-tunnel shots. "Susan,
Susan, Susan, Sue"
Once Upon a Honeymoon: The ill-conceived plot is
Notorious meets It Happened One Night as CG plays a
journalist who falls in love with Ginger Rogers, an American married
to a Nazi. He helps her escape across Europe in a bizarre mixture of
screwball comedy and World War II spy drama. Of course none of this
explains the scene where Cary poses as a French tailor in order to
give Ginger a bogus fitting. It doesn't exactly make much sense, but
it stands out in my mind as one of Cary's finest bits of Susanity.
Directed by the Awful Truth's Leo McCarey, this movie can't
help but have it's bright spots, but the disastrously insensitive
scene in which CG and Ginger Rogers get thrown into the Warsaw Ghetto
is the chief reason this movie has been justly forgotten by all but
the most hard-core CG fans. "Susan, Susan,
Sue"
Only Angels Have Wings: Cary in a love triangle two of
the silver screen's greatest stars, Jeanne Arthur (Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington) and Howard Hawk's discovery, Rita Hayworth. CG plays
Geoff Carter, a macho American pilot leading a ragtag bunch of flyers
to glory and financial security in the mountains of South America.
Carter is a tough guy who refuses to get burned twice in the same
place. He's gotta get the mail through and to hell with a bunch of
flighty dames, ornery condors and fog. An adventure flick with a
little singing, dancing and kissing thrown in for good measure.
Angels succeeds as pure entertainment. "Susan,
Susan, Susan"
Operation Petticoat: Cary passes the torch to Tony
Curtis (Is it just me or is Curtis wearing too much eye make-up?) in
this fluffy comedy whose opening scene is the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Cary plays submarine Captain, Matt Sherman, a Jean-Luc Picard type,
with little tolerance for the wackiness of a Blake Edwards (the Pink
Panther) script. The result is an absurd, delightful and
more-polished version of the Grant persona. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
People Will Talk: CG plays an (unsurprisingly) popular
OB-GYN, Noah Pretorious who marries his suicidal patient, Annabel
Higgins played by Jeanne Crain. The plot is part melodrama, part love
story, and part meditation on the death penalty. Somehow it all works
with comic relief provided by Dr. Pretorious as he presides over a
dysfunctional orchestra specializing in Wagner. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Penny Serenade: CG and Irene Dunne combine visual
slapstick and gut-wrenching grief in this melodramatic look at
adoption. Grant was nominated for an Oscar and lost for his role in
this tearjerker which is just the sort of quiet, issue-driven film
that the academy loves to reward. Both Dunne and Grant gave fine
"serious" performances, yet neither of them ever won an Oscar.
Penny Serenade is final proof that the Oscars are at best
unscientific and often downright unfair. Despite the strong acting,
the script is shamelessly manipulative and eventually all the good
Grant and Dunne moments of Susanity are overwhelmed by the cheese.
"Susan,Susan, Sue"
The Philadelphia Story: CG, Jimmy Stewart, Katharine
Hepburn, and (of course) a fiancee, run amuck the night before a
society wedding. CG plays C. K. Dexter Haven, a recovering alcoholic
who's out to recover his wife, his self-respect and a ship called the
True Love. In terms of star power and acting, it doesn't get any
better than this film. "My, she was yare!"
And the script is so good, I had difficulty choosing which lines to
use as sound bites. The entire supporting cast is great, including a
brilliant performance by child actress, Virginia Wieldler as Dinah
Lord. Her knowing impersonation of a society brat is genius and so is
the choice of parlor music--"Lydia the
Tattooed Lady". Truly, one of Cary Grant's best performances, and
his scenes with Jimmy Stewart are particularly good. Director George
Cukor balances these two mega-stars perfectly and he keeps the
antagonistic tension going till the last possible second, but never
forces them to compete head-to-head in a scene. For example, when
Stewart gets drunk and does a wigged-out Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
parody, the comedy is held in check by Grant's visible anguish at the
open bottle of champagne (he's a recovering alcoholic, remember).
This is followed up by Stewart's subsequent hangover scene which is
completely stolen by Cary's light-touch antics. Stewart deservedly
won the Best Actor Oscar for his role, which unfortunately,
overshadowed Cary's delicately genius performance. "Susan,
Susan, Susan, SUSAN"
The Pride and the Passion (Original): I recommend this
overblown costume drama, only for its campy scenes of Frank Sinatra
and Sophia Loren with bad Spanish accents. CG had an affair with
Loren during the filming of this movie, which aides their onscreen
chemistry, but does nothing for the script that's as leaden as the
cannon they're supposed to be dragging all over Spain. In an
interview on the Charles Grodin show, Don Rickles said that when he
first met Frank Sinatra it was right after he'd filmed this movie and
Rickle's first words to The Chairman of the Board were "The cannon
was terrific!" (Come to think of it, that's the ultimate Pot
Shot.)"Susan"
The Pride and the Passion (Revisited):
I recently saw this movie on the big screen and the experience
changed my mind about my previous review. This movie suffers on video
because the scenery, the battles and the spectacle are almost
completely lost in that format. A big screen puts you in the middle
of the action, the beautiful Spanish countryside and some
well-executed effects. These were the days that if you wanted a
cannon to blow up a wall, you had to actually set it up and do it.
And boy did P&P's director, Stanley Kramer know how to blow up a
wall with a cannon. Perhaps it was the effect of seeing this movie in
a museum, but the scene where the French fire on the heroes as they
cross the mountain pass reminded me of a Goya painting. The lighting
in that scene came intermittently from the French guns, making the
faces of the officers appear briefly, like flashes of the devil.
Although I still think the script was too speechy and the acting too
weak (Frank still sounds like Speedy Gonzales from Hoboken and Sophia
Loren is still wooden), I improving this movie's rating to "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
She Done Him Wrong: The first genuine hit that Cary
was ever in and it's all Mae, all the way. I still can't figure out
exactly what she done wrong, except to flirt with a bunch of silly
men and deliver some of the sassiest proto-feminist one-liners I've
ever heard. Grant manages to keep the same slightly embarrassed,
slightly excited look on his face that he gets when Grace Kelly
kisses him in To Catch a Thief. Even though he's clearly out
of his depth when West invites him up to see her, there's always a
hint of the urbane sophisticate on his red face. And I might be
stretching the boundaries of film history , but I can make a
connection between West's impeccable timing and delivery and Grant's
in later films. Call it star quality, call it whatever, but Mae had
it and she spotted it in Cary--she done him right! As if great
moments in film history aren't enough, there are some terrific
musical numbers, including a version of Frankie and Johnny that ends
in gunplay. "Susan, Susan, Susan"
Singapore Sue: The first appearance on film of a
certain Archie Leach as the sailor who harasses singer Anna Chang.
For die-hard CG fans only, since there's nothing urbane about the
young man in bad make-up who mashes his way through this short
feature. It's brevity is Sue's only virtue. "Susan"
Suspicion: CG and Joan Fontaine are superb as a con-man
and his suspicious wife. Hitchcock also provides startling visual
effects, such as a spider web shadow which envelopes Fontaine
throughout the entire movie, and a glass of milk which glows
ominously. As usual, Hitchcock finds horror in the commonplace; this
time in the power of the destructive attraction between CG and his
all too willing victim/wife. "Susan, Susan,
Susan"
Suzy: Jean Harlow is charming as a cabaret singer who
falls for World War I flying ace, Cary Grant, even though he won't
change his lowdown, philandering ways. The script borrows heavily
from Blonde Venus, a much less predictable and more
sophisticated film. But Harlow's character isn't as dangerous or as
poignant as Dietrich's in Venus. Franchot Tone gives an
excellent performance as Suzy's salt-of-the-earth first husband, who
gets shot by spies. Despite the sloppy dogfights and poorly executed
spy subplot, Suzy is likable because Harlow
(click here, for a nice love scene) loves the wrong man to the bitter
end. Her humane weakness for CG rings true and saves the film from
its hopelessly trite plot. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
Sylvia Scarlet: CG and Kate Hepburn's first film
together was also Cary's first film made away from Paramount. The
relaxed atmosphere of George Cukor's set at RKO convinced him to take
the leap shortly afterward and become a free agent. Cary gets to do
his native accent while Hepburn plays a French girl masquerading as a
boy. When Sylvia becomes Sylvester in order to better travel with a
gang of con men/amateur actors, she learns that she likes the rough
and tumble life of a boy. But she's willing to give up her cross
dressing to win the attention of a handsome artist, played by Brian
Aherne. Cary plays Jimmy Monkley, a brutish con who is softened by
the presence of Sylvia/Sylvester and begins to care for her in a
brotherly way. The gender bending comedy takes off as Hepburn gets
kissed by women and almost punched out by men, although this farce is
often more melancholy than madcap. An interesting coming of age
story, that manages to take into account the difficulties of
adolescent love for both genders. "Susan,Susan,
Sue"
That Touch of Mink:: Cary Grant frequently plays men in
the prime of bachelorhood, successful and happy-go-lucky. But within
the first five minutes of the film, the heroine is introduced and we
realize that he's met his match. And so it's no different for Phillip
Shayne when he splashes Cathy Timberlake with his limo. Timberlake,
played by Doris Day, is the small town girl struggling in the big
city, the original "That Girl", the model for Mary Richards and a
hero for single gals everywhere. In Phillip Shayne, she's just met
the man of her dreams, but she's petrified. Some truly inspired comic
scenes arise out her attempts to overcome her fear and provincial
attitudes. But it's Shayne who undergoes the real transformation,
when he realizes the inevitable, "She's gonna make it after all."
"Susan,Susan, Sue"
The Talk of the Town: George Steven's directs one of
CG's finest serious roles as Leopold Dilg, the light-hearted,
Borscht-swilling, anarchist who gets framed for arson by a corrupt
mayor. Jeanne Arthur is her usual chipper yet gutsy self as Nora
Shelly, the school teacher who hides him in a law professor's attic.
The fastidious professor is played by Ronald Coleman, CG's old urbane
rival from the early 30s, and some of the movie's biggest laughs come
as he tries to woo a beauty parlor owner into giving him vital
information on Leopold's case. The friendship between Grant and
Coleman appears strained, but perhaps it's just because I recently
read the accounts of their jousting for first-billing. But the
tension between the leads plays nicely in the eventual love-triangle
that develops with Miss Shelly. That lucky gal is forced to choose
between the charmingly disheveled Grant and the dapper Coleman. She
keeps her decision away from the audience till the last minute, a
move that saves the last half-hour of the film from dragging. But
what I really want to talk about is the Borscht. I give this movie a
whole extra Susan because so much of it revolves around the
passionate, purple Polish elixir. They should have re-titled it, The
Talk of the Borscht. Whole scenes are devoted to Coleman and Grant
confessing their undying love, not for Jeanne Arthur, but for this
Eastern European soul food. "Susan, Susan,
Susan"
The Toast of New York: Cary Grant, Edward Arnold and
Jack Oakie are smalltime peddlers who hit the big time on Wall Street
after the Civil War. Frances Farmer plays the ambitious young actress
who comes between them. Although Nick Boyd (CG) is a bit stiff and
unremarkable, he fits in nicely with the lovable scoundrel character
that Grant perfected in his later career. The script has an
ultra-condensed Citizen Kane thread, but the main thrust of
Toast is buddy comedy which relies entirely on the chemistry
between the three leads to propel it forward. This movie may be low
on Susanity, but it's still a decent flick. "Susan,
Susan"
To Catch a Thief: CG plays former cat burglar, John
Robie who must clear his name and catch a jewel thief. CG and Grace
Kelly are wonderful together with help from Jessie Royce Landis, who
plays Kelly's obnoxious, yet completely lovable mom. Part of
Thief's delight is watching Grant squirm in the middle of a
cat fight (pun intended) between Grace
Kelly and a sassy French femme fatale, played by Brigitte Auber.
Hitchcock's use of a terrifying downhill driving sequence is all the
more unnerving because it foreshadows Kelly's death in a car accident
on the very same road in 1982. "Susan,
Susan, Susan, Sue"
Topper: was the film that made Cary Grant a star, which
is hard to believe since he's invisible throughout half of the movie.
It was also one of the first films that really benefited from the
full-effect of the Grant persona. His dashing wit, playfulness and
menacing jealousy helped make Topper a runaway success. They still
holdup today, along with delightful performances from Roland Young
(Uncle Willie from the Philadelphia Story) as Cosmo Topper and
Contance Bennett as Marion Kerby. The second half of Topper relies
too heavily on dated special effects, which have a certain nostalgic
charm. "Susan, Susan, Susan"
Walk Don't Run: is Cary's last film. CG turns in a
memorable performance as a businessman who, during a Tokyo housing
shortage, takes a room with a young English woman and an American
Olympic athlete (his event is one of the film's best comic devices).
While remaining solidly within his urbane persona, he sets out to
match make between the young couple. The results are hilarious,
classic Cary, as he distracts her stuffy English fiancee (there will
ALWAYS be a fiancee) and gets mixed-up in a goofy spy subplot. The
movie reaches the peak of absurdity when Cary gets drawn into the
Olympic games in his boxer shorts and is left to take a bus home in
his underwear. As usual, Cary steals scene after scene with his
polished expressions of disbelief/ bewilderment and the only time the
film lags is when he's off camera. It is strange but touching to see
him above the fray of the sort of goofy romantic entanglements which
were his trademark for years. I half-expected him to rush in and
steal the girl at the last minute and don't think for a minute that
he couldn't have pulled it off! The final scene has Cary watching the
young couple from the street below their room. He manipulates a
remote control to move the rice paper screen that divides the room
(which is to "Walk Don't Run" as the Wall of Jericho was to "It
Happened One Night") like a puppet master pulling the strings until
they match his screwball aesthetic. Then he quietly gets in a cab and
drives off screen forever. "Walk Don't Run," might be the last, true,
screwball comedy of the type which Cary perfected during his prime.
And it is a classy, elegant ending to a wonderful career on film.
"Susan, Susan, Susan"
