Cary Grant - the leading man of Hollywood's classic movies

Cary Grant was born in Bristol, England, in the year 1904, and had an ordinary lower-middle-class life. That all changed when, at fourteen, he forged his father’s signature to join a troupe of knockabout comedians to America. He was on the same ship as a famous director, Douglas Fairbanks, and then got inspired to get into the movies, but didn't till 1933. In the US, he learnt acrobatics and pantomime before gaining fame in the Broadway show ‘Good Times’. After the show, he was selected by Mae West to appear in her film She Done Him Wrong (1933). Then began his career.  His good looks and superb acting made him the leading man in many comedy and dramatic roles, playing against legendary actresses such as Grace Kelley, Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn and Ingrid Bergman.

Cary Grant (1904-1986) in North by Northwest (1959)

What lessons does he have to teach us? Do what you think (is) right, and be humble about it.

Here are his best films:

BRINGING UP BABY (BLACK AND WHITE, 1938)

Grant and Katherine Hepburn come together in a screwball comedy with a leopard, a dinosaur bone, a dog, and a ripped-up dress? Definitely one of his best films with Hepburn, and it is a zoo of its kind.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (BLACK AND WHITE, 1940)

Again with Katherine Hepburn, he makes a perfect role as her ex-husband, C.K. Dexter Haven, and then reporter Maculay Conor (played by James Stewart) falls in love with the bride set to marry George Kittredge (John Howard).

HIS GIRL FRIDAY (BLACK AND WHITE, 1940)

Cary Grant’s turn to be a reporter, people! Well, at least he edits a newspaper. Now, he has to stop his ex-wife from remarrying insurance salesman Bruce (Ralph Bellamy). How? Maybe asking her to go and report on a murdered (John Qualen) may help.  

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (BLACK AND WHITE, 1944)

Mortimer Brewster has always been against marriage but he’s now going to marry Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). However, he finds out that his aunts are both murderers, and that insanity runs through his family.

NOTORIOUS (BLACK AND WHITE, 1946)

More Ingrid Bergman then Cary Grant. Alicia Huberman (Bergman) has been asked by Devlin (Grant) to go to South America to spy on a group of Nazis. Marriage is as far as she’s gone, and the marriage makes Alexander Sebastian thinks they’re really in love. Wrong. Huberman and Devlin have an affair…

TO CATCH A THIEF (COLOUR, 1955)

Cary Grant is suspected for stealing jewellery. Of course he hasn’t done it. He now falls in love with Grace Kelly, and must ferret out the thief at the same time.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST (COLOUR, 1959)

Well, he stars as Roger O. Thornhill, and after all he has done (just drinking and driving), he tries to find the guy who stuffed bourbon in his mouth. He realises he has been mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and he needs to find a way to survive without being murdered. How? Somewhat under Lincoln’s nose.

THAT TOUCH OF MINK (COLOUR, 1962)

That touch of mink is on Doris Day, not Grant. When she comes to look for the millionaire who wet the dress, they fall in love instead. And what’s worse? A holiday in which the airplane has only one occupant?

CHARADE (COLOUR, 1963)

Playing charade is what Peter Joshua (Grant), Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) and Hamilton Bartholomew (Walter Matthau) are doing. With comedy and mystery added. 

The Asphalt Jungle

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (BLACK AND WHITE, 1950)

Director: 

John Huston

Cast: 

Louis Calhern, Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, James Whitmore, Marilyn Monroe, Marc Lawrence, John McIntire, Brad Dexter, Anthony Caruso, Jean Hagen and Dorothy Tree

Ages: 

10 and up

Plot: 

Doc Erwin Riedenschneider (Jaffe) has been locked up in jail for seven years. What does he do during his jail term? He crafts a major heist for half a million dollars. He meets Cobby (Lawrence), and they get in touch with married lawyer Alonzo Emmerich (Calhern) to help finance them. Alonzo is almost bankrupt, and so he and his friend (Dexter) want to double-cross Doc for the loot. Together with hooligan Dix Handley (Hayden), driver Gus (Whitmore) and safecracker Louis (Caruso), the crime is committed. However, with Alonzo’s niece (Monroe) spilling the beans about her uncle’s role, the end is near for all the culprits.

Still of (from left): Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe and Louis Calhern 

Why it’s good: 

Because it is the city under the city, a jungle city of crime and hooligans and a lot more. The ‘jungle city’ is one of the best film-noir works ever made, about crime and betrayal.

While Marilyn Monroe stole the show as Alonzo’s niece Angela Phinlay, her first film of the decade in which she was credited, the crime plot was one of the most fascinating – it was a crime plot with many characters showing how the heist led to a huge change in everyone’s life.

Trivia: 

Both director John Huston and star Sterling Hayden were members of the Committee for the First Amendment, which stood against the blacklisting of alleged Communists working in the film industry during the Red Scare. Huston had never been a Communist, although Hayden at one point had been.

Parent’s Guide: 

Violence and more violence after the heist.

If you like this…: 

Rififi (1955) was made in Italy by an American and it is what this is – a heist.    

Scarface: The Shame of the Nation

SCARFACE: THE SHAME OF THE NATION (BLACK AND WHITE, 1932)

Director: 

Richard Rosson and Howard Hawks

Cast: 

Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft, Boris Karloff, Karen Morley and Osgood Perkins

Ages: 

10 and up

Plot: 

Tony Camonte (Muni) is a gangster who had just shot a famous Chicago gangster. As he rises above many with his insanely violent ways, he falls in love with Poppy (Morley). He and his mob (Raft, Karloff and Perkins are just the main ones) soon see that they will fall down, and the cops soon catch Tony even with his sister (Dvorak) by his side. 

Still of Paul Muni in Scarface

Why it’s good: 

Because it is so filled with action, so filled with mystery, and just so tense. No film has ever been so violent and had so many censorship problems, and none shall ever be responsible for the dawn of gangster films than this film.

Yes, very little of today’s gangster films would be here today if not for Scarface. It was ‘a shame of the nation’, as mentioned in the tagline, but it is actually today ‘the birth of a nation’s film’.

No gangster film actually gets any better than this film nowadays, although James Cagney – actor of gangster – has a point to make.

Trivia:

Al Capone was rumored to have liked the film so much that he had his own copy of it.  Film debut of George Raft, who didn't have to go far for inspiration on how to play a gangster in this film. He grew up in a New York City slum alongside gangsters Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis and Lucky Luciano. In an ironic twist, after the release of "Scarface", many of Raft's gangster pals would come to him for advice on how to dress, walk, talk, etc.

If you like this...: 

Paul Muni’s other great film was I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, which was made the same year. It was about a criminal wrongly suspected of robbing a dinner, sent to a chain gang, and escaped. The Private Enemy (1931), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and White Heat (1949) are great Cagney gangster films.  

Sullivan's Travels

SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (BLACK AND WHITE, 1941)

Director: 

Preston Sturges

Cast: 

Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, William Demarest, Robert Warwick, Franklin Pangbom, Porter Hall, Charles Moore, Eric Blore and Byron Foulger

Ages: 

7 and up

Plot: 

John Lloyd Sullivan (McCrea) is a director of escapist and comedy films, with names like Hey, Hey in the Hayloft and Ants in Your Plants of 1939. Suddenly he wants to direct a drama, and now he wants to direct a drama based on a novel on humanity, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? When his team points out that he knows nothing of hardship, he heads off as a tramp with only ten cents in his pocket. He soon meets a girl (Lake) and is saved twice by his reputation. Then, when he finds himself really in trouble, when he is left without any money and when his identity is stolen, he finds out the truth behind hardship.

Still of Joel McCrea in Sullivan’s Travels 

Why it’s good: 

Because it just is. Nobody can say much about a Preston Sturges comedy, but the truth is that this romance-drama-comedy is one of his best works.

The beginning is funny, the climax is sad, and in the end things start looking up. While the comedy gives everyone the laughs, the film is about hope and laughter. The message is clear (spoiler!): Who wants to see a sad movie when they can see a happy one?

While the jokes are Preston’s speciality (take for example, the word Amateur describing Sullivan as a tramp), the script is just so different, so much more civic-minded, and definitely better than the rest of his films.

Trivia:

Look for Preston Sturges’ cameo in the film. He is in the foreground when Veronica Lake was reading the newspaper and jumped in the air.

Parents’ Guide: 

There is romance in the air between Sullivan and the girl.

If you like this…: 

Sturges directed many comedies. It includes The Lady Eve (1941) about a heir to a beer company, The Palm Beach Story (1942) about an inventor needy for cash for his big idea, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero (both 1944) about war, and finally Unfaithfully Yours (1948) about a musician.

The Trouble with Harry

THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (COLOUR, 1955)

Director: 

Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: 

John Forsythe, Edmund Gwenn, Shirley McLain, Mildred Natwick, Mildred Dunnock, Jerry Mathers, Royal Dano, Barry Macollum and Dwight Marfield

Ages: 

7 and up

Plot: 

In a meadow in a small town in Vermont, Harry Worp, the husband of Jennifer Rogers (McLain), who hasn’t been staying with her, is found dead. Captain Albert Wiles (Gwenn) thinks he is responsible, and with the help of artist Sam Marlowe (Forsythe), help to bury him. Ivy Gravely (Natwick) thinks she is the murderer, and a few other people stumble pass the body (including Doctor Greenbow (Marfield) and a tramp (Macollom) without paying much attention. And then Marlowe and Rogers fall in love. Then the truth is revealed…

Still of (from left): Shirley McLain, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick and Edmund Gwenn  

Why it’s good: 

Because it is the most atypical Hitchcock film ever made. It is definitely the funniest of them all, with a certain little style that is extremely different. It is a comedy without a name. 

Unlike other mystery-comedies, like The Thin Man (1934) and Charade (1963), it has the film directed with more comedy and much less mystery, and the film is in fact unique for its kind. A comedy would be totally new for Hitchcock, and he did it pretty well, with his whodunit becoming a who-didn’t-do-it story with a bang – who-thinks-he-done-it-but-didn’t-do-it-and-who-did-it.

The art world intervenes in the film, and an art critic and a millionaire pop in some time to see Marlowe’s exhibition and the art shop. The art is of the modern style, and the evidence is hidden in one of the paintings: Marlowe’s portrait of the Dead Man.

Trivia:  

Alfred Hitchcock’s personal favourite quote in any of his films was in this film: What seems to be the trouble, Captain?

Parent’s Guide: 

Practically nothing. There is a romance between Marlowe and Rogers throughout the story.

If you like this…: 
Other Hitchcock films. None are the same as this film in terms of style and plot. But it is the same director.