"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant, even I want to be Cary Grant " - Cary Grant

The epitome of male elegance and style.

On January 18, 1904 Archibald Leach was born in Bristol, England. Young Archie would eventually grow up and morph into Cary Grant, " The Man From Dream City " to quote critic Pauline Kael. Archie's life would go through a metamorphosis, growing from the young, callow Archie Leach [ could there ever be a name so incongruous with the public persona? ] into the suave [ so fuckin' suave ] Cary Grant, who himself modeled his persona after Noel Coward [ NO one, I'm convinced is original ]. The road was long, arduous, with many detours. From Bristol to New York City and finally to Hollywood where Archie would have a long [ 1932-1966 ] career as the romantic leading man not only his time, but possibly all-time.  Cary Grant, with Archie Leach never far from sight, wouldn't always enjoy the ride.

Roz Russell learns never trust your ex. Left to right, Ralph Bellamy, Grant and Roz in His Girl Friday, 1940

The man from Bristol was full of neurosis. From the time he was a child Archie felt he was not loved or belonged anywhere. At the age nine his father told him his mother had gone away on a " long holiday ", Archie thought his mum had died, when in fact she had been placed in a mental institution. It was not until he was 31 that Archie, now Cary Grant to the world at large, would learn that his mother was alive. Whatever obstacle Archie had to climb, Cary learned to do it with style.                                                                                                                                                                           

A delightful turn on the dance floor as Ingrid Bergman watches, Indiscreet, 1958

Along with Fred Astaire, Grant brought a style and elegance to Hollywood's golden age that, in today's cinema, is sorely lacking . Grant also brought a sense of fun to his roles. Whether poking fun at Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, egging on Victor MacLaglen in George Stevens' Gunga Din or lying and betraying Rosalind Russell in Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday, Grant had a twinkle in his eyes that said " I'm having fun, aren't you ? ". Yes, we were.  From 1937 on though 1943 or maybe 1944 no one Hollywood personality made more popular, entertaining movies than Grant, movies that are still popular today. These were the years Grant consolidated his stardom after nearly six years as supporting player, second and romantic lead in roughly two dozen bland snooze-fests. From 1932 to 1936 Grant appeared in movies with titles like Sinners in the Sun, Hot Saturday, Kiss and Make-Up, Ladies Should Listen; etc. All forgettable, though Grant did make a couple that have gone down thru the ages as classics or close to it : the Mae West ribald, innuendo-filled She Done Him Wrong and the Dietrich-Sternberg epic to mother love Blonde Venus, in which Marlene sings " Hot Voodoo " in an ape suit. Other than that the early to mid 30's was a pretty barren time for Grant, although being under contract to Paramount Pictures he did pull down a handsome salary. But the scripts were weak, and so was Grant. He felt he was better and had more to offer than the average romantic leading men like George Brent, David Manners or Patrick Knowles.

Somewhere in this cemetery set is Archie Leach's tombstone: With Priscilla Lane in Capra's Arsenic & Old Lace, 1944

In 1936 Grant played a supporting part in the Katharine Hepburn gender bending dramady Sylvia Scarlett with George Cukor directing. It's a strange film, even seen today, and one can only wonder what depression era audiences thought of it in 1936. Grant plays a cockney con man named Jimmy Monkley with alot of Cary Grant, or Archie Leach, thrown in for good measure. Sylvia Scarlett's director George Cukor said that it was the first time Grant " felt the ground under his feet " as a performer. Consequently Grant's Monkley, with his cockney accent and side glances, is charming yet dangerous and a precursor to many of Grant's character's to come, especially the Hitchcock films Grant would soon be appearing in. From Sylvia Scarlett on, Grant took control of his future as well. Not satisfied with the weak material Paramount was offering Grant decided to free-lance, a bold move in the studio controlled 30's Hollywood. Grant did protect himself by signing non-exclusive contracts with both RKO and Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures. But as a non-exclusive, Grant could and did make movies for other studios such as MGM and Warners.  

Hitch & Cary : Two of the most famous profiles in movie history.

Cary Grant had several key collaborators in his career. On the director side there was Hitchcock with 4 films [ Suspicion-1941, Notorious-1946, To Catch a Thief-1955, North By Northwest-1959 ], 3 films with George Stevens [ Gunga Din-1939, Penny Serenade-1941, Talk of the Town-1942 ], 4 films with Leo McCarey [ The Awful Truth-1937, My Favorite Wife-1940 as producer only, Once Upon a Honeymoon-1942, An Affair To Remember-1957 ], George Cukor with 3  [ Sylvia Scarlett-1936, Holiday-1938, Philadelphia Story-1940 ], Howard Hawks with a whopping 5 films [ Bringing Up Baby-1938, Only Angels Have Wings-1939, His Girl Friday-1940, I Was a Male War Bride-1949, Monkey Business-1952 ] and the Stanley Donen 4 [ Kiss Them For Me-1957, Indiscreet-1958, The Grass is Greener-1960, Charade-1963 ].

Cukor makes his point during filming of The Philadelphia Story, 1940

 
Of course Grant's performing wasn't contained in a bottle, he had some legendary co-stars with whom he'd bounce off from time to time. Not to take anything away from James Stewart, Ronald Colman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, David Niven and some others, but Grant usually flourished when he was the sole male lead and the other male was usually Ralph Bellamy or Rudy Vallee or Barry Fitzgerald. Grant, who performed along side nearly all the leading ladies of his time, would be the center of attention to the leading female in the picture. Grant's leading ladies were some of the best and most beautiful the movies had to offer and a big reason some of his films still are popular and resonate with today critic's and film buffs. Irene Dunne made 3 with him [ The Awful Truth, My Favorite Wife, Penny Serenade ], Katharine Hepburn with 4 movies [ Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, Sylvia Scarlett, Philadelphia Story ] were his most frequent co-stars of the late 30's early 40's period among others such as Jean Arthur [ Only Angels Have Wings, Talk of the Town ], Rosalind Russell [ His Girl Friday ], Ingrid Bergman twice [ Notorious, Indiscreet ], Sophia Loren [ Pride & The Passion, Houseboat ], Grace Kelly [ To Catch a Thief ], Ginger Rogers two times [ Once Upon a Honeymoon, Monkey Business ], up through the 1960's with Doris Day [ That Touch of Mink ], Leslie Caron [ Father Goose ] and most memorably with Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Charade in 1963.

One may not know it to view the above clip, but Charade is a thriller in the Hitchcock tradition but with added emphasis on romance and comedy as much as thrills. It may be the best Hitchcock suspense flick Sir Alfred never made.

At his ambiguous best in Hitchcock's Suspicion

 One of the things that made Grant unique as a performer was his willingness to appear crabby and unlikeable. Some of these examples are His Girl Friday in which Grant plays not only Roz Russell's former newspaper editor but her ex-husband as well, who is trying everything he can think of to prevent Russell's elopement with Ralph Bellamy, including getting Bellamy and his mother thrown in jail. In 1943's Mr. Lucky, a real personal fave of mine, Grant plays a shady gambler who trades identity with a dead Greek to get out of the draft [ this in the middle of America's most patriotic moment, the Second World War ] and proceeding to lie to the head of a war relief organization to let him run the charity casino to help raise funds, but Grant intends to keep the money raised to fund his gambling ship. In Hitchcock's underrated Suspicion, Grant plays a playboy who falls for Joan Fontaine's bookish Lina. Grant's character Johnnie is a no good charming cad who cannot keep down a job and is always coming up with get-rich-quick schemes. And if that isn't enough, Johnnie gives Lina good reason to think he may be trying to kill her. Notorious, Grant's next for Hitch in 1946, was a dark tale of espionage with that consummate actor of skill and ease, Claude Rains and beautiful Ingrid Bergman. In it Grant and Ingrid play American spies down in Rio to investigate on the lam Nazi war criminals who may have some secret formula involving a metal ore or something. Anyway the plot doesn't matter as much as the two leads.  Bergman and Grant had rarely been better [ that's saying something ! ] as the spy-crossed lovers, with Grant's jealousy and sour feelings for Ingrid and the way their relationship wilted in the warmth of the South American climate, almost resulting in Bergman's death. However, Grant comes to his senses just in time. The film is among the best on Sir Alfred, Cary and Miss Bergman's resume, of whom the latter would soon have a tremendous fall from grace and lean times professionally in the years between 1950 and 1955, due to her relationship with Italian film director Roberto Rossellini.

Through his long run in Hollywood, Cary received two Oscar noms for Best Actor, 1941's Penny Serenade and None But The Lonely Heart in 1944 and never won a competitive Oscar. Finally in 1970, Grant was presented an Oscar, four years after the release of his last film Walk, Don't Run, for his lifetime achievement in films. It was long overdue. Grant, like many of the actors and directors of that glorious age of American cinema [ Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Dietrich, Kirk Douglas, Garbo, Gardner, Mitchum, Eddie Robinson, I could go on but will stop ], was taken for granted for making an extremely difficult situation and character look spontaneous and natural, no matter how many times one had rehearsed it. Grant didn't take roles that would extend his range, except on rare occasions and both of his Oscar nominated turns represent a different Grant than audiences expected at the time. When an actor brakes out of their well-oiled comfort-zone, it can result in an Oscar or at least a nomination which can almost be as good for a career. It is interesting to think of how his career would have differed if Grant had taken one or all of this next batch [ probably not much ], but to think of him in Billy Wilder's Sabrina, in the role Bogie played in that 1954 film or imagine his impact in Wilder's Love in the Afternoon, as an aging playboy-exec-ugly American business man ready to pounce on any available tail he can find, only to be caught up in Audrey Hepburn fever circa 1957, is to regard a different Grant than the one who had carefully planned his career since his brake from the exclusive contracts so prevalent in the time of studio controlled Hollywood. The topper to all these roles refused by Grant is the part of the alcoholic, fading fast movie star Norman Maine in the Judy Garland, Cukor directed, remake of A Star Is Born in 1954. According to Patrick McGilligan's definitive biography, Cukor had a reading of the script at his home, just to give Cary a feel for the role, although Grant was familiar with the 1937 original with Fredric March in the part slated for Grant. Cukor went on and on about how wonderful Grant would have been in the role of Norman, based on his incredible reading and interpretation of the Maine character. But Cary turned the part down. Of these three movies that never were for Grant, A Star is Born is the one I wished he had taken. I am sure Grant would have been no less astounding than James Mason was in that magnificent opus of Hollywood career, love and loss.

So fuckin' suave!

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 When Grant died suddenly in November 1986 it was kind of a stunner. Yeah the guy was 82, but Grant, even after he quit the movies, still had a charisma and style that was totally his own. Though by this time Grant was completely white haired he still embodied the male animal at his best, sometimes silly, dark, dangerous, sly, mischievous, elusive and romantic. As hard as the comedians tried to mimic him, Grant remained an original, a man who invented a character for himself to play not only on screen, but off as well, and then eventually merged with that concept for himself, which is a riff on Grant's own assessment of himself in the 1970's. He is my favorite movie star from the age 1930 to about 1960/63. That image refuses to grow old. So is the man who invented it.


Sources : Cary Grant by Jerry Vermilye
               George Cukor : A Double Life by Parick McGilligan 
                Wikipedia