the "other" CG

[curious george]

Calling all Cary Grant fans (with cable TV) -- just noticed in the back of this week's TV section that next Tuesday night TCM (Turner Classic Movies) will have Cary Grant: A Class Apart.

"One of the most debonair talents ever to grace the movie screen is recalled in this new documentary, featuring interviews with friends and colleagues who offer fresh insights into the man behind the image. Eva Marie Saint, Jill St. John, Dina Merrill and filmmakers Stanley Donen and Peter Bogdonavich reflect on the ever-charming Grant."

According to this, the broadcast is at 8 p.m., but that's for EST not on DST which = CST. In other words, "check your local listings." Doesn't say how long the show is.

cg

[Ace]

TCM Swoons over Cary Grant
(Sunday, May 30 07:39 AM)
By Jay Bobbin

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - If screen legends are worth remembering, Cary Grant certainly is high on the list.

Modern stars like Hugh Grant and Pierce Brosnan may be cited for combining sophistication and humor, but the British-born actor who first carved that image remains the ultimate keeper of the flame. During the centennial of Grant's birth, Turner Classic Movies salutes him with a new documentary, "Cary Grant: A Class Apart," airing Tuesday (June 1). Director Robert Trachtenberg's 90-minute program precedes a month-long TCM festival of 27 Grant movies, starting with "North by Northwest" immediately after the special.

Eva Marie Saint, the leading lady in that Alfred Hitchcock-directed 1959 comedy-thriller, is among the interviewees in the new Grant profile. "He didn't want to be a father on film," the "On the Waterfront" Oscar winner says of Grant, "and certainly not a grandfather, so it was his decision to quit when he did. That's why we always think of him as that sexy leading man."

Despite the familiar Grant charisma that has caused several generations of swooning, "He was just another actor," Saint maintains. "People say, 'What was it like to kiss him?' Listen, you always have to find something attractive about your leading man, especially if it's a love story -- whether it's the eyes or the voice or whatever. Cary Grant had all that, but off-camera, he was still Cary Grant. There was nothing fuzzy or cozy about him. As friendly as we were and as sweet as he was, I always kept a respect for him. I saw people throw themselves at him and act so silly; it was such a cliche, he must have gotten tired of it."
Still, Saint enjoys the fact that she and Grant are considered such a romantic pair in "North by Northwest."

"Neither one of us took our clothes off! Isn't that a lesson? You had to use your imagination," she says. "I thought the love scene on the train was brilliant. That was Hitch saying, 'Well, you are on a train, and it's a rough ride.' He choreographed that almost like a dance."

Also interviewed in the Helen Mirren-narrated documentary are Jill St. John, Martin Landau (the henchman who stepped on Grant's hand atop Mount Rushmore in "North by Northwest"), fashion designer Ralph Lauren and Peter Bogdanovich, the former movie critic turned filmmaker ("The Last Picture Show") who became a close friend of Grant's. Bogdanovich has dedicated a chapter of his forthcoming book "Who the Hell's in It: Portraits and Conversations" to the ever-debonair star of films from the early 1930s to the mid-1960s.

"He was great on a lot of levels," Bogdanovich says. "He was a great actor and also a really nice guy to me. He gave me tips, and I sometimes wish I'd listened more to him. I've talked about Cary in film projects before, but Trachtenberg did a very good job on Cukor, so I figured he'd also do a good job on Cary."

Bogdanovich recalls he first encountered Grant "when I was very young. He was the first superstar I ever sat down and talked with, back in January 1961. He was in his late 50s and still looked like he always did, just like a movie star, and it was a very strange experience. I had known about Cary Grant since the age of five, so I grew up with him. My mother was particularly keen on him, and my parents had taken me to see his movies; then, there was the man himself. We don't have movie stars like that today, where the actual persona is used as the basis for the characters they play."

On the same day "Cary Grant: A Class Apart" debuts, Warner Home Video releases five Grant movies on DVD, ranging from the war classic "Destination Tokyo" to the George Gershwin biography "Night and Day." Also included are "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" (which is on the American Film Institute's list of 100 top screen comedies), "My Favorite Wife" and "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" (co-starring a teen Shirley Temple).

After a career that extended from "Bringing Up Baby" and "The Philadelphia Story" to "An Affair to Remember" and "Charade," Grant called it quits in 1966 with the Tokyo Olympics-set comedy "Walk Don't Run." (Never an Oscar winner in competition, he received an honorary Academy Award in 1970.) "I don't think anybody wanted to see him playing older men who weren't romantically involved," Bogdanovich reasons. "The public wasn't particularly interested in 'Walk Don't Run,' so he felt he had no choice. He wanted to preserve the image he had spent 30 years creating."

====================================

Too bad and rather sad that he thought he had to preserve one image of himself on screen or that the audience wouldn't let or didn't want to see another. It robbed audiences and the man of at least another 20 years of movies at a time in his life whe he probably knew more about acting and film than he had ever before.

Ace

[curious george]

Thanks for sharing that article, Ace. Looking forward to the show now more than ever, and sounds like I'd better have my blank videotapes lined up, too.

I do already have North by Northwest and Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD; not sure about too many others. So if I don't have them on VHS, here's my chance to pick up a few.

I just hope the weather permits! We've got predictions of storms most of this week again.

cg

Hey, does anybody here have contact with Ray? Isn't she a Cary Grant fan?

[Ace]

Looking at my DVD collection (60+ and counting!) I realize Mr Grant is the 2nd most featured lead actor in it. I have hmmm 5... North By Northwest, Arsenic & Old lace, Charade, To Catch a Thief, Notorious . I have several others like Philadelephia Story, The Bisphop's Wife & Bringing Up Baby on tape and would love to have especially the later on DVD when it's released.

Ace

[curious george]

I have Notorious on VHS, although after all I heard about it was a bit disappointed. Have To Catch a Thief, Suspicion and I think Charade taped off TV. Can't remember if His Girl Friday is "real" VHS or taped off TV, and someone else taped Indiscreet for me.

Have never seen Mr. Blandings, but if it's on the AFI list I may have to make a point of keeping my eyes open for it (to watch before I buy).

(Also still have my VHS copies of N by NW and A & OL - what does everyone else do with their videos once they have the DVD?)

On my "don't bother" list: I Was a Male War Bride.

cg

[Ace]

You were dissapointed with Notorious? I think it's Hitchock's best film and easily Grant's best non comedic performance and the only film I've ever found him sexy in. It's truly brilliant film making, not a wasted frame and each performance and character is a gem. Bergman is luminous as always.

Mr Blandings, it's cute, no more than that. It's on PBS about once a month. It's no where near the caliber of comedy of Arsenic or Bringing Up Baby.

As for what one does with old VHS tapes, keep them for the different box art or when the DVD breaks down. Give them to those who don't have the DVD's or donate them to the local library. (I'm thinking of doing the last with some that don't fit in the first two categories)

Ace

[curious george]

I think it was just one of those things that was hyped too much before I saw it - you know? I'll have to try it again some time without such high praise ringing in my ears.

Not sure any of them are worth keeping for "artwork" and have considered donating them, as I do often with books and have with other VHS that just haven't been worth hanging onto.

You could be right about when the DVD player is out, although we only have that in combo right now. There is a VCR in the basement, but it's most viewable from and exercise bike. Who wants that? (I can't ride and watch anything, but the rest of my family does.)

cg

[sparklingblue]

I've seen A & OL and Notorious and liked both of them.

*Edit: It wasn't Notorious, I meant Indiscreet.

[curious george]

Unfortunately, the only ones they are showing after the special on TCM are North by Nortwest, Suspicion and Notorious. All good, but I had received the impression there were going to be several (meaning ones I didn't already have on tape).

I recommend all three of those to anyone who hasn't seen them.

cg

[Ace]

The article says ... a month-long TCM festival of 27 Grant movies, starting with "North by Northwest" immediately after the special.

So 27 films should be spread over the entire month, aren't they?

Ace

[curious george]

Those were the only ones I saw listed for this week, but I'll go back and check. Then again, I was looking at the weekly listing that comes with our local paper, and it isn't always accurate.

:: goes off to look for TCM website ::

cg

[curious george]

Okay, let's try this:

ttp://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,76183|||,00.html

Cary Grant: A Class Apart

June 1st Film Schedule

North by Northwest

Cary Grant: A Class Apart

Notorious

Suspicion

Suzy



June 8th Film Schedule

Bringing Up Baby

Arsenic and Old Lace

I Was a Male War Bride

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

Night and Day

Every Girl Should Be Married



June 15th Film Schedule

The Bishop's Wife

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

The Philadelphia Story

Penny Serenade

Once Upon a Honeymoon

The Toast of New York



June 22 Film Schedule

Only Angels Have Wings

Cary Grant: A Class Apart

Crisis

None But the Lonely Heart

Sylvia Scarlett

In Name Only



June 29th Film Schedule

Walk, Don't Run

Indiscreet

Father Goose

Dream Wife

Operation Petticoat

Mr. Lucky


Cary Grant Profile

"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant," said Cary Grant, "Even I want to be Cary Grant."

Cary Grant was an excellent idea. But he didn't exist--someone had to create him. Archibald Alexander Leach looked in the dressing room mirror and reinvented himself for the Hollywood screen. "I pretended to be someone that I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or he became me." But Archie Leach didn't cease to exist. "Cary Grant" was just a name, like a title it represented a set of idealized qualities. He was suave, debonair, stylish, self-assured...with a hint of disorder lurking below the manicured facade.

Cary Grant more than any other actor came to symbolize the glamour of a Movie Star. To begin with, he was a master of timing. Grant had the knack to be in the right place at the right time. It was Cary Grant that Mae West delivered her historic come-on line to in She Done Him Wrong (1933). It was beside Cary Grant that James Stewart won his first and only Oscar® in The Philadelphia Story (1940). It was Cary Grant ducking for cover below a swooping airplane in North by Northwest (1959) that would become Alfred Hitchcock's most iconic moment. That same year, It was Tony Curtis' impersonation of Hollywood's suavest star that seduced Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot (1959).

Grant was born less glamorously into a working class family in Bristol England in 1904. At 14 he left home to seek his fortune as an acrobat with a traveling troupe. The nonchalance of a high wire walker is evident in his every performance. Like the man on the flying trapeze Cary Grant made a career out of "making it look so easy." Occasionally he got the chance to show off his physical skill too--as in Gunga Din (1939). But in every picture his comic timing is precise.

When he hit Hollywood, the struggling actor was almost immediately chosen to support the sexiest women in town. From Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932) to Mae West in I'm No Angel (1933) and She Done Him Wrong (1933) and Jean Harlow in Suzy (1936). Grant kept company with the strongest and most sought after women all through his career--Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Myrna Loy, Claudette Colbert, Sophia Loren, Eva Marie Saint, Shirley Temple and Katharine Hepburn among them. Cary Grant was the man all men wanted to be and the man that all women wanted.

After only five years in the studio stables, Grant broke with his contract in 1937 to become a free agent. He chose his own films, directors and scripts. Again his timing was impeccable--his next dozen films--made in only four years--defined the Cary Grant persona. He mastered the screwball genre with Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1939). In pursuit of a leopard and a madcap millionairess, Grant's rapid fire comic delivery was unequaled. In Only Angels Have Wings (1939) he played the perfect stoic action hero. Then he returned to the screwball in His Girl Friday (1940). The following year Grant appeared in his first film for Alfred Hitchcock. Suspicion (1941) crystallized the "Cary Grant mystique." For an actor who could only play at being himself, Grant proved to be amazingly versatile--shady, slapstick and serious.

Grant continued successfully honing his character in Mr. Lucky (1943), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) while experimenting in new directions. He played a cockney drifter in None But the Lonely Heart (1944), a navy officer in Destination Tokyo (1944) and songwriter Cole Porter in Night and Day (1946). As he aged Cary Grant became, with Jimmy Stewart, Alfred Hitchcock's quintessential main man in classics like Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).

Cary Grant had become a box office blue chip. But then in 1966 after completing his 74th feature film - Walk, Don't Run, Grant did the unimaginable. He retired from the screen. Once again proving that he was a master of timing--Grant's departure coincided with the end of Hollywood's Golden Era. As the films of the 1960s moved toward violence and anarchy it became clear that Cary Grant had personified the elegance of a bygone time.

He remains the most perfect of Hollywood's leading men. His secret of success was simple: "it takes 500 small details to add up to one favorable impression."

by Jeremy Geltzer

*******

Only skimmed this, didn't read the whole thing thoroughly before posting it, but obviously they are doing this on a one-night-a-week basis, which explains why those were the only ones in my TV guide. I hadn't recognized Suzy as a CG title; it's on this week also.

cg

Ace, this board is kicking me off again and telling me I'm not signed in when I am!

[Yuliya]

CG, are you sure your browser accepts cookies? Maybe something went wrong and the settings changed. It would explain you having this problem here and in Kelly's board.

OK, back to the subject. I've seen Philadelphia Story, Notorious, Charade, North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief, His Girl Friday, and a movie in which he played against Sophia Loren, whi was his babysitter. I tried to arrange the movies in order of my liking them - not Cary Grant in them; it's sort of "I've seen him once, I've seen him all" thing; he's handsome, he can act, he doesn't do it for me.

I can't take too much of Cary Grant but I wouldn't mind watching a few more movies with him. Suppose I wanted to watch 5 more movies. What are my best options?

Arsenic and Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby should probably be it. What else? They don't have to be shown this month, I can wait. Thanks.

[curious george]

Hmmmm...imho, can't go wrong with A&OL, so that's a good choice. Pass on The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

I like Suspicion, but don't make that judgment based on it necessarily being "best of the best" or anything.

Otherwise, you've pretty much seen my favorites, and I haven't seen anywhere near the whole list on TCM.

cg

[Ace]

I've seen pretty much all of these and some others. I think the only one I can't recall is Crisis (now I do, drama, brain surgeon forced surgery in a county undergoing a coup....blech). The film with Sophia Lauren as babysitter was Houseboat. He also did an historical drama, the Pride & The Passion with her and Frank Sinatra (skipable

Arsenic and Old Lace & Bringing Up Baby there are the two not to be missed. Two of the best comedies period.

For three others, well I'll give you a list of others with descriptions so you can decide.

The Bishop's Wife-- Cary Grant as an Angel, answering the prayers of Bishop David Niven and his wife Loretta Young (in different ways) Love it.

Suspicion -- Hitchock with Joan Fontaine. Not nearly the caliber of Notorious or NBNW or TCATF due in many ways to the forced changing of the ending undermining Grants performance for the entire film.

Indiscreet -- romantic comedy with Ingrid Bergman. Fluffy light, charming

Operation Petticoat -- WW II submarine comedy centering around women nurses onboard. Tony Curtis co-stars

Mr. Lucky-- Grant as charming gambler & conman and WW II dodger until he finds off course the love of a good woman.

Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House: Wit Myrna Loy. Like said cute comedy about the horrors of home ownership.

Father Goose -- scruffy Grant comedy with Leslie Caron and a passel of kids tuck on an island during WWII

Penny Serende: Bittersweet romance told mainly in flashbacks. Probably Grants best dramatic work, because it's only semi-dramatic, with Irene Dunne

In Name Only: love story with Grant & Carole Lombard where he's married to someone else

None by the Lonely Hearted: Straight drama, rare for Grant with Grant as a Cockney near-do-well

Missing from the list are a couple of his best, The Awful Truth & My Favorite Wife with Irene Dunne, one of if not his best leading lady because she could spar like Kate Hepburn but had more warmth which warmed him up. Also the Grass is Greener with Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons in adult romantic comedy.

From this list one to definitely miss: Every Girl Should Be Married

Ace

[sparklingblue]

songwriter Cole Porter in Night and Day (1946)

Is that the one who wrote the Billie Holiday song "Night & Day"? Has anybody seen the movie?

[Ace]

It's a Bio-pic of legendary songwriter Cole Porter (who indeed wote that song). If I recalled it has several musical numbers in it and it's a fairly bland innocuous whitewashing of the man, similar to many other musician bio-pics that came out in the 40's that were just used as a showcase for musical numbers.

Interestingly there's a new musical coming this year De-Lovely starring Kevin Kline as Cole Porter.

Ace

[Ray]

I wish that I would've seen this thread sooner but I was in Orlando at Wet N Wild with my church youth group. It was tons of fun

Anyway, back to Cary Grant. I do indeed enjoy his films very much but, alas, I won't be able to take part in this marathon because... well...

I DON'T HAVE TCM!!!

And it's not like I watch that much TV... Only CSI, AMC and Comedy Central. I don't know why TCM can't be part of the expanded lineup... ::sighs:: And this would've been the perfect chance to catch on some CG films that I haven't had the pleasure of viewing

All right, rant over

[curious george]

What haven't you seen yet, Ray? (I've already screwed up and missed taping one for someone else, so I can't promise anything -- not to mention we're having tornado warnings about every other day here.)

cg

[sparklingblue]

Thank you for the info, Ace!