Cary Grant: The Complete Filmography - Watching All Of His Movies (3 Viewers)

[atfree]

And that fantastic background score by Henry Mancini. Yes, the title song was Oscar-nominated, but the score itself also deserved a nomination. I played the Charade LP to death when was growing up (Henry Mancini could do no wrong, and I had most of his score albums to films). The actual soundtrack album to Charade was only released a few years ago on CD, and a dear friend gifted me with a copy which I truly treasure.

Despite its being a hit, I think Charade never got the credit it deserved during its initial run. Looking at it now, it's a near masterpiece in my eyes. I was also privileged to review the Criterion Blu-ray release, and it's one of the discs I most prize in my collection. I only wish the bonus feature content was tripled.

+1. Charade is one of my go-to's, something I bring out a few times a year when I want to just have a thoroughly entertaining film to watch. I believe I can recite the dialogue by rote now. Others on my list of go-to's include North by Northwest, Saboteur, the Bond films (especially the early ones). And the Criterion disc is a revelation after so many years of seeing the crappy quality PD versions on TV (Netflix had one that actually made my eyes hurt).

 

[atfree]

I hate to keep bringing up these scores (sound like a broken record - pun intended), but Bernard Herrmann's score for North by Northwest is simply amazing, keeping this propulsive thriller careening ever forward into new dangers and intrigues. He wrote really memorable music for many Hitchcock classics, and his contributions must never be forgotten.

Another +1 Matt. I love how it the opening theme starts (very subtly) when the studio logo appears on the Blu-Ray. And it just builds and builds from then on.

 

[Allansfirebird]

Hitchcock's best, Grant's best, Saint's best, Mason's best - and my best.

On any given day, it competes with To Catch a Thief (the first Hitch flick I ever saw) as my second favorite Hitchcock picture, right after Rear Window.

I'd be insufferable if any relative of mine had been in so many great movies. Check out that list! "Rebel Without A Cause", "Bus Stop", "The Thing From Another World", "War Of The Worlds", "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "Strangers On A Train", "I Was A Male War Bride", "Where The Sidewalk Ends", "Adam's Rib", AND "The Deadly Mantis"? And then all those TV appearances? They wouldn't be able to sew the buttons back on my shirts fast enough!

Oh trust me, I've got several friends that are likely tired of hearing about him by now, but I don't care. Whenever I see grandpa in one of these movies, I hang on every frame he's in. He unfortunately died when my father was barely a teenager, so I never got the chance to know him. Through his work, I'm able to at least get some sense of who he was, and I suppose I try to honor his memory by trying to keep the films of his era alive for my generation.

Josh / Sean,

Along the way, I became aware from your posts elsewhere on HTF that you were significantly younger than the majority here, and was much impressed with your depth of knowledge and especially your affinity for classic film. Now within the space of a few posts you have both provided some precious insights into how that came to be.

Thank you for being generous with your personal stories. It is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the kind words! It's been an enchanting experience to be a member of this forum, and I've personally learned much from the other posters here. If anything, y'all help me get deeper and deeper into my love of film history, and I thank you all!

 

[Keith Cobby]

This might need a new thread but I think Eva Marie Saint's wardrobe in North by Northwest is the best in movie history. In particular her black silk dress with red roses is exquisite.

 

[Nelson Au]

"I'm an industrial designer. ". And I am as well. .

I find that very unusual that a screenwriter would make her character have that profession at that time. Its not a well known profession, especially then.

Thanks again for mention of the Cary Grant Vault collection. Looks like a great way to discover some of his early works and his evolution into the Cary Grant persona in a single set. And thanks Josh for the write up of The Amazing Adventure, sounds interesting and one I may try to find. I am also very interested in seeing Mr. Lucky. Another title I had been aware of, but didn't see yet.

Because of the posts here, I listened to the score of NxNW this morning on my way to work.

 

[Nelson Au]

I viewed My Favorite Wife last night since it was a shorter film. I quickly realized I had seen it before, but hadn't known the title as I caught most of it on PBS years ago, but missed the first few minutes.

I remembered the Pacific Club because I was curious where that was filmed. Overall it was a fun movie and I'm sure influenced modern day sitcoms where one character can't seem to reveal the truth to the other with the resulting misunderstandings. That kept popping in my head, though I'm sure this was pretty much new in the screwball comedy genre at the time. Nick finally redeems himself with Ellen at the end and the audience knows that will happen, I kept wondering when and how. The cast worked well. I did keep thinking that maybe Bianca and Stephan would get together at the end and it turns out Gail Patrick who plays Bianca wanted that to happen too.

I don't have The Awful Truth in my collection and I'm curious about that one since the cast includes Grant and Dunne and is directed by Leo McCarey.

 

[Nelson Au]

By the way Josh, I was sampling your Jimmy Stewart thread too. It is interesting as I never have seen his westerns, just his dramas and comedies and of course Hitchcock films. I'm really curious to see Strategic Air Command and I see you streamed it. Which end it would come out on disc. But if it can be downloaded and saved legally, I can do that too. I did specifically buy The Spirit of St. Louis as I saw that as a kid on afternoon TV and always wanted to watch that all the way through. I didn't know it's a Billy Wilder production.

I might try the Stewart westerns at a later date, I read up a little about the Mann collaborations on the Wikipedia page on Stewart. Wasn't what I expected as they took the western genre in a different direction.

 

[RMajidi]

...I did specifically buy The Spirit of St. Louis as I saw that as a kid on afternoon TV and always wanted to watch that all the way through. I didn't know it's a Billy Wilder production.

Nelson, I was also surprised when I first learned that The Spirit of St Louis was a Billy Wilder film. I don't know why it surprised me though - after-all he covered every genre ...brilliantly.

 

[Allansfirebird]

Nelson, I was also surprised when I first learned that The Spirit of St Louis was a Billy Wilder film. I don't know why it surprised me though - after-all he covered every genre ...brilliantly.

Totally agreed there. Compared to The Apartment or Avanti, it seems an unlikely job for Wilder, but he handled it incredibly well. Must've been a contract job that he was required to do by the studio?

 

[RMajidi]

Totally agreed there. Compared to The Apartment or Avanti, it seems an unlikely job for Wilder, but he handled it incredibly well. Must've been a contract job that he was required to do by the studio?

Ah, Avanti!

The first Billy Wilder film I ever saw. I was around 8 or 9 at the time, and my mum and aunt, being Jack Lemmon die-hards (I am too now), bundled all of us cousins to the movie theatre. Even though at that age, much of it was over my head, I still got the gist of it, and recall being shocked at seeing for the very first time, the sight of a bare-breasted actress... Juliet Mills no less, who I affectionately knew then as Nanny, from 'Nanny and the Professor'.

I got the DVD (not great quality) of Avanti! a couple of years ago and was delighted by it - a terrific little film.

[sorry for taking this off-course, Josh]

 

[davidmatychuk]

I don't have The Awful Truth in my collection and I'm curious about that one since the cast includes Grant and Dunne and is directed by Leo McCarey.

There are times when I think "The Awful Truth" is my favourite Cary Grant film, and this is me talking. (Typing. Posting. You know what I mean.) At all times, I think it's the first absolute classic in Cary Grant's career. I envy you getting to see it for the first time!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Nelson, The Awful Truth is a must see. It's the first movie where all of the pieces truly come together for Grant, and the performance is beautiful to behold. Irene Dunne is also fantastic in it, they have great chemistry. It's really a great movie.

 

[classicmovieguy]

"Awful Truth" is one of the great (many regard it as THE greatest) of the whole screwball comedy genre. Between this and "Theodora Goes Wild", Irene Dunne is perhaps the best screwball heroine of that decade.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

"Awful Truth" is one of the great (many regard it as THE greatest) of the whole screwball comedy genre. Between this and "Theodora Goes Wild", Irene Dunne is perhaps the best screwball heroine of that decade.

I've actually never seen Theodora Goes Wild... I should work on that...

 

[bujaki]

Theodora is great! It was even better when MoMA ran a 35mm print in this order: reels 1,3,5,7 2,4,6. A surrealistic masterpiece! Sorry for the sidebar.
Back in track: Do not forget the contribution of Mr. Smith to the success of The Awful Truth.

 

[Nelson Au]

I'll add The Aweful Truth to the shopping cart. Except I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing out on a deal or a better option, what I mean is I think I saw on Amazon a set that includes three films, The Awful Truth, Born Yesterday and His Girl Friday. I already have His Girl Friday from Laserlight and the disc is dated 1999. I bought years ago and I might have seen it once. But so long ago, that I haven't watched it again, so it's still like watching it the first time. So just curious if the edition I have is going to be as good as it gets. It includes a bio film on Grant and if I'm reading it right, His Girl Friday is introduced by Tony Curtis and the original trailer for Gunga Din is included.

I watched Father Goose last night. It was a shock at first to see a version of Cary Grant as Oscar Madison! And looking so mature in years as well. And I thought he was looking his age in Charade. But he does have a youthful personality.

The film was not exactly what I expected, I mean I didn't know what to expect. Grant's age and scruffy look works for the character though and I overall enjoyed it. It was an interesting shift to see him play a different type of character. I didn't expect the children as part of the problem he had to deal with. The ending sequence was exciting. The only part that was odd was his proposing marriage to Catherine. There was only one scene and maybe that was all that was needed to explain that Walter and Catherine had a mutual attraction, when Walter tries to teach Catherine how to catch fish. But in the end, that made for a happy ending, the unlikely couple. . And as usual, Grant always gets the girl!

I see it was filmed in Jamaca. That explains why one beach reminded me so much of Dr. No. I'm glad to have finally seen this. And it was an interesting different character for Grant. Trevor Howard was great as Big Bad Wolf and how he was able to cleverly force Walter to be the Coast Watcher. And then later he goes to becoming properly concerned for him and Catherine.

P.s. I haven't really seen Leslie Caron in anything else. I have seen clips from An American in Paris. But not the whole film. She was good in Father Goose. She seemed seemed to be ok on screen with Grant as a couple. She effectively played a very strong woman who stood up to Walter.

One more thing about Charade. The first time I saw it, I had watched it a second time with the audio commentary on that's from Criterion. When Regina first sees Peter show up at her empty apartment, he is strongly back lit so you can't see who is there. In the audio commentary, the person speaking relates that they light such that Grant's ears are passing light through the tissue. So they had a sort of glow. This is all from memory years ago when I heard it, so maybe I'm not recalling it right. So when I watched the Blu Ray last weekend, I didn't see the glow around his ears. I wondered if the Blu Ray changed that, or I heard it wrong, I'll have to find time to check that and review that section.

 

[bujaki]

Nelson, your copy of His Girl Friday is from a bootleg source. I suggest you go with the triple feature from Sony you saw in Amazon. Good price and HGF is NOT PD quality since Sony owns the title.

 

[Allansfirebird]

I'll add The Aweful Truth to the shopping cart. Except I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing out on a deal or a better option, what I mean is I think I saw on Amazon a set that includes three films, The Awful Truth, Born Yesterday and His Girl Friday. I already have His Girl Friday from Laserlight and the disc is dated 1999. I bought years ago and I might have seen it once. But so long ago, that I haven't watched it again, so it's still like watching it the first time. So just curious if the edition I have is going to be as good as it gets. It includes a bio film on Grant and if I'm reading it right, His Girl Friday is introduced by Tony Curtis and the original trailer for Gunga Din is included.

Nelson, I would recommend The Cary Grant Box Set: http://www.amazon.com/Grant-Holiday-Angels-Wings-Friday/dp/B000CEV3L4

I bought this at CostCo quite some time ago, and I'm glad I did. It includes:

Holiday
Only Angels Have Wings
The Talk of the Town
His Girl Friday
The Awful Truth

It's a fantastic set, and worth every penny.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks for that info Jose. Bootleg source! Wow, I had no idea. There is also a HGF single film only release for a lot more then the triple feature. The triple feature set it is.

 

[Nelson Au]

Sean, that's a great box set. It's also got titles I don't have yet. Ok, you sold me. The only double dip will be for the Criterion Only Angels Have Wings.