Cary Grant: The Complete Filmography - Watching All Of His Movies (7 Viewers)

[Nelson Au]

I saw The Last Outpost last night. It wasn't exactly what I expected as I didn't read the entire write-up that Josh posted. Interesting how they set-up Andrews as a womanizer and then the later reveal that the nurse is married to Stevenson. So I sort of guessed they might be doing that. Nice to see the Army arrive in the nick of time! The only odd parts were the use of footage from another film for the scenes of trekking through the river and mountains. I was a little confused by the savage attacks at the end. I was trying to figure that one out, they seemed like they were in the wrong movie.

I did think of Gunda Din and how the scenery almost looked similar in some scenes.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

FYI, the preorder price for the Blu-ray of The Pride And The Passion just dropped to $12.99 on Amazon.

All of the other Olive CG movies I've bought have cost $15-20 each, so that's a pretty good price.

 

[davidmatychuk]

FYI, the preorder price for the Blu-ray of The Pride And The Passion just dropped to $12.99 on Amazon.

All of the other Olive CG movies I've bought have cost $15-20 each, so that's a pretty good price.

It isn't as good as the other Olive CG movies, so they've priced the Blu-Ray accordingly, I guess. Viva Olive!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#49 - Enter Madame! (1935)
Viewed on August 1st, 2016
Viewing Format: DVD (Universal)

Enter Madame! is a romantic-comedy-drama featuring Cary Grant and Elissa Landi, made during Grant's contract years at Paramount. Landi is clearly the lead here, with Grant playing a more supporting role. Landi is a renowned opera star; Grant is a huge opera fan. While attending one of Landi's performances, Grant comes to the rescue after a fire breaks out onstage. They quickly fall in love, and Grant joins Landi on a European tour. However, Grant finds it difficult being just a member of a giant entourage, and feels that he's being neglected as a husband. When the tour ends and Landi breaks their deal to return to America in order to continue performing, Grant returns home and their relationship begins to suffer. Landi continues to put Grant on the back burner, which potentially gives an opening to Grant's ex (played by Sharon Lynn) to reclaim his love. Realizing that she's on the verge of losing her husband, Landi returns to America to try to fix her marriage. Landi will have to attempt to balance her career and personal life, and Grant will have to decide whether his love of opera (and the opera singer) is enough to make up for Landi's other shortcomings.

Though billed as a comedy within Universal's Cary Grant Vault Collection, I found the movie to be more of a romantic drama with some comedic bits, rather than being a full blown comedy. I was expecting perhaps something with Grant playing the inconvenienced and exasperated straight man similar to "I Was A Male War Bride." This movie turned out very different from my expectations - which is not a fault of the movie of course. On the whole, the movie is a mixed affair, not terrible, not great. Grant and Landi do not have great chemistry, and Grant is very often left with little to do. The opening scene, where Grant heroically comes to the stage to rescue Landi from the fire, plays well, but it gets a little dull from there. The two leads are kept separately by the demands of the script more than they're together, so I'm not sure that we as an audience ever get to experience the love they say they feel for each other. The comedic moments are too far apart, the romance isn't as romantic as it could be, and the drama isn't gripping enough to draw us fully into the story. Essentially, it plays like a mix of bits and pieces from better movies.

As far as technical quality goes, Enter Madame! is one of the more disappointing titles on the Universal Vault Collection set. The picture appears washed out and dupey at many points throughout, and there are sections with visible scratches and dirt. Nothing unwatchable, but after seeing how good She Done Him Wrong looked, this was a bit of a letdown. Perhaps worse, this title does feature the audio hum throughout. To be fair, the dialogue was still pretty clear and easy to understand on top of it (and the disc does include English subtitles); I was able to mentally tune out the noise, but it's definitely there.

On the whole, I found Enter Madame! to be a pretty routine picture. If it didn't feature Cary Grant, it probably would be forgotten today. It's certainly not terrible, and if you're like me and you just like seeing Cary Grant onscreen, it's yet another brief window into the period where he's developing the persona that made him a star. But unlike some of the other titles that have that distinction, Grant isn't really given a lot to do here. If you've got the Vault Collection set, it's probably worth watching once - but it's probably not worth blind buying the set only for this title.

 

[bujaki]

But for opera lovers this film provides a showcase for the talents of Nina Koshetz, who provides the singing voice for the lovely (and was she ever!) Ms. Landi.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

But for opera lovers this film provides a showcase for the talents of Nina Koshetz, who provides the singing voice for the lovely (and was she ever!) Ms. Landi.

Thanks for that insight - I would never have known. I don't really know much about opera, but from a layman's perspective, I thought the singing was very enjoyable to listen to, certainly one of the highlights of the movie. To the movie's credit, the singing feels reel, and I never doubted that her character was who she was supposed to be. (Whereas when I watch movies with, say, fictional rock bands, I often find it difficult to believe I'm watching a band and not just a bunch of actors pretending to be a band.)

 

[bujaki]

I kept watching Landi and she did a very good job of lip syncing to Koshetz's singing, as well as acting the operatic roles.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Example #4583 why I'm so happy we've got this thread - I wouldn't have known any of this opera trivia otherwise. You guys are the best!

 

[Mike Frezon]

FYI, the preorder price for the Blu-ray of The Pride And The Passion just dropped to $12.99 on Amazon.

I guess this means I should pull the trigger on what will be a blind buy for me???

It seems so hard to think I can go wrong with Grant/Loren/Sinatra...

 

[Tony Bensley]

Today, Sharon Lynne is probably best remembered as the gold digging Lola Marcel in Laurel & Hardy's WAY OUT WEST (1937). An underrated and underused actress who according to IMDB, only appeared in one more film afterward.

Too bad Cary and the boys' never got to work together on film at least once, although he was at the Hal Roach Studios for a time!

CHEERS!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I guess this means I should pull the trigger on what will be a blind buy for me???

It seems so hard to think I can go wrong with Grant/Loren/Sinatra...

I hesitate to recommend this as a blind buy - it's a bad movie. Possibly the worst of all the movies I've watched on this thread so far. I think the biggest problem with the movie is that it's dreadfully dull (it's unfortunately not one of those "so bad its good" movies). Apparently Sinatra quit the movie fairly early into production, so they had to rewrite the script to remove him from as many unshot scenes as possible. Perhaps as a result of that, the whole movie had a disjointed, patchwork feel to me.

 

[Mike Frezon]

All righty then. Won't...pull...trigger.

Thanks, Josh. Way too much other unwatched stuff for it to matter then.

Appreciate the comments!

 

[Robin9]

All righty then. Won't...pull...trigger.

Thanks, Josh. Way too much other unwatched stuff for it to matter then.

Appreciate the comments!

Just to balance things out, I disagree with Josh. I enjoy The Pride And The Passion and I don't think it's a bad film. It's not perfect and neither Cary Grant nor Frank Sinatra is in their natural comfort zone. The film is visually impressive - I do hope this new disc does justice to the visuals - the story is strong and some of character actors are really good. There is also Sophia Loren . . . .

 

[Mike Frezon]

Couldn't help myself.

Pulled...trigger.

The film has always been an enigma for me...having, amazingly, never seen it. But having heard so much about it (both good and bad).

I want to see it. And I can't see beating a price of $12.99 to experience the Blu-ray at home.

And then Robin pushed me over the top:

I am weak...

 

[Mike Frezon]

I do hope this new disc does justice to the visuals

Since the film features Sophia Loren, I certainly hope the above statement holds true!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

To follow up on what Robin was saying, watching the poor quality, non-anamorphic DVD did the movie no favors... the visuals might be one of the most impressive things about the movie, but none of that came through on the DVD. I'm hoping that I'll enjoy the movie a little bit more with a higher quality version.

And I'd buy a Blu-ray of Houseboat for sure.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Couldn't help myself.

Pulled...trigger.

The film has always been an enigma for me...having, amazingly, never seen it. But having heard so much about it (both good and bad).

I want to see it. And I can't see beating a price of $12.99 to experience the Blu-ray at home.

And then Robin pushed me over the top:

I am weak...

You won't be sorry. You'd be sorry if you had spent any amount on the old DVD, but Olive's Blu-Ray at that price is a no-brainer, Save your brain for processing that photo. Homina homina...

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched the Criterion edition blu ray of Only Angels Have Wings last night. That's quite a different character from Holiday, but closer to the character in The Last Outpost. I'm kind of surprised he played so many of these tough, aloof type characters. But I suppose if I think about it, his characters in the films I'm more familiar with are to a degree, this type. While I watched Suspicion recently I haven't seen the blu ray yet. I'm kind of tempted to see that next. John Robie and Devlin were sort of the same type as Geoff in Wings. The good woman at the end finally cracks through his facade to admit he needs the girl.

And I want to compare with the Sony Cary Grant DVD box set. I was amazed, like with my recent Frankenstein viewings of those blu-rays, how rich the black and white image is on blu ray. The opening scenes of Only Angels Have Wings and even the opening titles all looked so clear, clean and sharp. The atmosphere of the opening shots was so dense, it was terrific! It was a surprise to see Noah Berry Jr. too in an early role. I only know him mainly from The Rockford Files. And this is the probably the first whole movie I've seen Rita Hayworth in. The flying sequences of the real airplanes and especially the rescue sequence of landing and take off were quite modern looking! Howard Hawks at his best. Even the model work was pretty decent.

 

[Nelson Au]

I took a look at the DVD of Only Angels Have Wings from the Sony box set. The Criterion blu ray was no surprise the superior release. Contrast and black levels are improved and the image is stabilized as the DVD exhibited jitter, if that's the correct term. Though the featurette on the DVD is great!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

#50 - Wedding Present (1936)
Viewed on August 7th, 2016
Viewing Format: DVD (Universal)

Made at the end of Cary Grant's contract period with Paramount, Wedding Present is a delightfully entertaining screwball comedy featuring Grant and Joan Bennett as fellow newspaper reporters who are already in love when the film begins. Grant and Bennett are a writing team at a Chicago tabloid, the star reporters at their paper. As the movie begins, they are at City Hall waiting in line for a marriage license, but Grant's clowning around irritates the unhelpful clerk to the point where he runs to clock down and closes shop before issuing Grant his license. Though Grant chalks it off as a goof they can fix the next day, Bennett is worried that Grant will continue to put off their marriage indefinitely. But before she can dwell on her feelings, the two of them set off to report a story on a visiting archduke. They get the story (in rather entertaining fashion), much to the chagrin of their perpetually overstressed boss, the city desk editor. When the city editor quits, Grant is promoted into his role, which puts a strain on his relationship with Bennett. She orchestrates an elaborate humiliation for him in the office, and then flees to New York, where she meets a rich but boring suitor. Meanwhile, Grant is a natural in the city editor position, but he misses Bennett. Watch to see if these reporters can find themselves on the same page before the picture's end.

Of the Paramount contracts I've seen so far, Wedding Present is one of the very best. Grant has all but perfected his persona here; it's like watching a ballplayer ready to be promoted to the big leagues. What I liked about him in this movie in particular is that we see a little bit more of a professional side than we usually do when he's playing other professional types. For instance, in His Girl Friday, he's also the editor of a paper, but things are already near a screwball fever pitch when we begin; although we know he can do the job on a normal day, we don't really get to see that in the movie. In Wedding Present, in between the hijinks, we get to see Grant carefully managing the paper. In one quick example, he switches the assignments of two longtime beat reporters, realizing that the paper's reporting in those areas had grown stale and needed fresh sets of eyes. It's not that any of this takes up a significant portion of the film, but it gives some definition to Grant's role that helps show his range. And because he's believable as a desk editor, it makes his decision of whether or not to chase after Bennett something more exciting than it just being a given; there's more tension than this kind of movie usually has, because Grant is conceivable here as both the dedicate newspaper man and the whimsical romantic foil. The movie's finale might be a little over the top after the more grounded middle section, but all of the characters have become so endearing by that point that it really doesn't matter.

Viewed as part of Universal's Vault Collection set, there's good news and bad here. The good news is that the picture is fantastic. This is one of the very best transfers in the set, at least for the visual part. Unfortunately, the audio is marred by that constant hum, which seemed especially pronounced in the opening ten or fifteen minutes. I'm not sure if it got more subtle after that, or if I just got used to it, but it was a bit jarring at the beginning of the movie. I still was able to hear dialogue clearly on top of it, and English subtitles were provided, so it is certainly watchable. But it's not ideal, and as one of the best movies in the set, it's disappointed that its presentation doesn't match its quality.

Audio issue aside, Wedding Present is highly recommended as a light and charming screwball effort from Grant's early period.