Grant Me One Favor!

by Anna Campbell

Last month, I was totally self-indulgent and put up some gorgeous fashion photos of the first real supermodel Lisa Fonssagrives (check out the pics here if you missed it, they really are beautiful: http://authorsoundrelations.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/gorgeous-fashion-photos.html).

Very kindly, a lot of you said how much you enjoyed the post so I thought I'd be self-indulgent again and talk about one of my favorite movie stars as a tribute to my late mother.

Part of the reason for this is that yesterday would have been her 84th birthday. So happy birthday, Mum! Here's Cary, just for you! A list of six of the best!

He played with all the great leading ladies and often more than once. I had to start with the wonderful pairing from AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) with Deborah Kerr. This was my mother's favorite movie. I can't tell you how many times she watched it. It's lush and romantic and witty and elegant and altogether one of the best love stories ever on film. I dare you not to cry!

Alfred Hitchcock loved working with Cary Grant who starred for the master all through his career from SUSPICION in 1941 through to NORTH BY NORTHWEST in 1959. One of the sexiest of those films features a very distinguished, older Cary Grant romancing a smart-mouthed and beautiful Grace Kelly, TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). The scene where Grace scares the life out of him driving like a maniac along the Grande Corniche cliff tops is particularly memorable. Look at that picture. Can't you just feel the chemistry sizzling between them? Just as an aside, my mother couldn't stand Grace Kelly! Thought she was a cold fish.

The next photo down is from my favorite film that Hitchcock did with CG and one of my favorite films ever, the sexy, romantic and passionate NOTORIOUS (1946).There's an amazing kiss scene towards the beginning where because censorship codes forbade kisses lasting more than a few seconds, CG and a luminous Ingrid Bergman kiss each other multiple times for 2.5 minutes, each kiss only lasting a few seconds. Phew! It's a very hot 2.5 minutes! If you haven't seen this film, get it. It's one of the best.

Another pairing of Cary Grant with a much younger actress that created cinematic fireworks is CHARADE (1963) where CG's costar is the radiant Audrey Hepburn. It's a really clever script with everybody doublecrossing everybody else and features some of the wittiest dialogue I've ever heard.

All of these films so far feature Cary in his suave man of the world persona. But one of the many things I love about Cary Grant is that he could play broad comedy better than nearly anyone else I can think of. Earlier in his career, in particular, he displayed his faultless timing and willingness to set himself up for a prat fall in a number of sparkling, uproarious comedies.

I couldn't do a piece on CG and not include BRINGING UP BABY (1938). He was the perfect bumbling, other-worldly, charmingly naive archeologist to Katharine Hepburn's madcap heiress who has a pet leopard, the Baby of the title. Classic slapstick!

I was torn for a last film between THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, HOUSEBOAT, THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER and MY FAVORITE WIFE. I ended up choosing MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940) partly because Cary plays a man who finds the shenanigans of the women in his life completely bewildering in so many films, and this picture encapsulates his reactions perfectly.

Cary Grant is about to remarry after having lost his wife seven years earlier in a plane crash. Mayhem ensues when said wife, Irene Dunne, turns up out of the blue, alive. It emerges that she's been stuck on a tropical island with the very dishy Randolph Scott. Brilliantly clever script where every step the characters takes just digs them deeper into the holes they're in. They don't write films like that anymore!

So let's talk old movies. Do you like Cary Grant?
What's your favorite Cary Grant movie? Do you have another favorite male lead from the Golden Years of Hollywood?   

I'm actually going to be off the internet for a little while because I'm attending my oldest friend's birthday party.  I will however swing back to respond to comments late tonight, U.S. time. I'd love to hear your thoughts.