The Cary Grant List

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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DarkImbecile
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#201 Post by DarkImbecile » Wed Apr 21, 2021 10:00 am

TMDaines wrote:
Wed Apr 21, 2021 9:54 am
I goofed and missed off Notorious, which should have been sixth for me. I wonder if that would have changed the overall #1 and #2? It certainly would have therefore been included on everyone's ballot!

As usual, I only included those films which meet my particular quality threshold:

#1) Only Angels Have Wings (1939 - Howard Hawks)
#2) Suspicion (1941 - Alfred Hitchcock)
#3) North by Northwest (1959 - Alfred Hitchcock)
#4) Charade (1963 - Stanley Donen)
#5) His Girl Friday (1940 - Howard Hawks)
---- #6) Notorious (1946 - Alfred Hitchcock)
#7) The Awful Truth (1937 - Leo McCarey)
#8) I Was a Male War Bride (1949 - Howard Hawks)
#9) In Name Only (1939 - John Cromwell)
#10) Blonde Venus (1932 - Josef von Sternberg)
#11) The Philadelphia Story (1940 - George Cukor)
#12) To Catch a Thief (1955 - Alfred Hitchcock)
#13) Bringing Up Baby (1938 - Howard Hawks)
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Shrew
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#202 Post by Shrew » Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:46 pm

Thanks again to Domino and Imbecile (how's that for a comedy team).

1) His Girl Friday
2) Only Angels Have Wings
3) Holiday
4) Notorious
5) I Was a Male War Bride
6) North by Northwest
7) Charade
8) Suspicion
9) Gunga Din
10) The Bishop’s Wife
11) Bringing Up Baby
12) To Catch a Thief
13) Crisis
14) Kiss Them For Me
15) Thirty-Day Princess
16) Kiss and Make Up
17) The Awful Truth
18) Blonde Venus
19) The Grass Is Greener
20) An Affair to Remember

The Worst:
Howards of Virginia--Blus was right. This film is awful, its heroes are all awful, and even Grant is awful (just constant shouting).
Operation Petticoat
Every Girl Should Be Married--In which Betsy Drake makes Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby seem sane, and without the compensation of zany energy to boot. Still, this and Room for One More indicate that while Drake wasn't a good actress, she did seem to have knack for hitting some strange borderland between passive-aggression and obliviousness, which makes her perfectly disquieting in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Not Seen: Madame Butterfly, Alice in Wonderland, Suzy, The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss, When You're in Love, Toast of New York, Once Upon a Time, None but the Lonely Heart, The Pride and the Passion
Toland's Mitchell wrote:
Mon Apr 19, 2021 2:20 pm
I can see both sides of that debate. I've watched 35 Cary Grant movies, which admittedly is not even close to his total filmography. However, from what I've seen he often played similar characters, the charming gentleman. I don't recall him ever playing a villain (although Suspicion provided a villainous perspective from the main character that wound up being false in the end, so does that count?). Was he a villain anywhere else? Did he ever star in a Western? These aren't rhetorical questions, I'm curious to know more about what I haven't seen yet. Nevertheless, I wouldn't say this is evidence of lack of talent. On the contrary, I'd say he was very talented at what he did, and his body of work adds up to one of the finest in Hollywood history.
I think Sinners in the Sun is the only time Grant played a true villain (cad who pursues the heroine while his ex commits suicide), he's a heel if not villain in The Eagle and the Hawk, and there's other nebulous gray roles (Sylvia Scarlett). But this project gave me an appreciation for how much Grant was able to stretch his persona--the charming gentleman, but able to push it up to domineering, near toxic levels (His Girl Friday), repress it until it pops like a cork (Bringing Up Baby), hone it till it just projects confidence (Destination Tokyo, Crisis) or even downright saintliness (Bishop's Wife, People Will Talk), or flatten it till its essentially a blank canvas to project onto (Charade). Tom Hanks usually gets named as the heir to Jimmy Stewart, but I think Grant may the truer antecedent.

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Toland's Mitchell
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#203 Post by Toland's Mitchell » Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:48 pm

Shrew wrote:
Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:46 pm
I think Sinners in the Sun is the only time Grant played a true villain (cad who pursues the heroine while his ex commits suicide), he's a heel if not villain in The Eagle and the Hawk, and there's other nebulous gray roles (Sylvia Scarlett). But this project gave me an appreciation for how much Grant was able to stretch his persona--the charming gentleman, but able to push it up to domineering, near toxic levels (His Girl Friday), repress it until it pops like a cork (Bringing Up Baby), hone it till it just projects confidence (Destination Tokyo, Crisis) or even downright saintliness (Bishop's Wife, People Will Talk), or flatten it till its essentially a blank canvas to project onto (Charade). Tom Hanks usually gets named as the heir to Jimmy Stewart, but I think Grant may the truer antecedent.
Funny, I was talking with somebody recently about who was Hanks's antecedent, Stewart or Grant. I don't see a very strong connection between Hanks and Stewart, as others do. I don't know Grant is more accurate but it's an apples-oranges comparison. Anyway, I agree playing his similar persona film-to-film doesn't mean he channeled it the same way every time, and also doesn't mean he didn't convincingly display a wide range of emotions. And those require talent. I can see where hearthesilence's friend was coming from noting a lack of variety in his characters, but I wouldn't equate it with lack of talent.

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hearthesilence
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#204 Post by hearthesilence » Fri May 07, 2021 4:21 pm

I never got around to this, but FWIW, these are pretty much my ten favorite Cary Grant films/performances. Ranked by performance, but it can only be a loose ranking - I think Suspicion may very well have his greatest film performance, but it feels ridiculous nitpicking among those first five performances in terms of determining which is "best."

Suspicion (1941, Hitchcock)
His Girl Friday (1940, Hawks)
The Awful Truth (1937, McCarey)
An Affair to Remember (1957, McCarey)
Notorious (1946, Hitchcock)
North by Northwest (1959, Hitchcock)
Bringing Up Baby (1938, Hawks)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Hawks)
Sylvia Scarlett (1935, Cukor)
Holiday (1938, Cukor)

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#205 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri May 07, 2021 4:47 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Fri May 07, 2021 4:21 pm
I never got around to this, but FWIW, these are pretty much my ten favorite Cary Grant films/performances. Ranked by performance, but it can only be a loose ranking - I think Suspicion may very well have his greatest film performance, but it feels ridiculous nitpicking among those last five performances in terms of determining which is "best."

Suspicion (1941, Hitchcock)
His Girl Friday (1940, Hawks)
The Awful Truth (1937, McCarey)
An Affair to Remember (1957, McCarey)
Notorious (1946, Hitchcock)
North by Northwest (1959, Hitchcock)
Bringing Up Baby (1938, Hawks)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939, Hawks)
Sylvia Scarlett (1935, Cukor)
Holiday (1938, Cukor)
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Rayon Vert
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#206 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Jun 20, 2021 5:00 pm

Just rewatched I Was a Male War Bride to view the German blu-ray. Basically the whole film is Cary trying to get a place to sleep!

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therewillbeblus
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#207 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:07 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Sun Jun 20, 2021 5:00 pm
Just rewatched I Was a Male War Bride to view the German blu-ray. Basically the whole film is Cary trying to get a place to sleep!
I've never been able to detect the apparent sexual tension in the film, and instead imagine that Hawks deliberately drained all potential for chemistry through his direction, which creates an offbeat romance in the functional dynamics divorced from the setpieces or gags themselves. It's a pretty genius method, and allows one to observe something like Grant just wanting to sleep with more sobriety to his segregated experience, rather than focusing on his role as integrally connected to the romantic duo (the gender fluidity of characterization assists in this as well- though that seems to necessitate the other party to reflect the conversions by behavioral contrast).

How's the German blu? I had no idea there was one!

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Rayon Vert
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Re: The Cary Grant List

#208 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:52 pm

It's perfectly adequate to my eyes. I think it was domino that clued me in on the fact that it existed. Kind of fitting given where the film takes place!

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