Showing posts with label Cary Grant. Show all posts

Images

| Published Monday, 30 March 2015

Margo McKendry reads lines with Cary Grant in his office, 1961.

Margo McKendry reads lines with Cary Grant in his office, 1961


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Images

| Published Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant during the radio production of Theodora Goes Wild, 1943


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Images

| Published Wednesday, 23 July 2014







“Among the fellow passengers were newlyweds Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Mary Pickford, the world’s most popular honeymooners and the first film stars I ever met. […] I found myself being photographed with Mr. Fairbanks during a game of shuffleboard. As I stood beside him I tried with shy, inadequate words to tell him of my adulation. He was a splendidly trained athlete and acrobat, affable and warmed by success and well-being. A gentleman in the true sense of the word […] I’ve doggedly striven to keep tanned ever since, only because of a desire to emulate his healthful appearance.” – Cary Grant in his autobiography, Archie Leach
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Images

| Published Friday, 20 June 2014










Cary Grant mimes a striptease for Ginger Rogers in Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)

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Cary Grant

Cary Grant, 1970s


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Images

| Published Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Cary Grant

Cary Grant


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Images

| Published Monday, 16 June 2014








I swear this is the moment we first see ‘Cary Grant’ - the charm, the deep thought behind the eyes, the ambiguity - ugh so amazing...


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Images

| Published Sunday, 15 June 2014

Cary Grant, "Cary Grant", and Bob Hope

Cary Grant, "Cary Grant", and Bob Hope


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Images

| Published Friday, 13 June 2014

Cary Grant in Charade

Cary Grant on the set of Charade (1959)


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Images

| Published Thursday, 12 June 2014

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman for Notorious (1946)


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Quotes

| Published Tuesday, 10 June 2014

No money, no material reward is comparable to the praise, the shouts of well done and accompanying pat on the back of one's fellowman. Applause and laughter in the theater have a similar effect; and sometimes, today, I stand with Russell Downing, the manager of the finest, largest cinema in the world, the Radio City Music Hall in New York, in a quiet darkened corner, and listen to that huge audience roaring with laughter at something I've done, the tilt of my head or a facial reaction, and joy seems to burst within me.
To think that all those people, for even a moment, were able to forget their personal problems and troubles and concertedly laugh with or at me. [...]
-Cary Grant in his autobiography, Archie Leach


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Book Review: Archie Leach by Cary Grant, pt 2

| Published Monday, 9 June 2014



 

Well, I finished it, the story of a boy called Archie. It didn’t take me long, either – I couldn’t put it down – but I’ve been procrastinating about writing the review.

I enjoyed it so much. The voice is so unique: wry, self-deprecating, sometimes insecure and cynical. Full of warm, keen human insight. The distinctive tone: lively, thoughtful, poignant, mixed with sunshine and goofy wordplay.  

One of the things that struck me was the storyline – unusual for a biography, it’s written in such a non-linear fashion. He recalls a scene from his childhood, then relates it to some recent event, then goes off on a philosophical tangent. And then says ‘let’s see, where were we’. It’s like sitting beside someone listening to them free-associate about their life. It’s charming and refreshingly different.

Remarkably missing are any anecdotes from the film set. None whatsoever. No “when I was on [insert famous film], [insert famous director] did this or that funny thing”. It’s a personal biography, and he seems to have put his work on films in a completely different category. His daughter said that when she grew up he never referred to his film career, never talked about it, no funny stories of “I remember when”. This has the same feel. It’s the inner life of the man.

His childhood and younger years as a ragtag vaudevillian takes up a lot of space. He recalls it in detail, and it’s something you couldn’t make up – the astounding rags-to-riches-ness of it – how Hollywood’s leading man spent his first summer in America on the edge of destitution, eking out a living as a stilt-walker, and before that, in a miserable, Dickensian childhood in working-class Bristol. And running through every line, at every juncture there is the gritty self-reliance and grim determination of a lonely kid determined to make his half-formed dream a reality. Inspiring stuff.

(Incidentally, it’s interesting how English writers associate their memories of a miserable childhood with the cold and the damp. As if it’s a metaphysical chill that they spend their whole lives trying to shake off.)
Remarkably frank, Grant talks about his first three marriages and why they went wrong. His succinct phrases often contain love and bitterness in equal measure. His third wife, Betsy Drake, with whom he had ten happy years before things went south, is “the dear wife who recently divorced me”. 

He discusses his use of LSD combined with psychotherapy. Here is where he lost me a bit – he’s effusive about the benefits of this wonder drug. But the next time I see my shrink I’m not going to ask her to give me LSD to speed up the process.

On the other hand, it worked for him. And he concludes that part of the autobiography with some genuinely profound and beautiful thoughts. One that especially touched me was “In life there is no end to getting well”. Whether that’s applied to physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual health, it’s a beautiful and deeply hopeful thought. 

As I’ve probably hinted, I have a deep love and appreciation for Cary Grant and his art. His films have made me laugh through many, many a miserable day. And so I feel privileged to have read this autobiography. I’m glad he chose to share these thoughts with the world.

Well, I could go on all night but I want to publish this and if I go on much longer I’ll be too effusive for my own good. So just go on and read it already. Here’s the link. Leave a comment and tell me if you enjoyed it.

I took notes as I was reading, and at the end of the page I’ve jotted down, “I would so love to have known this person!!!!” And that sums it up, really.


The first part of this review is here.
For all Cary Grant posts, click here, and to see all Old Hollywood posts, here.

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