On This Day...The Last Outpost (1935)

 The Last Outpost was Cary Grant's 20th full length feature film and was released today in 1935.

Synopsis:

In World War I, British-officer Michael Andrews (Cary Grant) is captured by a band of Kurdish raiders on the Eastern Front, and is rescued by a man calling himself John Stevenson (Claude Rains), although he refuses to tell his name to Andrews. 

The two men form a strange friendship, and help save an entire Kurdish village from a massacre and also avert a surprise attack on the British army-unit stationed there. Andrews suffers a wounded leg and is sent to the British military-hospital in Cairo. He falls in love with a nurse, Rosemary Haydon (Gertrude Michael), and she with him, but she is married although she has not seen nor heard from her husband in over three years. 

It is at this point that the man who saved Andrews' life turns up to claim his wife, who is Rosemary. The latter bids adieu to Andrews who does not know that the man he considers his best friend is also the husband of the woman he loves. But, by pure coincidence and chance, both Andrews and Rosemary's husband come face-to-face again in a remote garrison that is under an attack that appears to have the possibility of no survivors among the fort defenders.

"Mr. Claude Rains as the secret service agent in Turkish uniform and Mr. Cary Grant as the incurably light-minded and rather stupid British officer whom he rescues from the Kurds both act extremely well." - Graham Greene, The Spectator.

"To Cary Grant, Claude Rains and Gertrude Michael fall the assignment of giving life and conviction to the romantic segment of the plot. They all do well by their roles." - Ben Bodec, Variety

Did You Know ?:

Stock footage from Four Feathers (1929) is used to augment the battle scenes in the later half of the film.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Michael Andrews
Gertrude Michael...Rosemary
Claude Rains...John Stevenson
Margaret Swope...Nurse Rowland
Jameson Thomas...Cullen
Nick Shaid...Haidar
Kathleen Burke...Ilya
Colin Tapley...Lieutenant Prescott
Billy Bevan...Private Foster
Claude King...General

Lobby Cards:

International Posters:

Directed by Charles Barton and Lois Gasnier.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Running time: 75 minutes.

On This Day...Notorious (1946)

Today, in 1946, Cary Grant's 49th full length feature film was released...Notorious!

In his second of four film collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Grant played agent T.R. Devlin.

Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, who agrees to infiltrate a German chemical cartel.

She gets close to the organisations head man (Claude Rains); eventually she marries him. 

The problem; she is in love with Devlin.

"With a highly polished script by Ben Hecht, and with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to bring glamour and sultry vitality to the leads, Mr. Hitchcock has fashioned a film in the supercharged American idiom of the sort that made Casablanca popular." - Theatre Arts Magazine

There are a few interesting facts about Notorious.

Ian Flemimg, having seen the film was inspired to create his James Bond character, based on Cary Grant.

Years later, Grant would turn down the role as Bond in Dr. No, because he didn't want to sign up for a multi-picture deal.

 

Another point of interest is the nearly three minute kissing scene, shared by Bergman and Grant.

Why interesting? Well the filmmakers were under the Hays Code.

(see previous blog: Cary Grant and the Pre-code Era)

This meant that a kiss could not be open mouthed or last for longer than three seconds.

Hitchcock was able to get around this by having the kiss interrupted, but for only the shortest length of time. It therefore gave the impression of a much longer kiss.

Cast:

Devlin                             Cary Grant

Alicia Huberman             Ingrid Bergman

Alexander Sebastian       Claude Rains

Paul Prescott                  Louis Calhern

Mme. Sebastian              Madame Konstantin

"Dr. Anderson"               Reinhold Schunzel

Walter Beardsley            Moroni Olsen

Eric Mathis                     Ivan Triesault

Joseph                            Alex Minotis

Mr. Hopkins                    Wally Brown

Ernest Weylin                 Gavin Gordon

Commodore                    Sir Charles Mendl

Dr. Barbosa                     Ricardo Costa

Hupka                             Eberhard Krumschmidt

Ethel                               Fay Baker  

With Ingrid Bergman, Madame Konstantin and Claude Rains.

On set with Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman.

Lobby Cards:

Media Release:

Directed and Produced by Alfred Hitchcock.

Distributed by RKO Radio.

Running Time: 103 minutes.