Gunga Din (1939)

   "Hollywood, however, even when it was not deliberately repeating itself, repeated itself unconsciously.  Gunga Din is an example of this unconscious repetition."

With Victor McLaglen.

Gunga Din - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Gunga Din, the most expensive picture in the history of RKO, which was last week on the point of emerging from a six-year bankruptcy, unfolds a jolly story about high jinks on India's frontier.  Poor old Gunga Din has small part of the proceedings.  In the first part of the picture he wobbles about carrying a goatskin water bag.  In the last part, he inspires a scared-looking Rudyard Kipling to produce a commemorative poem.  The rest of the time Gunga Din's doings are eclipsed by those of the three agile young sergeants - Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.  The story of Gunga Din appears to be a sort of Anglo-Indian Three Musketeers.  Funny, spectacular, and exciting.  Typical sequence: battle between a regiment of Scots Highlanders and Thug cavalry, filmed on the slopes of Mt. Whitney last summer, with a cast of 900 extras.  

As an individual product of the cinema industry, there is practically nothing to be said against Gunga Din.  First-class entertainment, it will neither corrupt the morals of minors nor affront the intelligence of their seniors.  But unfortunately, Gunga Din is not an isolated example of the cinema industry's majestic mass product.  It is a symbol of Hollywood's current trend.  As such it is as deplorable as it is enlightening.  

Hollywood, however, even when it was not deliberately repeating itself, repeated itself unconsciously.  Gunga Din is an example of this unconscious repetition.  Whatever there is to be said about the minor matter of barrack-room life in India has been more than sufficiently said by the cinema many times, most recently in Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Charge of the Light Brigade and Drums.  

Moving pictures are a vigorous entertainment medium.  There has probably never been a moment in the world's history when more exciting things were going on than in this year of 1939.  That Hollywood can supply no better salute to 1939 than a $2,000,000 rehash, however expert, of Rudyard Kipling and brown Indians in bed sheets, is a sad reflection on its state of mind." 

- Time

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 32 - Gunga Din (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

For more, see also:

Gunga Din, On This Day, 17th February 2022

Gunga Din, On This Day, 17th February 2021

Quote From Today... Room For One More (1952)

"I had to draw it from memory."

Room For One More was Cary Grant's 57th full-length feature film.

Anna Perrott Rose: What's that supposed to be?

George 'Poppy' Rose: A woman.

Anna Perrott Rose: Not a very good likeness...

George 'Poppy' Rose: I had to draw it from memory.

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 57 - Room For One More (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

Quote From Today... His Girl Friday (1940)

"If you had been a gentleman, you would have forgotten all about it. But not you!"

With Rosalind Russell.

His Girl Friday was Cary Grant's 35th full length feature film.

Hildy Johnson: I suppose I proposed to you?

Walter Burns: Well, you practically did, making goo-goo eyes at me for two years until I broke down.

[impersonates Hildy, flutters his eyelashes]

Walter Burns: "Oh, Walter." And I still claim I was tight the night I proposed to you. If you had been a gentleman, you would have forgotten all about it. But not you!

Hildy Johnson: [hurls her purse at him] Why, you! !...

Walter Burns: [ducks and her purse barely misses him] You're losing your eye. You used to be able to pitch better than that.

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 35 - His Girl Friday (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

Quote From Today... The Grass is Greener (1960)

  

"Oh. You mean you prefer to be unhappy

 and abnormal."

With Robert Mitchum

The Grass is Greener was Cary Grant's 68th full-length feature film.

Trevor Sellers, the Butler: I wonder if I might have a word with you, Milord.

Victor Rhyall, Earl: So do I, so we're both probably right. Now what's the matter, Sellers?

Trevor Sellers, the Butler: As I told you, Milord, I haven't any work to do.

Victor Rhyall, Earl: What about your novel, why aren't you working at that?

Trevor Sellers, the Butler: I'm stuck badly. Nearly tore the whole thing up last night.

Victor Rhyall, Earl: Oh, now, now, you mustn't do that! What's the trouble?

Trevor Sellers, the Butler: Almost certainly the basic trouble is myself. I'm fundamentally happy and contented. That's bad enough, of course. But on top of that, I'm normal. And that's fatal.

Victor Rhyall, Earl: Oh. You mean you prefer to be unhappy and abnormal.

Trevor Sellers, the Butler: Of course! You see, I want to be a success, and to be a success, one must at least start off by being modern. And like yourself, Milord, I'm not. It means I have no feelings of insecurity or frustration. No despair.

Victor Rhyall, Earl: And that's essential?

Trevor Sellers, the Butler: The first essential! I feel perfectly content, really rather blameless, and hardly resent anything at all!

Victor Rhyall, Earl: Well, you are in a pickle, aren't you? Well now, you must have known all that when you gave up teaching to become a writer! You answered my advertisement for a butler, and when I asked you what your qualifications were you said you had a degree in science. Now in spite of such a ludicrous recommendation I engaged you, partly because you told me you wanted to write a novel. Luckily you turned out very well. Now, why don't you go back to your typewriter and take another crack at this, Sellers, might do you good. You might feel better now!

Quote From Today... Alice in Wonderland (1933)

   

"...because he taught us,..."

With William Austin and Charlotte Henry.

Alice in Wonderland was Cary Grant's 13th full-length feature film.

Alice: Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?

Mock Turtle: We called him Tortoise because he taught us, really you are very dull!”

Quote From Today... Operation Petticoat (1959)

"Well, I like to think we can, but then, I'm an incurable optimist."

With Tony Curtis.

Operation Petticoat was Cary Grant's 67th full length feature film.

Operation Petticoat (1959)

Lt. Nicholas Holden: The scuttlebutt is that we're going to try to submerge at daybreak, and I figured if you've got to go, you might as well go big.

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Mr. Holden, it's past daybreak, and we are submerged.

Lt. Nicholas Holden: We are?

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: We are.

Lt. Nicholas Holden: You mean, we're under?

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Yes.

Lt. Nicholas Holden: Well, it isn't a permanent situation, er... What I'm trying to say is, I mean, we can come up if we like to.

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Well, I like to think we can, but then, I'm an incurable optimist.

Lt. Nicholas Holden: What happens, sir, if we, er... What happens if we can't...?

[he motions upward]

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: Oh, well, if we can't, er...

[he motions upward]

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: ..., then, we, er...

[he motions downward]

Quote From Today.... The Awful Truth (1937)

"With a minute to go, Dad had the ball..."

With Molly Lamont and Irene Dunne.

The Awful Truth was Cary Grant's 29th full length feature film.

Lucy Warriner: [pretending to be Jerry's lower-class sister "Lola" at a gathering with his girlfriend's family] I'm sorry to interrupt you again, Jerry. Now, what were you saying?

Jerry Warriner: I was just telling one of Father's stories. You've heard it. With a minute to go, Dad had the ball...

Lucy Warriner: -A ball? What ball?

Jerry Warriner: -The football.

Lucy Warriner: Well, what in the world was Dad ever doing with a football, for heaven's sakes?

Jerry Warriner: I was just telling a story about when Father was at Princeton. You remember...

Lucy Warriner: [suddenly very enthused] Oh, Pop loved Princeton! He was there nearly 20 years, and if ever a man loved a place, he did. He just adored it. And he certainly kept it looking beautiful!

Quote From Today... Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

"Look, Aunt Martha, men don't just get into window seats and die!"

With Josephine Hull and Jean Adair.

Arsenic and Old Lace was Cary Grant's 47th full length feature film.

Mortimer Brewster: Look, Aunt Martha, men don't just get into window seats and die!

Abby Brewster: We know, dear. He died first.

Mortimer Brewster: Wait a minute! Stop all this. Now, look, darling, how did he die?

Abby Brewster: Oh, Mortimer, don't be so inquisitive. The gentleman died because he drank some wine with poison in it.

Mortimer Brewster: How did the poison get in the wine?

Martha Brewster: Well, we put it in wine, because it's less noticeable. When it's in tea, it has a distinct odor.

Mortimer Brewster: You mean, you... You put it in the wine!

Abby Brewster: Yes. And I put Mr. Hoskins in the window seat, because Reverend Harper was coming.

Mortimer Brewster: Now, look at me, darling. You mean, you mean you knew what you'd done and you didn't want the Reverend Harper to see the body?

Abby Brewster: Well, not at tea. That wouldn't have been very nice.

Mortimer Brewster: Oh, it's first-degree.

Abby Brewster: Now, Mortimer, you know all about it and just forget about it. I do think that Aunt Martha and I have the right to our own little secrets.

Quote From Today.... My Favorite Wife (1940)

  "Why should I bore you with details?"

With Irene Dunne and Donald MacBride.

My Favorite Wife was Cary Grant's 36th full length feature film.

Nick Arden: I came here with my wife... hum... my bride really. Now my wife, not my bride... my wife... Why should I bore you with details?

Hotel clerk: I won't be bored.

Nick Arden: Listen, it's just simple as A B C.

Hotel clerk: Don't tell me you got someone in B?

Quote From Today... Once Upon a Time (1944)

"What does the public need in times like these? Escape!"

With  James Gleason.

Once Upon a Time was Cary Grant's 45th full length feature film.

Jerry Flynn: What does the public need in times like these? Escape!

Quote From Today... Penny Serenade (1941)

  "I didn't know babies were so-so little. And then she took a-hold of my finger and I held onto it. She-she just sort of walked into my heart Judge"

With Beulah Bondi and Wallis Clark.     .

Penny Serenade was Cary Grant's 39th full length feature film.

Judge: [Judge firmly addressing two unseen attorneys] I'll give you an opportunity to better prepare your facts.

Man: [Hands Judge some papers] Adoption proceedings, the Adams case.

Judge: What?

Man: The Adams case.

Judge: [Looks disturbed] Oh yes, yes. Uh...

[turns back to attorneys]

Judge: ...if either one or both of you gentlemen conduct yourselves like you've been doing today I'll hold you in contempt, the both of ya!

Judge: [Walks into chambers, sees Roger, Miss Oliver, and the baby all seated. Sits at desk] Uh, oh this is the child in question. Ahem, let me see. Yes, I recall looking over these adoption papers. I see you have no income at present.

[Looks at Roger]

Judge: Is that correct?

Roger Adams: Yes your Honor.

Judge: Now what is this Miss Oliver? You know this case should never have come before me.

Miss Oliver: Well your Honor I feel that this is a special case. I kept hoping until the last minute Mr. Adams might be able to resume the operation of his paper or get a job. But unfortunately he hasn't been able to do either, so i thought...

Judge: Under these conditions I can't grant the adoption. This child will have to revert to the orphanage.

[Gestures to Roger]

Judge: Will you draw up a chair please while I prepare these release papers for you to sign? Just a matter of routine.

Roger Adams: If you please your Honor, it can't just be a matter of routine for people to have their baby taken away from them. This child is ours Judge...

Judge: [Interrupting] Those are the requirements of the law.

Roger Adams: Yes but you see we've had her since she was six weeks old. It just doesn't seem reasonable to give her back to-to-to strangers.

Judge: Mr. Adams, you're not here to plead your case. You've had the regular opportunity to prove your fitness to provide.

Roger Adams: We are *fit* Judge if you just look at the record.

Judge: Without any income I have no alternative. Didn't you make that clear Miss Oliver?

Miss Oliver: Yes your Honor I did, but I thought...

Judge: [Firmly] I'm sorry but that is the law.

Roger Adams: Look your Honor, she's not like an automobile or an icebox or a piece of furniture or something you buy on time and when you can't give up the payments they take it away from you!

[Baby starts to cry]

Roger Adams: Now sit still and be a good girl. Anyone could give up those kinds of things, but I ask you Judge how can you give up your own child? And she is our child just as much as if she'd been born to us!

[Baby continues crying]

Roger Adams: Now, now, Daddy's not going to go away.

[Baby stops crying and smiles]

Roger Adams: Look Judge, we've had her over a year now. Why we-we walked the floor with her when she had the colic. We've lost nights of sleep worrying every time she cut a tooth. We've gone through everything, everything real parents have with one of their own. Ask Miss Oliver here about the inspections we've had to have. Her-her weight charts, her vaccination certificates, h-her toys, her toothbrush! How many parents could keep one of their own and

[voice cracks]

Roger Adams: go through that? And you sit here and say it's a matter of routine for you to take her away from us.

Miss Oliver: Please! Mr. Adams...

Roger Adams: I'm sorry Judge, but we weren't as fortunate as most people. We would've had one of our own only-only... well you don't know how badly my wife wanted a child. It wasn't so important to me. I-I don't know, I suppose most men are like this but children never meant a great deal to me. Oh I liked them alright I suppose, but well what I'm trying to say is your Honor the first time I saw her... she looked so little and helpless. I didn't know babies were so-so little. And then she took a-hold of my finger and I held onto it. She-she just sort of walked into my heart Judge

[begins to cry]

Roger Adams: and-and she was there to stay. I didn't know I could feel like that! I'd always been well, kind of careless and irresponsible. I wanted to be a big shot. And I couldn't work for anybody, I had to be my own boss, that sort of thing. Now here I am standing in front of a judge pleading for just a little longer so that I can prove to you I can support a little child that doesn't weigh quite twenty pounds. It's not only for my wife and me I'm asking you to let us keep her Judge, it's for her sake too. She doesn't know any parents but us.

[starts sobbing]

Roger Adams: She wouldn't know what'd happened to her. You see there's so many little things about her that nobody would understand her the way Judy and I do. We love her Judge, please don't take her away from us. Look, I'm not a big shot now, I-I'll do anything, I'll work for anybody.

[Starts to break down]

Roger Adams: I-I'll beg, I'll borrow, I-I'll... please Judge I'll sell anything I've got until I get going again. And she'll never go hungry, she'll never be without clothes not so long as I've got two good hands so help me!

[Camera fades out as Judge, Roger, and Miss Oliver all ponder what has just been said]

On This Day... Room For One More (1952)

Cary Grant's 57th full length feature film, Room For One More, was released today, back in 1952. 

Summary: 

The Rose family is anything but the average American family. With four children plus an assortment of stray animals, they still manage to find Room For One More. The parents of three children and two more adopted, George Rose (Cary Grant) and his enthusiastic wife, Anna (Betsy Drake), already lead busy lives. But when homeless children need love and understanding, this special couple open their hearts and their home. Inspired by a true story, this charming family comedy celebrates life and love.

Cast:

Cary Grant...George Rose

Betsy Drake...Anna Perrott Rose

Lurene Tuttle...Miss Kenyon

Randy Stuart...Gladys Foreman

John Ridgely...Harry Foreman

Irving Bacon...Mayor Michael J. Kane

Mary Treen...Grace Roberts (as Mary Lou Treen)

Iris Mann...Jane Miller

George Winslow...Teenie

Clifford Tatum Jr....Jimmy John Wilson

Gay Gordon...Trot

Malcolm Cassell...Tim

Larry Olsen...Benji Roberts

Did You Know?

The $25.00 for Jane's formal gown equated to nearly $250.00 in 2020.

When George opens the book of "collected poems" he gave his son as a birthday present, the visible pages are clearly prose, not poetry.

Instead of the traditional "The End", this film ends with the French word "Bonsoir", which means "Good Evening" and is repeatedly said by the Cary Grant's character during the movie.

Quotes:

George 'Poppy' Rose: [to the dog after the kids give an anonymous vote] It was anonymous eh? Who did you vote for?

George 'Poppy' Rose: [Trying to get past a boy and Jane eating donuts on a crowded staircase] I hate to come between you and the donuts, but that's life.

George 'Poppy' Rose: [as raft self inflates under his desk and he's trying to hold it down] I'm holding down more than I can handle as it is.

Anna Perrott Rose: This child has been through a lot. She's a disturbed adolescent.

George 'Poppy' Rose: I'm a disturbed adult.

Posters and Lobby Cards:

Directed by Norman Taurog.

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Running time: 97 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...Enter Madame (1935)

 Cary Grant's 18th full length film, Enter Madame, was released on this day in 1935.

Summary:

Gerald Fitzgerald (Cary Grant) is an avid fan of opera.  He loves watching talented and beautiful Lisa Della Robbia (Elissa Landi). When they accidentally meet, the two end up falling in love. Having married quickly, Gerald soon starts to realize he is second place to his wife's career and it isn't much fun.

Cast:

Elissa Landi...Lisa Della Robbia

Cary Grant...Gerald Fitzgerald

Lynne Overman...Mr. Farnum

Sharon Lynn...Flora Preston (as Sharon Lynne)

Michelette Burani...Bice

Paul Porcasi...Archimede

Adrian Rosley ...Doctor

Cecilia Parker...Aline Chalmers

Frank Albertson...John Fitzgerald

Wilfred Hari...Tamamoto

Torben Meyer...Carlson

Harold Berquist...Bjorgenson

Diana Lewis...Operator

Richard Bonelli...Scorpia in 'La Tosca'

Ann Sheridan...Flora's Shipboard Friend (as Clara Lou Sheridan)

Did You Know?

Enter Madame was based on a play written by Gilda Varesi Archibald, Charles Brackett and Dorothea Donn-Byrne.  Charles Brackett also contributed to the writing of such films as Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959).

Featured Clara Lou Sheridan in an early role.  Clara Lou Sheridan would later change her name to Ann Sheridan, eventually starring along side Cary Grant in 'I Was a Male War Bride'.

Quotes:

Mr. Farnum: Think you can take it?

Gerald Fitzgerald: What do you mean?

Mr. Farnum: I mean, have you any idea what it's like being married to an opera singer?

Gerald Fitzgerald: Sure. I think I'm the luckiest man in the world.

Mr. Farnum: You'll have to be.

Lisa Della Robbia: Farnum, what a horrible thing to say.

Mr. Farnum: I'm not talking against you, madame. It's your job.

Archimede: Those truffles have come from my farm in Tuscany. Rigoletto and I hunted for them last June. He with his nose and I with my stick - to hit him on the nose when he find the truffle. He loves truffles, Rigoletto

Flora Preston: Mercy! Who is Rigoletto? Your son?

Archimede: No. My pig, Madame

[laughs]

Archimede: A great hunter of truffles, my Rigoletto

Flora Preston: What a strange name for a pig

Archimede: Why not, Madame? He enjoys it, poor fellow. It gives him some style before the other pigs. My cow, I name her Aida; my ox: Don Giovanni. Oh, they're all very pleased.

Posters and Lobby Card:

Directed by Elliot Nugent.

Produced by Paramount Publix.

Running time: 83 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.

On This Day... Suspicion (1941)

 Cary Grant's 40th full length film, Suspicion, was released on this day in 1941.

Summary:

Handsome gambler, Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) seems to live by borrowing money from friends. While trying to travel in a first class train car with a third class ticket, he meets shy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine). After a short courtship, they marry but, after the honeymoon, she starts to become suspicious when Johnnie's friend and business partner, Beaky, is mysteriously killed...

Cast:

Cary Grant...Johnnie

Joan Fontaine...Lina

Cedric Hardwicke...General McLaidlaw (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)

Nigel Bruce...Beaky

May Whitty...Mrs. McLaidlaw (as Dame May Whitty)

Isabel Jeans...Mrs. Newsham

Heather Angel...Ethel [Maid]

Auriol Lee...Isobel Sedbusk

Reginald Sheffield...Reggie Wetherby

Leo G. Carroll ...Captain Melbeck

Did You Know?

Based on the 1932 novel "Before the Fact", by Francis Iles, which was the pen name for Anthony Berkeley.  There are many differences between the movie and the novel. Johnnie Aysgarth's infidelity is not featured in this movie: Lina's best friend, with whom Johnnie has an affair, does not appear at all. In the novel, the maid Ella has an illegitimate son by Johnnie.

At the "milk scene", all the ladders are dark but the glass shines because Alfred Hitchcock put a little bulb inside the milk with a battery for the enhancing the impression.

In interviews, Alfred Hitchcock said that an RKO executive ordered that all scenes in which Cary Grant appeared menacing be excised from the movie. When the cutting was completed, the movie ran only fifty-five minutes. The scenes were later restored, Hitchcock said, because he shot each piece of film so that there was only one way to edit them together properly. This is a technique called 'in-camera editing', a trick Hitchcock had already employed a year before during filming of Rebecca (1940), to prevent producer David O. Selznick from interfering with the final cut of the movie.

Quotes:

Johnnie: Well, well. You're the first woman I've ever met who said yes when she meant yes.

Johnnie: Your hair's all wrong. It has such wonderful possibilities that I, well, I got excited. For the moment I became a, a passionate hairdresser.

Lina: Why are you frank with me, because I'm... different?

Johnnie: No, no, it isn't that. I'm honest because with you I think it's the best way to get results.

Johnnie: Darling, you're not shivering, are you?

Lina: I have a bit of a chill.

Johnnie: Cold in all this sunshine? Well, let me warm you up. My poor little shivering baby. How do you feel now? Better?

Lina: Much.

Johnnie: Good. Perhaps this will help.

[Johnnie takes Lina and kisses her passionately]

Johnnie: What do you think of me by contrast to your horse?

Lina: If I ever got the bit between your teeth, I'd have no trouble in handling you at all.

Lobby Cards and Posters:

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Produced by RKO Radio.

Running time: 99 minutes

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.