Showing posts with label Myrna Loy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Myrna Loy. Show all posts

Friday, September 1, 2023

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

   "...poor Mr. Grant finds himself doing many things that hardly fit his age."

With Shirley Temple.

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Without taxing or insulting your intelligence, some new comedies are providing some hearty laughs and a good excuse for timely escape into air-cooled cinema palaces.  The plot of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer won't solve any major problems about the younger generation, but its lines are amusing and the members of its handsome cast are bubbling with anxiety to entertain.  Cary Grant is pleasantly coy as the artist-playboy who finds himself squiring a love-sick seventeen-year-old in order to avoid a more trying sentence.  Because Shirley Temple is such an attractive young actress, the task should be considerably lightened for him; but high-school girls these days have extraordinary ideas about how their knights in shining armor should behave and poor Mr. Grant finds himself doing many things that hardly fit his age.  He's a good sport about the whole thing (even during the obstacle race at the picnic) until he realizes how much he prefers Shirley's older sister, played by Myrna Loy, who looks lovely but acts like a cold tomato because she's a female judge who takes herself very seriously indeed.  Rudy Vallee, in another of his clever portraits of a stuffed shirt, is more to her liking - until she too sees Cary lustrous in armor.  Irving Reis has directed his cast for laughs and succeeds in getting them.  Ray Collins, as a court psychiatrist, tries to inject a serious note on the behavior of adolescents who have crushes; but even he succumbs to the spirit of this playful comedy."

Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 50 - The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of


For more, see also:

Quote From Today 1 September 2022

On This Day 1 September 2021

On This Day 1 September 2020

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

   "...you may agree with Grant that anyone who builds these days is crazy..."

With Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas.

Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Next to an exciting mystery or horror film there's nothing so relaxing as a good comedy.  But what makes one man laugh makes the next guy scowl.  I have listed below a few notes on recent pictures that may tickle your funny bone.  Blandings is the only one that had me rolling in the aisles (what a silly figure of speech!), however the others may roll you.  Every man to his own aisle.  

No doubt the secret of Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House is that you see yourself, as this city dweller and his family endure the confinements of a small New York apartment, dream of a home in the country, buy one, get fleeced right and left as they rebuild, but finally survive everything and live to enjoy the place in spite of all the plotting of man and nature against them.  Director H. C. Potter knows people and has given us a series of funny episodes that range from documentary-like shots of New York and its crowded millions to bucolic scenes of the hinterlands complete with the vicissitudes of the open spaces and commuter trains.  Of course Eric Hodgins's original story deserves much of the credit for the fun; scriptwriters Norman Panama and Melvin Frank have broadened the themes, but they have retained the warm humor and clever satire of the Hodgins book.  The cast is excellent: Cary Grant giving one of his best portrayals as the frustrated advertising man, Myrna Loy looking like and acting like the ideal wife, Melvyn Douglas responding as this couple's best friend and lawyer, and a large group of supporting players, not forgetting the real estate agent who knows a sucker when he sees one and he sees one.  The Grant-Loy-Douglas triangle is a little forced, and the film is rather long for its single home-building theme.  But the laughs continue to the end; and while you may agree with Grant that anyone who builds these days is crazy, you are more likely to agree with Douglas that the result is worth it."

Philip T. Hartung, Commonweal

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 52 - Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of



For more, see also:

On This Day, 25th March 2021

Quote From Today, 25th March 2022

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Wings in the Dark (1935)

 "Cary Grant gives a splendid performance as the tragic young flyer..."

With Myrna Loy.

Wings in the Dark - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"After a flying start, literally and figuratively, this film sags in the middle, and then closes on another high note, the net result being a nice little picture for the family trade that, with the Grant-Loy drawing power, will do better than average at the box office.

Cary Grant gives a splendid performance as the tragic young flyer, and Myrna Loy does well with a role not entirely her sort.

Roscoe Karns has a fat part as the girl flier's manager and gets all the laughs possible from it. A delightful surprise is an outstanding bit of work by Hobart Cavanaugh, playing, with a comic Scotch burr, the mechanic pal of Grant.

Dean Jagger, Russell Hopton, and Matt McHugh stand out in bits, and the cast has been well handled by director James Flood. Earl Robinson's handling of the air stuff rates special attention and the photography, both aerial and studio is first rate." 

- The Hollywood Reporter


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 19 - Wings in the Dark (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of


For more, see also:

Wings in the Dark, On This Day, 1st February 2022

Wings in the Dark, On This Day, 1st February 2021


Thursday, September 1, 2022

Quote From Today... The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

  "A wealthy society lady saw my work, fell in love with me and sent me to art school."

With Shirley Temple and Myrna Loy


The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer was Cary Grant's 50th full length feature film.


Susan: Did you have many ordeals before you became a success?

Richard Nugent: No, I...

Susan: You can talk to me. I want you to think of me, not as a newspaper woman, but as a friend.

Richard Nugent: Well, in that case, I'll tell you. I did suffer. When I was 10, my mother and father had a double suicide pact, they made it. I was sent to an orphanage. Some days they didn't beat me. Then one night I escaped, I ran away to New York. I used to steal.

Susan: What did you steal?

Richard Nugent: Beg your pardon?

Susan: What did you steal?

Richard Nugent: Crusts of bread... and things. One time I stole a valise. There were paints and paintbrushes inside. So I began to paint. Then they got me. I was sent to a reform school, but I escaped again.

Susan: Go on.

Richard Nugent: Back to new York. A wealthy society lady saw my work, fell in love with me and sent me to art school. The rest is history.

Susan: How wonderful. How terribly wonderful.

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

On This Day...The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer(1947)

 Today, in 1947, Cary Grant released his 50th full length feature film...The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer.


Cary Grant is "The Bachelor" artist Richard Nugent, who in order to avoid being sentenced by Judge Turner (Myrna Loy) opts for the lesser sentence of escorting her younger sister Susan (Shirley Temple).


For the film's release in Great Britain the title was changed "Bachelor Knight"!


It was the second film that Cary Grant made with Myrna Loy. They made three in total, Wings In The Dark(1935), The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer(1947) and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House(1948).


"The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer is a nice, clean, sunny old-fashioned farce...Cary Grant has now developed a characterization that is constant, fool-proof, engaging, hardy and warranted to be attractive." - Shirley O'Hara, The New Republic


"Cary Grant is pleasantly coy as the artist-playboy..." - Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal


Cast:

Dick                           Cary Grant
Margaret                    Myrna Loy
Susan                         Shirley Temple
Tommy                      Rudy Vallee
Beemesh                    Ray Collins
Thaddeus                   Harry Davenport
Jerry                           Johnny Sands
Tony                          Don Beddoe
Bessie                        Lillian Randolph
Agnes Prescott           Veda Ann Borg
Walters                       Dan Tobin
Judge Treadwell        Ransom Serman
Winters                      William Bakewell
Melvin                       Irving Bacon
Perry                          Ian Bernard
Florence                     Carol Hughes
Anthony Herman       William Hall
Maitre d'Hotel            Gregory Gay



With Shirley Temple.




The Bachelor Knight with Shirley Temple.


With Shirley Temple, Myrna Loy, Ray Collins, Harry Davenport and Rudy Vallee.

Lobby Cards:







Directed by Irving Reis.
Distributed by RKO Radio.
Running time: 95 minutes.




"Two Sisters Lived in Peace...", I guess until Cary Grant came along!!

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Leading Ladies...Part 1.

Cary Grant, over the course of his film career, starred alongside the most iconic female stars of the time and who still maintain that status, even today!

The list is impressive.

Some actresses appeared more than once with Cary Grant on screen.

Katharine Hepburn:








She appeared in the most films with Cary Grant, a total of four times.
Also, on July 20th, 1942, on the radio, in The Philadelphia Story.









Sylvia Scarlett (1936)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Holiday (1938)

The Philadelphia Story (1941)

"She was this slip of a woman and I never liked skinny women.
But she had this thing, this air you might call it, the most totally magnetic woman I'd
ever seen, and probably ever seen since.
You had to look at her, you had to listen to her. There was no escaping her."
- Cary Grant


"Cary was a lovely, very generous actor. A good comedian. And so funny. He had a wonderful laugh. When you looked at that face of his, it was full of a wonderful kind of laughter at the back of the eyes."
- Katharine Hepburn

Irene Dunne:



Appearing in three films.

Two were probably amongst the best screwball comedies on film.

Her radio appearences with Cary Grant also included:

Theodora Goes West (June 13th, 1938)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House  
(Oct 10th, 1950)
The Awful Truth (Jan 18th, 1955)






The Awful Truth (1937)

My Favorite Wife (1940)

Penny Serenade (1941)

"Her timing was marvelous. She was so good that she made comedy look easy.
If she'd made it look as difficult as it really is, she would have won her Oscar."
- Cary Grant

"I loved working with Cary - every minute of it. Between takes he was so amusing with his cockney stories. I was his best audience. I laughed and laughed and laughed. The more I laughed, the more he went on."
- Irene Dunne

Deborah Kerr:








Appearing in three films with Cary Grant.












Dream Wife (1953)

An Affair to Remember (1957)

The Grass Is Greener (1961)


"Mostly, we have manufactured ladies - with the exception of Ingrid, Grace, Deborah and Audrey."
- Cary Grant

"His elegance, his wit, his true professionalism were outstanding, and I learned so much from just watching him work. The ability to ad-lib, the timing of a double-take, in fact, all his timing - so essential for true comedy."
- Deborah Kerr

Myrna Loy:







Appearing in three films.

In 1941, June 30th, she also joined Cary Grant for a radio adaptation, I Love You Again.










Wings in the Dark (1935)

The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947)

Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948)



Carole Lombard:





Appearing in three films with Cary Grant, and one radio performance on December 11th, 1939 - In Name Only.













Sinners in the Sun (1932)

The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)

In Name Only (1939)



Sylvia Sidney:





Appeared in three films.















Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)

Madame Butterfly (1932)

Thirty-Day Princess (1934)


So six actresses, appeared in three or more films with Cary Grant.



But ten more starred in two films each with him.

That will be the subject of Leading Ladies: Part Two...