It all started on Instagram in 2020, about Me and Archie...But here it is definitely more about him!!
Friday, April 12, 2024
Cary Grant Goes to War...The Draft.
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
The Last Outpost (1935)
"...a curious mixture. Half of it is remarkably good and half of it quite abysmally bad."
With Gertrude Michael. |
The Last Outpost - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"The Last Outpost, which will be shown shortly at the Plaza, is a curious mixture. Half of it is remarkably good and half of it quite abysmally bad. One can even put one's finger on the joins, and it will be well worth a visit if only because it indicates what might be made of the short story form on the screen. It consists of two stories unrelated except for the coincidence of characters. The first, which lasts for about half-an-hour, is a very well-directed and well-acted War story of a British secret service agent and his success in warning a defenseless tribe against a Kurd attack and inducing them to move with their flocks over a flooded river and across a snow-bound range of mountains to safe pastures. It is one of those stories of dogged physical endeavor that the film does so well. It belongs in the order of Grass and The Covered Wagon. 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. Mr. Rains's low husky voice, his power of investing even commonplace dialogue with smouldering conviction, is remarkable. He never rants, but one is always aware of what a superb ranter he could be in a part which did not call for modern restraint but only for superb diction. I should like to see him as Almanzor or Aurengzebe, for he could catch, as no one else could, the bitter distrust of the world, religious in its intensity, which lies behind the heroic drama.
The Last Outpost, if it had stopped on the mountain pass above the pastures with the officer on the way down to hospital and the comforts of Cairo and the secret agent turning back towards the enemy, would have been a memorable short film. Mr. Charles Barton, the director, has obviously used old documentaries: the crossing of the flooded river is not a California reconstruction, and all through this first section the camera is used with fine vigor to present a subject which could not have been presented on the stage.
I cannot see why we should not have serious films of this length as well as farces, short stories as well as novels on the screen. The essential speed and concision would be an admirable discipline for most directors, who are still, after seven years of talkies, tied to stage methods, and we might be saved from seeing such a good film as this padded out to full length by the addition of a more than usually stupid triangular melodrama of jealousy and last-minute rescue in the Sahara where needless to say Mr. Rains sacrifices his life at the end, for his wife's love, so that it all may end in the fixed, almost Oriental, short-hand of military melodrama, "It is better so," clasped fingers and topees off and fading bugle calls."
- Graham Greene, The Spectator
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 20 - The Last Outpost (Lobby Card Style) |
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Tuesday, September 19, 2023
The Howards of Virginia (1940)
"...Grant meets the exigencies of a difficult role with more gusto than persuasion."
With Paul Kelly. |
The Howards of Virginia - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"Elizabeth Page's best seller of last year, The Tree of Liberty, comes to the screen as The Howards of Virginia. Although using only a portion of the 985-page novel, Columbia still seems to have tackled a larger canvas than it could paint effectively, with the result that this cavalcade of Colonial and Revolutionary America, while ambitious, expensive, and generally interesting, comes to life all to infrequently.
Adapted by Sidney Buchman and directed by Frank Lloyd, the Howard saga is most effective in the sequences that recreate frontier life and manners as seen through the eyes of the woman who loves her husband while rebelling against his democratic ideas. These sequences are impressive in their homely humor and realism, though much footage otherwise wasted inevitably pulls the emotional punches in the story of Matt's relationship with his wife and children.
Obviously miscast, Cary Grant meets the exigencies of a difficult role with more gusto than persuasion. Martha Scott follows her impressive screen debut in Our Town with a sincere if more conventional characterization. That this history has been staged with exceptional fidelity, is due in part to the fact that its Williamsburg sequences were filmed on location in the historic city which was reconstructed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. as a $20,000,000 project to perpetuate America's past."
- Newsweek
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 37 - The Howards of Virginia (Lobby Card Style) |
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Quote From Today - 19 September 2022
Saturday, September 2, 2023
I Was A Male War-Bride (1949)
"...a past master at playing the handsome he-man thrown for a loss by a difficult dame..."
I Was A Male War-Bride - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"A temperamental French army captain and a strong-minded WAC lieutenant stationed in Occupied Germany spend the first half of this comedy hating each other and the second half trying to find a way for the captain to emigrate to the United States. There is a short intermission between halves in which the two sparring partners get married.
The film is poorly paced. By the time Captain Rochard and Lieutenant Gates get to the altar, it seems as if we've had our money's worth. But, no - complications are barely beginning. It appears that the only provision under which Rochard may accompany his wife back to the States is the law regulating the immigration of war brides. It is with this embarrassing predicament that the film finally gets down to the business announced in the title.
The comedy has its share of bright and breezy moments. Cary Grant is a past master at playing the handsome he-man thrown for a loss by a difficult dame or an undignified situation. But none of the boy-girl situations in this opus is original enough to stand being spun out for two hours."
- Scholastic Magazine
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 54 - I Was A Male War-Bride (1949) (Lobby Card Style) |
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Saturday, August 12, 2023
Devil and the Deep (1932)
"...the best dramatic talkie we have yet seen."
With Tallulah Bankhead. |
Devil and the Deep - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"The Picture is, in my opinion, the best dramatic talkie we have yet seen. It is unabashed melodrama at times, but Charles Laughton's magnificent acting disarms criticism of the more violently sensational incidents. He appears as the jealous, half-demented commander of a submarine, stationed on the West African coast. His wife, played by Tallulah Bankhead, has endured five years of hell through his insane jealousy, but to the world at large he appears as a goodnatured fellow with an impossible wife. At length, driven from home by a maniacal outburst of rage, Tallulah meets Gary Cooper and succumbs to his manly charms, only to discover, the next morning, that he is the newly arrived second officer.
The submarine leaves port for diving maneuvers, and, through an accident, Tallulah is on board, with her half-mad husband and unsuspecting lover. The vessel is rammed by a liner, owing to the machinations of Laughton, and the crew are entombed at the bottom of the sea. This sequence is admirably done, in spite of the occasional use of models in the shooting. The half-mad commander orders his second officer to be arrested, but Tallulah reveals her husband's insanity, and one by one the crew make their escape by means of the emergency apparatus.
Only Laughton is left behind, and as he smashes his wife's portrait to atoms with an axe, the water rushes in and he is drowned in his cabin. Tallulah Bankhead has better opportunities than of late as the distrait wife, but she is overshadowed by Laughton's amazing performance. Gary Cooper is completely negligible as the lover."
- David Fairweather, Theatre World
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 4 - Devil and the Deep (Lobby Card Style) |
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Monday, July 24, 2023
Suzy (1936)
"...his talents for varied characterizations have been recognized, and in each new venture he makes good."
Suzy - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"Romance, drama, war, espionage, Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Cary Grant, ample production and the direction of George Fitzmaurice - such are the ingredients of Suzy, compounded on the Metro lot and soon to be turned loose on the world at large. It will give satisfaction. We could wish for less talking than it contains, and a greater reliance on the camera in developing the psychological phases of the story, but as we seem doomed to have such pictures until Hollywood learns how to use the microphone, we will be lucky if we get none less entertaining than this well-made Metro offering.
The chief merit of the excellently written script is the businesslike manner in which the story is told, the contrasting elements being woven into an easily flowing narrative free from non-essentials. There are intensely dramatic moments as well as some melodramatic physical thrills. The picture, in fact, has something of everything in it, being fashioned in a manner that should make it satisfactory entertainment for any kind of audience, and as no picture can be better than its direction, we may credit Fitzmaurice with having done a most creditable job. Praise is due Ray June for photography of distinction.
Performances are excellent. Jean Harlow at all times is in compete command of her role which runs the gamut from light comedy to stark tragedy. I do wish, however, that they would do something with Jean's eyebrows. The thin, pencilled lines, resembling eyebrows seen only in caricatures, caught my attention when she first appeared, and thereafter I could not keep my eyes off them.
Franchot Tone grows in stature with his every performance. Always the perfect gentleman, intelligent, personable, never in word or gesture does he suggest the actor. Cary Grant, too, is something more than just a leading man. Since his outstanding performance in Sylvia Scarlett, his talents for varied characterizations have been recognized, and in each new venture he makes good. Here we have him as a philandering aviation hero, a part to which he does full justice. Benita Hume is effective as a war spy.
The final scene in the picture as I saw it is the only story weakness. Grant has been killed and the scene shows us his funeral. We hear a long eulogy which robs the scene of the impressiveness it would have had if its treatment had been more intelligent. There is no reason why we should hear the words of praise accorded the dead hero. A long shot to establish the fact of the speech being made, appropriate music to make it reasonable we should not hear the speech, close shots to register the emotions of some of the mourners, and sympathetic camera treatment of the entire sequence, would have made it a great screen moment. We can expect such blundering just as long as producers are governed by their obsession that the microphone is their principal tool. Here they use it to commit a cinematic crime.
- Hollywood Spectator
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 23 - Suzy (Lobby Card Style) |
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Monday, July 10, 2023
The Pride and The Passion (1957)
"...Kramer has used locale and crowds of people superbly, alternating the big panoramic canvas with telling close-ups that are right from Goya"
With Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren. |
The Pride and The Passion - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"One great advantage that The Pride and The Passion has over most epic films is its unity of theme; all action revolves around the gun, the symbol of men fighting for what they believe in. The English captain, skillfully played by Cary Grant, is a trained soldier, an authority on ordnance who has been commanded by his commodore to rescue the giant cannon, which was jettisoned by the fleeing Spanish army, and deliver it to a British warship. The guerrilla leader, played by Frank Sinatra, is an uneducated, undisciplined patriot determined to deliver his hometown, Avila, from the occupying French. Again and again the two men are contrasted: the smart, immaculately dressed, cold but sentimental English officer versus the emotional, cruel, provincial Spaniard. Each has his big moments: the Englishman muddies his clothes as he assembles the broken cannon and directs its perilous journey, blows up a bridge and even eloquently pleads with the Bishop at the Escorial that the cannon be hidden in the cathedral; with less eloquence but with greater passion, the guerrilla leader persuades a group of townfolk to help drag the cannon out of the river and he effectively commands the peasants who work under him in the long march to Avila...
It is fortunate that producer-director Stanley Kramer stressed the visual aspects in telling his story. The script, written by Edna and Edward Anhalt, and stemming from C. S. Forester's novel The Gun, is strangely ineffectual; and the dialogue, whether due to the actors' odd mixture of accents due to poor recording, does not come through well. The plot's argument is, therefore, difficult to follow at times; but Kramer has so directed the picture that the visuals succeed in developing the themes with little help from the spoken word. Kramer's film is occasionally reminiscent of For Whom The Bell Tolls, another movie in which a foreigner was involved in one particular objective in helping the war-torn Spaniards; although the characters in the film made from the Hemingway novel were better drawn and motivated, The Pride and The Passion is far superior visually. In magnificent scenes, like those showing the Holy Week procession in the Escorial, the dragging of the cannon through a dangerous mountain pass, the storming of Avila's walls and the routing of the French, Kramer has used locale and crowds of people superbly, alternating the big panoramic canvas with telling close-ups that are right from Goya. Without minimizing the horrors of war, The Pride and The Passion is an epic sung in praise of the triumph of will over all obstacles.
- Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 61 - The Pride and The Passion (Lobby Card Style) |
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Saturday, July 1, 2023
Mr. Lucky (1943)
"If it weren't for Cary Grant's persuasive personality the whole thing would melt away to nothing at all."
With Alan Carney, Paul Stewart and Charles Bickford. |
Mr. Lucky - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"Mr. Lucky is what is known as a vehicle picture. If it weren't for Cary Grant's persuasive personality the whole thing would melt away to nothing at all. Its story is preposterous. The leading character is a rogue, a draft dodger, an unscrupulous gambler. He carefully specifies that he is a gambler, not a gangster; but his methods tend toward the latter classification. H. C. Potter has directed all this with an understanding of cinema. Even though you don't believe the events as you see them, most of the incidents prove entertaining, especially those that show Joe in action with the War Relief ladies. As I said, Mr. Lucky depends on Grant's ability to hold you. Perhaps this is just wherein the picture is dangerous; the first thing you know, you like this loose-moraled chiseler because of the way he tilts his hat or kids you so delightfully before he cheats you. Films frequently get mixed up in their ethics; it is difficult to decide what this one is trying to sell us - gamblers, draft dodgers, converted gangsters, or Mr. Grant. Maybe only Mr. Grant, but it chooses a strange way to do it."
- Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 43 - Mr Lucky (Lobby Card Style) |
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Friday, May 19, 2023
The Eagle and The Hawk (1933)
"Here is a drama told with a praiseworthy sense of realism..."
The Eagle and The Hawk - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):
"In The Eagle and The Hawk, John Monk Saunders has written a vivid and impressive account of the effect of battles in the clouds upon an American ace. It is, fortunately, devoid of the stereotyped ideas which have weakened most of such narratives. Here is a drama told with a praiseworthy sense of realism, and the leading role is portrayed very efficiently by Frederic March.
Stuart Walker's direction of this picture is thoroughly capable. Nothing appears to be overdone and no episode is too prolonged. Aside from the good work by Mr. March and Mr. Oakie, there are noteworthy impersonations by Cary Grant, Sir Guy Standing and Miss Lombard."
- Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times - Reviewer
New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 - Number 10 - The Eagle and The Hawk (Lobby Card Style) |
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Friday, February 17, 2023
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) |
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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) |
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Wings in the Dark, On This Day, 1st February 2022
Wings in the Dark, On This Day, 1st February 2021
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Quote From Today... Destination Tokyo (1943)
"How do you think the rest of us feel?"
On deck! |
Friday, December 30, 2022
Quote From Today.... Madame Butterfly (1932)
Madame Butterfly was Cary Grant's 7th full length feature film.
Saturday, December 24, 2022
Quote From Today... Father Goose (1964)
Father Goose was Cary Grant's 71st and penultimate full-length feature film.
Friday, December 2, 2022
Quote From Today... Operation Petticoat (1959)
"Well, I like to think we can, but then, I'm an incurable optimist."
Operation Petticoat was Cary Grant's 67th full length feature film.
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Quote From Today... Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
"You're looking at a contented man."
With Ginger Rogers. |
Once Upon a Honeymoon was Cary Grant's 42nd full length feature film.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Quote From Today... The Last Outpost (1935)
The Last Outpost was Cary Grant's 20th full-length feature film.
Monday, September 19, 2022
Quote From Today... The Howards of Virginia (1940)
"Frozen, at that!"
The Howards of Virginia was Cary Grant's 37th full length feature film.
Friday, September 2, 2022
Quote From Today... I Was a Male War-Bride (1949)
"I'll explain to them I think you're repulsive."
Friday, August 12, 2022
Quote From Today... Devil and the Deep (1932)
"I know sir, it was only about dinner last night!"
Devil and the Deep was Cary Grant's 4th full length feature film.