Thursday, October 28, 2021

On This Day... Hot Saturday (1932)

Cary Grant's 6th full length feature film, Hot Saturday, was released today, back in 1932. 


Summary: 

Virtuous small-town bank clerk, Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll), becomes the victim of a vicious rumour from a bitter, unsuccessful suitor that she spent the night with a notorious millionaire playboy, losing her her job and her reputation.



Cast:


Cary Grant...Romer Sheffield
Nancy Carroll...Ruth Brock
Randolph Scott...Bill Fadden
Edward Woods...Conny Billop
Lilian Bond...Eva Randolph (as Lillian Bond)
William Collier Sr....Mr. Brock
Jane Darwell...Mrs. Brock
Stanley Smith...Joe
Rita La Roy...Camille
Rose Coghlan...Annie Brock
Oscar Apfel...Mr. Randolph
Jessie Arnold...Aunt Minnie
Grady Sutton...Archie



Did You Know?

Cary Grant was originally considered for the role of Bill Fadden.  Gary Cooper and Fredric March turned down the role of Romer Sheffield.  This became Cary Grant's first role as a leading man.  


Quotes:

Ruth Brock: Immoral women shouldn't work in banks, you know. They might corrupt the young dollar bills.

Ruth Brock: [to Romer Sheffield] You're considered much too dangerous for local consumption.

Romer Sheffield: Would it interest you to know that I've wanted you ever since I first saw you in the bank?
Ruth Brock: You're supposed to see things you want in banks.
Romer Sheffield: Yes, but the moment you go to get them, burglar alarms start ringing all over town.




Lobby Cards:




Directed by William A. Seiter.
Produced and distributed by Paramount Publix.
Running time: 73 minutes.



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.



Thursday, October 21, 2021

On This Day... The Awful Truth (1937)

On today's date back in 1937, Cary Grant's 29th full length feature film, The Awful Truth, was released. 


Summary: 

Before their divorce is finalised, Jerry and Lucy Warriner (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne) both do their best to come up with strategies to ruin each other's plans for remarriage.


Cast:

Irene Dunne...Lucy Warriner
Cary Grant...Jerry Warriner
Ralph Bellamy...Daniel Leeson
Alexander D'Arcy...Armand Duvalle
Cecil Cunningham...Aunt Patsy
Molly Lamont...Barbara Vance
Esther Dale...Mrs. Leeson
Joyce Compton...Dixie Belle Lee
Robert Allen...Frank Randall
Robert Warwick...Mr. Vance
Mary Forbes...Mrs. Vance



Did You Know?

Much of the film was improvised by director Leo McCarey and the cast during filming each day.  

Cary Grant quickly became an accomplished improvisational actor during the shoot. He ad-libbed with such speed and composure that his co-stars often "broke character."

Irene Dunne later recalled the scene where she pretends to be Cary Grant's ill-bred nightclub performer sister, which was written over a weekend and handed to her on the morning she was scheduled to film it. She was supposed to do a burlesque bump in the middle of her musical number, a move she was never able to do. Leo McCarey told her to just say, "Never could do that" when she got to that moment. She did, it stayed in the film, and Dunne found it "a choice comic bit."



The dog playing Mr. Smith was named Skippy, and was most popular for its role in The Thin Man (1934) movie and its sequels, as Asta. During production, the human cast was forced to take several unscheduled days of vacation in late July 1937 because Skippy was booked on another film.

Irene Dunne had never met Cary Grant before, but she later recalled that they "just worked from the first moment" and called Grant a very generous actor. Grant, in turn, said, "we just clicked." Dunne so trusted his comedy judgment that she would often turn to him after a take and ask in a whisper, "Funny?"

At the party at the home of Cary Grant's fiance, Irene Dunne says they called him Jerry the Nipper because he liked to drink. In "Bringing Up Baby", which came out the next year, Katharine Hepburn refers to him as a mobster called Jerry the Nipper when talking to the constable.


Quotes:

'Dan' Leeson: Glad to know you.
Jerry Warriner: Well, how can you be glad to know me? I know how I'd feel if I was sitting with a girl and her husband walked in.
Lucy Warriner: I'll bet you do.

Jerry Warriner: In a half an hour, we'll no longer be Mr. and Mrs.... Funny, isn't it?
Lucy Warriner: Yes, it's funny that everything's the way it is on account of the way you feel.
Jerry Warriner: Huh?
Lucy Warriner: Well, what I mean is, if you didn't feel the way you do, things wouldn't be the way they are, would they? I mean, things could be the same if things were different.
Jerry Warriner: But things are the way you made them.
Lucy Warriner: Oh, no. No, things are the way you think I made them. I didn't make them that way at all. Things are just the same as they always were, only, you're the same as you were, too, so I guess things will never be the same again.



Jerry Warriner: What do we drink to?
Lucy Warriner: Well, let's drink to our future. Here's hoping you and Barbara will be very happy, which I doubt very much.
Jerry Warriner: No, let's drink to your happiness with Buffalo Bill, which doesn't even make sense.

Lucy Warriner: We call him Jerry the Nipper
[Lucy is attempting to embarrass Jerry as a habitual drinker in front of his new girlfriend and her upper-class family. Katherine Hepburn refers to Cary Grant with this epithet in 'Bringing Up Baby' whereupon Grant retorts 'Constable she's making all this up out of motion pictures she's seen']

Jerry Warriner: [to Barbara Vance on the phone] Naturally she's anxious to meet you, too, but...
Lucy Warriner: Yes, tell her I'd love to meet her. Tell her to wear boxing gloves.



Lucy's Attorney: [a late middle-aged man answers the telephone] Hello! Hello, Lucy. What's that? Divorce? You and Jerry? Now, now, Lucy. Don't do anything in haste that you might regret later. Marriage is a beautiful thing, and you...

Celeste: Why can't she call you back, after we've finished eating?
Lucy's Attorney: [Turns toward his wife] Please be quiet, will you?...
[Turns back toward the phone]
Lucy's Attorney: You seem agitated, Lucy. Try and calm yourself. I hate to see you take any hasty action in a matter like this. Marriage is a beautiful thing, and you...
Celeste: Why don't you finish your meal? Why can't they call you back later?
Lucy's Attorney: [Turns toward his wife] Will you shut your mouth?
[Turns back toward phone]
Lucy's Attorney: As I was saying, Lucy, marriage is a beautiful thing. And when you've been married as long as I have, you'll appreciate it too.
Celeste: Your food is getting ice cold. You're always complaining about your food. How do you expect me...
Lucy's Attorney: [Turn to his wife] Will you shut your big mouth? I'll eat when I get good and ready, and if you don't like it, you know what you can do. So shut up.
[Turns back toward phone]
Lucy's Attorney: Lucy, darling, marriage is a beautiful thing.



 Posters :


Directed by Leo McCarey.
Distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Running time: 89 minutes


Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.


Sunday, October 10, 2021

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

Cary Grant's 20th full length film, The Last Outpost, was released on this day in 1935.


Summary:

During WW1, the destinies of British officers Michael Andrews (Cary Grant) and John Stevenson (Claude Rains) seem intertwined on the battle front as much as on a more personal level.


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




Did You Know?

Cary Grant, impersonating a nobleman, uses a fictitious title. When Gertrude Michael asks about the name, he says, "It's from Burke's Peerage by way of Ananias." Burke's Peerage lists all the genuine titles in the United Kingdom, but Ananias is an early Christian who was struck dead for lying, so the name has come to mean "liar."

The shots of the native migration are taken from Merian C. Cooper's silent documentary Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) which traces the arduous journey of Iranian nomads. It is probable that the first half of the story was written to take advantage of this footage and the production value it provided.  Stock footage from Four Feathers (1929) is used to augment the battle scenes in the later half of the film.


Taglines:

Men of steel in an empire of fire! (original poster)

They wanted an assignment in Hell...and a woman gave them the job! (original-ad)

The Grandest Adventure Picture Ever Filmed!

The woman they both desired fired one man to murderous hatred and vengeance! (Print Ad- Washington Reporter, ((Washington, Penna.)) 4 November 1935)

SPECTACLE!...ACTION!...ROMANCE! (print ad - Lubbock Morning Avalanche - Texan Theatre- Lubbock, Texas - Feb. 27, 1936 - all caps)


Lobby Cards:




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



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.





Saturday, October 9, 2021

On This Day... Wedding Present (1936)

 Released today back in 1936, Wedding Present was Cary Grant's 24th full length feature film.


Summary:

When Charlie Mason (Cary Grant) is promoted from irresponsible reporter to hard-nosed city editor, it costs him his girlfriend, ace reporter Rusty Fleming (Joan Bennett). After he hears she's engaged to another, he quits and tries to win her back.


Cast:

Joan Bennett...Monica 'Rusty' Fleming
Cary Grant...Charlie Mason
George Bancroft...Pete Stagg
Conrad Nagel...Roger Dodacker
Gene Lockhart...Archduke Gustav Ernest
William Demarest...'Smiles' Benson
Inez Courtney...Mary Lawson
Edward Brophy...Squinty
Purnell Pratt... Howard Van Dorn
Douglas Wood...Willett
George Meeker...Gordon Blaker
Damon Ford... Mike Haley
Lois Wilson...Laura Dodacker
Mary Forbes...Mrs. Dodacker
George Offerman Jr....Sammy Smith
John Henry Allen... Jonathan


Quotes:

Marriage License Clerk: [Reviewing a marriage license] Do you solemnly swear that the statements are?... Say! What's the matter with you? You've got the day of your birth down here August 4, 1934. That makes you two years old!
Charlie: That's right. Next year I'll be eligible for the Kentucky Derby... and if you were marrying a girl like mine, you'd feel that young yourself.




Taglines:

We're almost married . . . and we want to stay that way !

JOAN and CARY, the madcap lovers of "Big Brown Eyes", take another hilarious fling at romance. (Print Ad - Albany Evening News, ((Albany NY)) 16 October 1936)

Miss Big Brown Eyes would rather race to a fire than trip to the altar and Cary is the lad who tuned the fire-gongs to the Wedding March.


Lobby Cards:




Directed by Richard Wallace.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Original by Paul Gallico.
Running time: 81 minutes.



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.


Wednesday, October 6, 2021

On This Day... I'm No Angel (1933)

 Released today back in 1933, I'm No Angel was Cary Grant's 12th full length feature film.



Summary:

Sideshow entertainer Tira (Mae West) thrives in an unconventional lifestyle and gets great pleasure from outwitting numerous suitors that fall under her spell. Upending a tricky situation to become the toast of high society, she lands 'Mr. Right' (Cary Grant) but must outfox a pesky antagonist to secure success.


Cast:

Mae West...Tira
Cary Grant...Jack Clayton
Gregory Ratoff...Benny Pinkowitz
Edward Arnold...Big Bill Barton
Ralf Harolde...Slick Wiley
Kent Taylor...Kirk Lawrence
Gertrude Michael... Alicia Hatton
Russell Hopton...The Barker Flea Madigan
Dorothy Peterson...Thelma
William B. Davidson...The Chump Ernest Brown (as Wm. B. Davidson)
Gertrude Howard...Beulah Thortdyke
Libby Taylor...Tira's Maid


Did You Know?

In 1935 and 1949, the production code was more rigorously enforced, and the film was not approved for re-release.

When Tira opens the chest to show her friend some jewelry, there are photos attached to the inside lid of several men, including actors Barton MacLane (who was originally set to co-star in this film), Nat Pendleton, Edmund Cobb and Randolph Scott (real-life roommate of the film's leading man Cary Grant).

Mae West's famous line in this film, "Beulah, peel me a grape," was inspired by West's pet monkey, Boogie. The monkey loved grapes, and one day West noticed that although he would eat grapes by the dozens, he would always peel the skin off each one before popping it into his mouth.

Considered to be one of fifteen films that changed American cinema.



Posters and Lobby Cards:





Directed by Wesley Ruggles.
Distributed by Paramount Publix.
Running time: 87 minutes



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.


Thursday, September 23, 2021

On This Day... Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

On today's date back in 1944, Cary Grant's 47th full length feature film, Arsenic and Old Lace, was released. 


Summary: 

Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), a newspaperman and author known for his diatribes against marriage, ironically gets married then takes a quick trip home to tell his two maiden aunts (Josephine Hull and Jean Adair). While trying to break the news, he finds out his aunts' hobby: killing lonely old men and burying them in the cellar...


Cast:

Cary Grant...Mortimer Brewster
Priscilla Lane...Elaine Harper
Raymond Massey...Jonathan Brewster
Jack Carson...O'Hara
Edward Everett Horton...Mr. Witherspoon
Peter Lorre...Dr. Einstein
James Gleason...Police Lt. Rooney
Josephine Hull...Abby Brewster
Jean Adair...Martha Brewster
John Alexander...'Teddy Roosevelt' Brewster
Grant Mitchell...Reverend Harper
Edward McNamara...Brophy
Garry Owen...Taxi Cab Driver
John Ridgely...Saunders
Vaughan Glaser...Judge Cullman
Chester Clute...Dr. Gilchrist
Charles Lane...Reporter
Edward McWade...Gibbs




Did You Know?

Some 20 years before filming this movie, actress Jean Adair had helped to nurse a very sick vaudeville performer named Archie Leach back to health; by the time she was asked to reprise her Broadway "Arsenic and Old Lace" role as Aunt Martha for this film, Adair and Leach, now known as Cary Grant, were old friends.

Cary Grant considered his acting in this film to be horribly over the top and often called it his least favorite of all his movies.


On stage, Boris Karloff played the monstrous Jonathan Brewster, Raymond Massey's film character, who, in eerie-looking screen makeup, resembled Karloff, which was a running gag throughout the picture. Karloff eagerly wanted to do this film, but he was kept under contract by the Broadway play producers and was not allowed to do the picture, to his immense displeasure.

Amy Archer-Gilligan, Americas most prolific female serial killer, has been cited as the inspiration for the play, and subsequently the film. She was charged with the poisoning deaths of her two husbands and was allegedly responsible for the deaths of 66 other elderly "inmates" of her nursing home. Her weapon of choice? Arsenic.



Frank Capra noted that while he was stationed in London in January 1943, he overheard American and British soldiers screaming "Charge!" in the manner of the "Teddy Roosevelt" character and deduced that they had seen the film. He then learned that Jack L. Warner had released the picture to the armed forces that month, a year after it was completed, and almost two years before it was released to the general public.

The Broadway play opened January 10, 1941. The film was shot between October 20 and December 16, 1941 while the play was still running, with most of the play's cast playing their roles in the movie. Editing on the film was completed by Capra in January 1942, followed by some post production work in February, when the film was ready for release. However, Warner Brothers had been contractually required to wait for the play to finish its run before releasing the movie, and as the subject matter had a particularly macabre theme, prompted as well by obvious Halloween references, it was hoped that the play would have finished for an October 1942 release. By January 1943, the play was still running domestically, so Warner got permission to show it to the U.S. Armed Forces who were stationed on overseas bases during that month. When the play finally finished its Broadway run on June 17, 1944, it was decided to release it ahead of Halloween, receiving its token film debut on Broadway at the Strand Theatre on September 1, 1944, followed by the nationwide release on September 23, two and a half years after the film had been completed.

In none of his closeups does Raymond Massey ever blink.




Throughout the film, the grandfather clock below the staircase (the minute hand of which always drops to the '6' position when "Teddy Roosevelt"/Johan Alexander slams his door) keeps correct time, i.e. it advances in time with the action. This is an extremely uncommon feature in movies, where clocks usually are left to show whatever time someone happened to set them for).

Cary Grant: [name] Grant's birth name Archie Leach appears on a tombstone in the cemetery near the Brewster's house. In Grant's earlier picture His Girl Friday (1940), his character Walter responded to a threat by saying "listen, the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." As a gag, the departed Mr. Leach was apparently interred in the Brooklyn cemetery by the Brewster's home.


Quotes:

Mortimer Brewster: Look I probably should have told you this before but you see... well... insanity runs in my family... It practically gallops.


Mortimer Brewster: The name Brewster is code for Roosevelt.
Teddy Brewster: Code for Roosevelt?
Mortimer Brewster: Yes. Don't you see? Take the name Brewster, take away the B, and what have you got?
Teddy Brewster: Rooster!
Mortimer Brewster: Uh-huh. And what does a rooster do?
Teddy Brewster: Crows.
Mortimer Brewster: It crows. And where do you hunt in Africa?
Teddy Brewster: On the veldt!
Mortimer Brewster: There you are: crows - veldt!
Teddy Brewster: Ingenious! My compliments to the boys in the code department.


Aunt Martha: For a gallon of elderberry wine, I take one teaspoon full of arsenic, then add half a teaspoon full of strychnine, and then just a pinch of cyanide.
Mortimer Brewster: Hmm. Should have quite a kick.


Mortimer Brewster: Mr. President, may I have the pleasure of presenting...
Teddy Brewster: Doctor Livingston?
Dr. Gilchrist: Livingstone?
Mortimer Brewster: Uh, well, that's what he presumes.


Mortimer Brewster: Aunt Abby, how can I believe you? There are twelve men down in the cellar and you admit you poisoned them.
Aunt Abby Brewster: Yes, I did. But you don't think I'd stoop to telling a fib.



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.



[to Mortimer]
Elaine Harper: We were married today. We were going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Your brother tries to kill me. A taxi is waiting and now you want to sleep on a window seat. You can take the honeymoon, your wedding ring, your taxi, your window seat, and put 'em in a barrel and push 'em all over Niagara Falls!


 Lobby Cards:


Directed by Frank Capra.
Produced and distributed by Warner Bros.
Running time: 118 minutes.


Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.