Wednesday, April 26, 2023

News Article Series: The Last Interview with Kent Schuelke - (1986)

Postscript: Hollywood’s Leading Man
By Kent Schuelke

Cary Grant left the world in the same fashion as he lived—quietly. Within 48 hours of the 82-year-old actor’s death on November 29th from a massive stroke in Davenport, Iowa, his remains had been flown to California and cremated. No funeral, no memorial service. That’s how Grant wanted it. Outside of his illustrious movie career, spanning 72 films, Grant shunned the spotlight, seldom giving interviews.

Born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England in 1904, Grant came to the United States in his early teens as a performer in a traveling acrobatic troupe. His talents led him to the Broadway stage, where he performed in musicals. A movie contract with MGM soon followed. To many critics, the debonair Grant was the greatest comedian in the history of cinema. Along with Howard Hawks, George Cukor, and Frank Capra, he helped invent the “screwball comedy.” With his sweeping charm, clipped accent and impeccable timing, he lit up some of Hollywood’s greatest comedies, including Bringing Up BabyTopperThe Awful Truth, and The Philadelphia Story. In those films, he costarred with many of Hollywood’s leading ladies: Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, Ingrid Bergman, and Grace Kelly. But probably Grant’s most important collaborator was Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he made North by NorthwestNotorious, and To Catch a Thief.

Retiring from cinema in 1966, Grant spent the rest of his days in business, on the board of directors in at MGM and Faberge Cosmetics. He enjoyed his privacy, but his marriages—to Virginia Cherrill, Barbara Hutton, Betsy Drake, Dyan Cannon, and Barbara Harris—and his four divorces, brought him unwanted and unflattering publicity. In spite of such controversies, the public always loved Cary Grant.

This interview with Mr. Grant was done four months before his death. He did the interview in connection with a film tribute in his honor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. This is one of the last public conversations with a legend.


Cary Grant

KENT SCHUELKE: What was your earliest ambition?
CARY GRANT: My earliest? I don't know, just to keep breathing in and out, I guess. I had no definite ambition. One has to go through one's education before forming thoughts about what one wants to do. Unless you've got some mad ideas about being a fireman or a great boxer or a football player. But I had none of those.

KS: What about acting?
CG: I had no ambition toward acting.

KS: I understand that as a boy you dreamed of traveling on the high seas. Did you want to be a sailor?
CG: Yes. I had an ambition to travel. I was born in a city -- Bristol -- from which there was a great deal of travel. It was a very old city, and in those days the ships came and left all the time from the port. I was constantly interested in what was going on down there and in those ships that took people all over the world.

A young Archie Leach travels to America on the White Star Liner 'Olympic'.

KS: How did you get started in acting?
CG: Because of my wish to travel, I joined a small troupe of ground acrobats. I first came to New York with the troupe. When the troupe went back to England, I remained here. I liked this country very much, and gradually I got into musicals. In those days, a musical generally only lasted a year, so there weren't very many. But I was in musicals before I came to film.

The Pender Troupe with Archie Leach (Bottom right)

KS: Young people who weren't even born when you made your last film are now discovering you in your classics. What do you think about that?
CG: I think they have a long life ahead of them. They will make their own choices. I hope for the best for the coming generation, but it doesn't seem to promise too much. But in every century people complain how the world is going. I don't know what the young people think or do; I only hear the emanation of their thoughts -- rock groups and similar noises. But if that's what makes them happy, fine -- as long as they don't do it next to me.

KS: How do you see yourself?
CG: How can I see myself? We are what we are in the opinion of others. It's up to them to make up their minds as to what we are. I can only see myself as a man of 82 who keeps on functioning. I do the best I can under the circumstances in which I've placed myself.

KS: How would you like history to remember you?
CG: As ... "A congenial fellow who didn't rock the boat," I suppose.

With wife, Barbara.


KS: Is your life relatively quiet these days?
CG: I live pretty quietly -- but what does one expect a man my age to do?

KS: Is that how you want to live out the rest of your life, quietly in Beverly Hills?
CG: I don't know how long that's going to be -- "the rest of my life" -- but I enjoy what I am doing and, of course, I shall live out my life here unless some extraordinary change suddenly occurs. If I didn't enjoy living in Beverly Hills, then I would move -- I can afford to do that.

KS: What is the most difficult thing about being Cary Grant, the movie star?
CG: I don't consider it difficult being me. The only thing that I wish -- that we all wish -- is that our faces were no longer part of our appearance in public. There's a constant repetition of people approaching me -- either for those idiotic things known as autographs or for something else. That's the only thing I deplore about this particular business.

Sharing a rare moment and signature with young fans.


KS: Do fans still approach you today?
CG: It happens, but not as much as it might to a Robert Redford or some younger, more popular star of today. It gets to be a bore.

KS: Have there been many interesting encounters with your fans?
CG: The people I'd most like to meet are the people who are the least likely to come up to me.

KS: Are you accessible to your fans? Do you interact with them?
CG: I do not care or like to talk to [my fans]. I'm not rude. I try to be as gracious as I can when someone next to me at dinner wants to know how I feel about a leading lady. But I don't answer any letters. I couldn't possibly answer everybody. I can't even attend to my own legal matters. I must receive two sacks of mail every day. So you can't answer the people. You feel rather sorry you can't, especially when there are children concerned, but it can't be done.

KS: Is is true that President Kennedy once telephoned you from the White House just to hear the sound of your voice?
CG: We all knew each other, just as we know our current President, who is a very dear and very friendly man. We [Reagan and Grant] are old friends.

KS: Film students break your films apart and analyze them. Do you think scholars place too much emphasis on films that were made strictly for entertainment?
CG: Oh, yes. A film's a film. As Hitch would say when someone would get all upset on the set, "Come on, fellas, relax -- it's only a movie." Now, if you want to bisect it and tri-sect it and cut it up into little pieces, well, that's up to you. We made them. We didn't know their intentions half the time, except to amuse and attract people to the box office.

With Alfred Hitchcock, during the filming of 'To Catch a Thief'.


KS: What are your memories of working with Alfred Hitchcock?
CG: I have only happy ones. They're all vivid because they're all interesting. It was a great joy to work with Hitch. He was an extraordinary man. I deplore these idiotic books written about him when the man can't defend himself. Even if you defend yourself against that kind of literature, it gets you nowhere.

KS: You worked with some of the most beloved leading ladies in film history. Who was the best actress with whom you worked?
CG: I've worked with many fine actresses. But in my opinion, the best actress I ever worked with was Grace Kelly. Ingrid [Berman], Audrey [Hepburn], and Deborah Kerr were splendid, splendid actresses, but Grace was utterly relaxed -- the most extraordinary actress ever. Her mind was razor-keen, but she was relaxed while she was doing it. I appreciated that. It's not an easy profession, despite what most people think.

With Grace Kelly, and Alfred Hitchcock. during the filming of 'To Catch a Thief'.

KS: Was it disappointing to you that Kelly gave up acting to marry Prince Rainier?
CG: As far as we were concerned, she as a lady, number one, which is rare in our business. Mostly, we have manufactured ladies -- with the exception of Ingrid, Deborah and Audrey. Grace was of that ilk. She was incredibly good, a remarkable woman in every way. And when she quit, she quit because she wanted to.

KS: How was working with Katharine Hepburn?
CG: Marvelous. I worked with her about five times. One doesn't do a thing more than once -- unless you're an idiot -- that one doesn't like.

'Bringing Up Baby' with Katharine Hepburn.

KS: In the 1950s, you announced that you were retiring from films. The retirement was short-lived, but what made you want to give up films at the height of your career?
CG: I was tired of making films.

KS: How did your friends and colleagues react to your decision?
CG: People say all sorts of things. I gave it up because I got tired of doing it at that point in my life; I had no idea then whether I would resume my career or not. The last time I left, I knew I wouldn't return to it. I enjoyed the profession very much, but I don't miss it a bit.

KS: Has anyone in the movie industry ever told you that your work has influenced the films they've done?
CG: Everybody copies everybody else, if they think you're doing something better than they. Athletes do that; that's evident in baseball scores and the improvement of the hitter today.

KS: How do you respond to the criticism that you never portrayed anyone but yourself in your films?
CG: Well, who else could I portray? I can't portray Bing Crosby; I'm Cary Grant. I'm myself in that role. The most difficult thing is to be yourself -- especially when you know it's going to be seen immediately by 300 million people.

KS: What about the people who say you should have expanded your repertoire to include more "character" roles?
CG: I don't care what people say. I don't take into consideration anything anyone says, including the critics. There's no point: You've made the film, it's done and if they want to criticize it, that's up to them. I don't pay attention to what anybody says -- except perhaps the director, the producer and my fellow actors. But I'm not making films; I haven't made a film in 20 years.

KS: Do you think these people misinterpret what you were trying to do?
CG: I have no concern with what anyone else is thinking -- I can't affect it -- or with what anybody else is saying anywhere in the world at any dinner table tonight. They may be discussing me or somebody else; I don't care. I've nothing to do with it, and I can't control it, so it doesn't matter what people say.

KS: Do you have a favorite film?
CG: Not really. I did them all for a purpose. Sometimes I hoped for better results; sometimes I was surprised by the results.

Visiting a Faberge factory, and meeting workers.


KS: Why did you leave acting for the business world in the '60s?
CG: Acting became tiresome for me. I had done it. I don't know how much further I might have gone in it. I have no knowledge of that, of course. But I enjoyed going from where I started on to a different world, equally interesting -- perhaps more so.


Monday, April 24, 2023

Penny Serenade (1941)

   "...there is not only that easy swing and hint of the devil in him, but faith and passion expressed..."

With Irene Dunne.

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

"Penny Serenade is frankly a weeper, but it is not quite like any other film I can think of.  It has no preachment in the Over The Hill tradition; it has not the ambitious glucose of Mr. Chips; it is not revolutionary in a picture sense and I cannot imagine its material being put on in a play.  It needs only three or four characters for most of the telling and its idea is simply that of a young couple who can't have a baby and so adopt one which becomes the center and the anchor of their lives, and dies at six.  What now keeps them from going completely to pieces is that they are able to adopt another - and that is all of it.  An errant sub-theme could have been strengthened with good effect, I think, in the steadying down of the young newspaperman-husband by marriage, tragedy and life with the kid; but this is not sufficiently worked into the texture to figure in the end.  It remains a picture of the early years of marriage as they pass over so many a thousand Mr. and Mrs., so ordinary as to be terribly difficult to do. 

Cary Grant is thoroughly good, in some ways to the point of surprise, for there is not only that easy swing and hint of the devil in him, but faith and passion expressed, the character held together where it might so easily have fallen into the component parts of the too good, the silly, etc.  His scene with the judge is one of the rightly moving things in the picture.  Edgar Buchanan is the darling boy though, and runs quietly away with every scene he is in, simply by the depth of his reality as the stumbling, kindly friend of the family, absurdly thick-fingered and ill-at-ease in everything but the delicate operations of the press room or washing the baby or patching troubles or cooking.  It is what is known as a juicy part and usually squeezed like an orange, till it means nothing; here it is done with the right balance of humor, loyalty and love, and you will not forget Edgar Buchanan.  

This is a picture not spectacular for any one thing, and yet the fact of its unassuming humanity, of its direct appeal without other aids, is something in the way of pictures growing up after all; for to make something out of very little, and that so near at hand, is one of the tests of artistry." 

Otis Ferguson, The New Republic


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 39 - Penny Serenade (Lobby Card Style)

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Saturday, April 8, 2023

This Is The Night (1932)

  "...and I thought he made a splendid figure"

With Charles Ruggles.

This Is The Night - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"It was my introduction to Lily Damita, and I found her altogether charming.  Cary Grant was also new to me, and I thought he made a splendid figure.  Of course you all know Charlie Ruggles and Roland Young.  It was as though they had walked right over from the One Hour With You sets and continued their ridiculous and amusing relationship in this picture. 

The sets of This Is The Night are right up to the high standard of Paramount's good taste, and the photography of Victor Milner is exceptionally beautiful."

- Bob Wagner, Script 


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 1 - This Is The Night (Lobby Card Style)

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On This Date  April 8, 2020

On This Day  April 7, 2021

Quote From Today  April 8, 2022


Monday, April 3, 2023

Big Brown Eyes (1936)

   "But like a fine pair of binoculars in the hands of a child, the story moves constantly in and out of focus."

With Joan Bennett.

Big Brown Eyes - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"As for Big brown Eyes, the most brutal thing I can say is that it is a typical production. Which, callously translated, means that if the Head Men would let the Director. Inherently it has all the elements of the exceptional motion picture earn his salary by doing his job
without their interference, this mild entertainment would have been electrifying
. But like a fine pair of binoculars in the hands of a child, the story moves constantly in and out of focus.

It seems incredible, to me, and I say it with the utmost sincerity, that ostensibly mature minds can consistently force inane and irrelevant attempts at humor into the life blood of a smoothly-running story. There are a couple of sequences in Big Brown Eyes that literally groan under the imbecilic dose of moronic piffle which block the filmic flow and destroy the dramatic validity.No wonder they say the things they do about Hollywood... The one faint disappointment was the work of Cary Grant, who seemed slightly ill at ease as the two-fisted detective. Grant has turned in one capable performance after another. In this, he just somehow didn't click. Perhaps it is that his innate good breeding subconsciously rebels against the role of a good-natured plebian. But don't misunderstand. His portrayal offered no point for criticism; it simply had, with the exception of one scene, nothing to recommend it. But watch for his brief little impersonation of a girl friend on the make, a clever bit of pantomime.

Director Raoul Walsh did his best with what freedom was given him: and his best is plenty good. But the production as a whole just doesn't make the grade as a compactly, well woven unit. It has everything but that one subtle, all-important quality; cohesive forward movement. If you are interested in cinematic study, see it, or go if you arent unduly particular, and want an innocuous evenings entertainment" 

Paul Jacobs, Hollywood Spectator


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 22 - Big Brown Eyes (Lobby Card Style)

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Quote From Today April 2, 2022

On This Day April 2, 2021


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)

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On This Day, 25th March 2021

Quote From Today, 25th March 2022

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

   "Actor Grant...more interested in an intercostal clavicle for his nearly reconstructed Brontosaurus than he is in bony, scatterbrained Miss Hepburn."

With Katharine Hepburn.

Bringing Up Baby - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"When she was college girl ten years ago, red-headed, Melpomene-mouthed Katharine Hepburn, in a trailing white nightgown cross-hatched with gold ribbon, regaled Bryn Mawr as Pandora in The Woman in the Moon.  And since then most of Actress Hepburn's public appearances have been for the catch-in-the-throat cinema, playing alternately great ladies and emotional starvelings of brittle bravado.  For Bringing Up Baby she plumps her broad A in the midst of a frantically farcical plot involving Actor Cary Grant, a terrier, a leopard, a Brontosaurus skeleton and a crotchety collection of Connecticut quidnuncs, proves she can be as amusingly skittery a comedienne as the best of them.  

Actor Grant is an earnest, bespectacled paleontologist who is more interested in an intercostal clavicle for his nearly reconstructed Brontosaurus than he is in bony, scatterbrained Miss Hepburn.  Miss Hepburn has a pet leopard named Baby, and an aunt with $1,000,000 waiting for the right museum.  On the trail of the million, Actor Grant crosses paths with Actress Hepburn and Baby, loses the scent in the tangled Connecticut wildwood.  In the jail of a town very like arty Westport, the trails collide.  Most surprising scene:  Actress Hepburn, dropping her broad A for a nasal Broadway accent, knocking Town Constable Walter Catlett and Jailmate Grant completely off balance with: "Hey, flatfoot!  I'm gonna unbutton my puss and shoot the woiks.  An' I wouldn' be squealin' if he hadn' a give me the runaround for another twist."  

Under the deft, directorial hand of Howard Hawks, Bringing Up Baby comes off second only to last year's whimsical high spot, The Awful Truth, but its gaily inconsequent situations cannot match the fuselike fatality of that extraordinary picture.  Bringing Up Baby's slapstick is irrational, rough-and-tumble, undignified, obviously devised with the idea that the cinema audience will enjoy (as it does) seeing stagy Actress Hepburn get a proper mussing up." 

- Time


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36
Number 30 -Bringing Up Baby (Lobby Card Style)

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On This Day, March 18th 2021

Quote From Today, March 18th 2022  

Monday, March 6, 2023

The Amazing Adventure of Ernest Bliss (1937)

   "Cary Grant...secures laughs easily and apparently without effort."

With Mary Brian.

The Amazing Adventure of Ernest Bliss - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"E. Phillips Oppenheim's story (filmed years ago as a silent) is a bit old-fashioned and present-day filmgoers may regard it as implausible.  Coincidences are highly improbable, and the whole thing, despite excellent direction and acting, moves at a pace that demands a large measure of cutting before being offered to the general public.  Implausibilities include an elderly lodging house keeper who refuses to oust a man from his room, despite arrears of rent, when she could get cash from someone else.  Also encountering his former gold-digger mistress who, finding him working as a chauffeur, deliberately leaves her diamond bracelet in the car.  

In the end everything comes out all right, of course, and he is enabled to provide liberally for all those who were kind to him during his self-imposed poverty.  

There is a mechanical progression in the photographic sequences which lacks credence, but this may be fixed by cutting, thereby speeding up the movement towards the story's culmination.  

Cary Grant looks and acts the part with deft characterization.  He secures laughs easily and apparently without effort.  Mary Brian plays the role of the typist with a metallic harshness which would be more in keeping with the gold digger.  One expects more feminine softness and sympathy from such a role.  Most of the other actors and actresses are adequate, and production details are very good."  

Joshua Lowe, Variety

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 26 - The Amazing Adventure of Ernest Bliss (Lobby Card Style)

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On This Day, March 6th 2021

Quote From Today, March 6th 2022

Monday, February 27, 2023

When You're In Love (1937)

   "...Director Capra established Clark Gable and Gary Cooper as comedians, Director Riskin herein does the same thing for Cary Grant."

With Grace Moore.

When You're In Love - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"The picture marks the debut of Robert Riskin, long famed as the screenwriting teammate of  Director Frank Capra, as a director as well as author.  Following the pattern of It Happened One Night and Mr Deeds Goes to Town in which Director Capra established Clark Gable and Gary Cooper as comedians, Director Riskin herein does the same thing for Cary Grant." 

Time Magazine


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Number 25 - When You're In Love (Lobby Card Style)

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On This Day, February 27th 2021

Quote From Today, February 27th 2022


Friday, February 17, 2023

The Woman Accused (1933)

   "For the finish, the hero, as done capably by Cary Grant, wields a blacksnake whip on the gangster..."

With Nancy Carroll.

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

"Despite two of the silliest exhibitions of melodramatics, the exploitation campaign and Liberty mag tieup behind Woman Accused should aid materially in putting it across to average returns.  To counterbalance the pair of moronic scenes is a wow finish that had the audience cheering. 

Billed as the picture written by ten of the world's greatest authors, it is not conceivable that the literary names concerned could have permitted, let alone have written, the aforementioned offending sequences.  

First sequence that went smello was the deep-dyed villainy of Louis Calhern in an effort to build up a logical reason for the girl, Nancy Carroll, to kill him.  Second was the mock-trial during a "cruise to nowhere" which was carried to silly extremes.  Both can be touched up by judicious cutting.  

Unfortunate that Calhern and John Halliday have been handed such parts, that no amount of good trouping can surmount the amount of ham written into each line.  

For the finish, the hero, as done capably by Cary Grant, wields a blacksnake whip on the gangster, key witness against the girl, giving film fans probably their first real satisfaction at the manner in which a mobster should be handled.  After a perfect buildup as a menace, Jack La Rue brings audience applause when he turns into jelly after the larruping administered by Grant.  

Some novel directorial angles in the "Strange Interlude" treatment of the accused woman's fear and terror, and the atmosphere of the pleasure cruise.  Nancy Carroll's work is well-done and sincere and Norma Mitchell, as her maid, gives a sweet performance.  Latter's work here is of the quality that should win her a good play from the casting directors.  Such people as Irving Pichel, Frank Sheridan, Harry Holman and Donald Stuart are in for short, but capably done, bits." 

Daily Variety


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Number 9 - The Woman Accused (Lobby Card Style)

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The Woman Accused, On This Day, 17th February 2022

The Woman Accused, On This Day, 17th February 2021

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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Gunga Din, On This Day, 17th February 2022

Gunga Din, On This Day, 17th February 2021

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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For more, see also:

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

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


Friday, January 27, 2023

Quote From Today... She Done Him Wrong (1933)

"I'm sorry you think more of your diamonds than you do of your soul."

With Mae West.

She Done Him Wrong was Cary Grant's 8th full-length feature film.

Captain Cummings: I'm sorry you think more of your diamonds than you do of your soul.

Lady Lou: I'm sorry you think more of my soul than you do of my diamonds.

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 8 - She Done Him Wrong (Lobby Card Style)

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Thursday, January 26, 2023

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)

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Wednesday, January 18, 2023

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)

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Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Quote From Today... The Philadelphia Story (1941)

  "When I was trying to stop drinking, I read anything."


With Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart.

The Philadelphia Story was Cary Grant's 38th full length feature film.

Macaulay Connor: What's this? Is it my book?

C. K. Dexter Haven: Yes.

Macaulay Connor: C. K. Dexter Haven, you have unsuspected depth!

C. K. Dexter Haven: Thanks, old chap.

Macaulay Connor: But have you read it?

C. K. Dexter Haven: When I was trying to stop drinking, I read anything.

Macaulay Connor: And did you stop drinking?

C. K. Dexter Haven: Yes. Your book didn't do it, though.


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number38 - The Philadelphia Story (Lobby Card Style)

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