Well, since the ideas starting swirling around a couple of nights ago, when I began writing this entry, they have settled a bit and gained focus, thanks to Cary Grant. Should have known he'd be the one to show me a way to go. When I was a teenager, I could take or leave most old movies. There were a few I liked I suppose, but they were not on my radar in any serious way... until New Year's Day 1987, a couple of months after Cary Grant passed away. My dad was working, I was in my room keeping myself occupied, and my Mom was watching movies on WGN. The network was honoring Mr. Grant with an all-day marathon of his work. Intermittently, Mom called to me, insisting I had to come and watch with her. All I could think was, "Oh, no, boring black and white movies." To please her, I sat down in the midst of Arsenic and Old Lace, still inwardly resisting the proposition.
As you can probably guess, I soon discovered how wrong I was. If you've not seen Arsenic and Old Lace, I highly recommend it. To this day when I watch it, I cackle with laughter when Mortimer Brewster's (Grant) uncle, who believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt, runs up the staircase hollering "Charge!", as though it is San Juan Hill.
Other CG favorites of mine include, An Affair to Remember (is there a more romantic movie?), The Grass is Greener, Topper, The Awful Truth, Suspicion, People Will Talk, and especially, Notorious, which I watched again tonight. As the saying goes, they just don't make 'em like that anymore; that goes for old movies and for Mr. Grant. Many people, myself included, believe him to be the epitome of charm, class and romance, the ultimate suave and debonair gentleman. Certainly that is an image he created and on which the movie studios capitalized. After all, he has been quoted as saying, "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant" and “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me". In my mind, those statements only serve to reinforce what a good actor he was, and surely every actor brings some of himself to each part he plays, so I imagine those qualities so many admire in his characters were genuinely part of the man to a point.
Since I'm writing about Mr. Grant tonight, it seems appropriate to close with a related childhood anecdote. In the fourth grade I had to write a story for school. I can't remember the assigned topic nor the gist of the story, except to say this: the story was titled, A Cat, a Dog and a Canary Go to Hollywood, and the canary became famous as "Canary Grant". I'm sure at that age I had a very limited understanding of who Mr. Grant was, but my parents kept that story and were quite impressed with my ingenuity. Who knew years later I would be such a Cary Grant fan? If my folks can find my story, I'll have them send it to me and I may share it here. It would be nice to refresh my memory about it.
Hi Julie! I'm also a fan of Cary Grant, and love Notorious, such a fantastic movie.
ReplyDeleteThe "Canary Grant" story is so cute, I'm sure it would be fun to read that again. I remember writing a story in school about animals going on an adventure too, from a young age animals seemed to be my primary focus!