The Talk of the Town (1942)

   "George Stevens has adroitly directed the three principals and the fine supporting cast..."

With Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur.

The Talk of the Town - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"My gripe with The Talk of the Town is the same complaint that I had against similar serio-comedies: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe.  It is only by a sudden fluke in the finale and a quick action on the part of one of the characters that a dreadful miscarriage of justice in this democracy is averted.  Along with our debates on the practical vs. the theoretical aspects of law and justice, we are served some witty repartee and some very funny situations.  George Stevens has adroitly directed the three principals and the fine supporting cast, including Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Rex Ingram.  If any one performance stands out, it is that of Mr. Colman.  But still, when all the humor and wit are done, there remains the fact that but for Colman's last-minute rescue, Grant would have died at the hands of lynchers; and a mob, even in the cultured state of Massachusetts, is an army of blood thirsty beasts.  Just because it is an American mob makes its crime no more serious than a mob of Nazis.  If Mr. Stevens could have ended his film before the lynching scene (the whole is much too long anyway), he would have had a first-rate serio-comedy.  As it is we have to take the film's warm and human glow with a grain of salt while we lament our own lynching problem in a world that is crying for law and adjustment." 

- Philip T Hartung, The Commonweal

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 41 - The Talk of the Town (Lobby Card Style)

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In Name Only (1939)

  "No surprises are the easy ad-libbish styles of Stars Grant and Lombard..."

With Carole Lombard.

In Name Only - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"In Name Only will puzzle cinemagoers who thought they knew just what high jinks to expect when Screwball Cary Grant falls in love with Screwball Carole Lombard.  Far from high jinks is the somber situation of rich young Alec Walker when he falls in love with Julie Eden, a widowed commercial artist who has taken a summer cottage near his stately county seat.  For, as rarely happens in a screwball comedy but is very likely to happen in life, Alec has a tenacious wife with an undeveloped sense of humor, parents who also thought infidelity no joke.  Before Lovers Grant and Lombard fight through to the clear, they have traded more punches than puns, emerged with the realization that matrimony is more than the off-screen ending to a Grant-Lombard movie.  

A mature, meaty picture, based on the novel Memory of Love, by veteran bucolic Bessie Brewer (wife of muralist Henry Varnum Poor), In Name Only has its many knowing touches deftly underscored by Director John Cromwell, brought out by a smoothly functioning cast.  No surprises are the easy ad-libbish styles of Stars Grant and Lombard, the enameled professional finish of oldtime Actor Charles Coburn as Alec's conventional father.  Surprising to many cinemaddicts, however, will be the effectively venomous performance, as Alec's mercenary wife, of Cinemactress Kay Francis.  Having worked out a long-term contract with Warner Bros. which kept her in the top money (over $5,000 a week) but buried her as the suffering woman in a string of B pictures, sleek Cinemactress Francis in her first free-lance job shows that she still belongs in the A's, that, properly encouraged, she can pronounce the letter r without wobbling."

- Time

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 34 - In Name Only (Lobby Card Style)

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Ladies Should Listen (1934)

  "A good deal of it is actually unfunny, and all of it is too synthetic."

With Frances Drake.

Ladies Should Listen - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Basically there may have been enough comedy and farce possibility in this story, but as handled, it emerges a much too highly strained attempt at farce.  A good deal of it is actually unfunny, and all of it is too synthetic.  

Cary Grant is brutally miscast as a philandering young Parisian.  He plays the part for comedy, miscuing several times.  On the other hand, Frances Drake as his vis-a-vis, a nosey telephone girl, who listens in on conversations and has a habit of trying to straighten things out for other people, turns in her best performance yet and does much to establish herself.  

Picture allows Charles Ray to make a film comeback in a very minor role.  Handles a comedy bit very effectively and ought to be able to go places again.  

Claude Binyon and Frank Butler overworked hoke and puns in their adaptation, and these were all overstrained in the direction." 

- Wolfe Kaufman, Variety

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 17 - Ladies Should Listen (Lobby Card Style)

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The Toast of New York (1937)

  "The production is faultless..."

With Thelma Leeds.

The Toast of New York - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"This film is chiefly noteworthy for the rounded characterization of an early American individualist which Edward Arnold adds to his fine gallery of screen portraits, and, more than the careful and authentic reconstruction of old New York, his performance conveys the spirit of the time in which this historical drama is laid.  It is the story of Jim Fisk who drops his medicine-show business at the opening of the Civil War to prosper at cotton smuggling and go on to the higher gamble of the stock market.  Attacked by the press as an Ogre feeding on the small investors, he conceives the gigantic scheme of cornering the nation's gold and enters upon a financial struggle with Cornelius Vanderbilt.  Balked in his dream and disappointed in love, his strange career is abruptly closed by mob violence.  The direction of Rowland V. Lee is turned toward a large scale portrait which will serve for all the robber barons of our checkered post-Civil War industrialism.  Frances Farmer, Cary Grant and Donald Meek lend support and Jack Oakie provides more than one man's share of comedy.  The production is faultless and the morality of great wealth is a timely subject of discussion, so adults will undoubtedly find this production much to their liking."

- Thomas J. Fitzmorris, America

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 28 - The Toast of New York (Lobby Card Style)

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Walk, Don't Run (1966)

      "...a light, bright touch and a debonair smile..."

With George Takei, John Standing, Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar.

Walk, Don't Run - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Too long as are most comedies today, Walk, Don't Run seems to take its title far too literally; but there are several very funny sequences, a jaunty score by Quincy Jones, and the unflawed elegance of Mr. Grant.  With a light, bright touch and a debonair smile, he gives the film the happy sheen of charade that must never be taken seriously.  It almost works."

- Arthur Knight, The Saturday Review

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 72 - Walk, Don't Run (Lobby Card Style)

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Without Reservations (1946)

     "Colbert and Wayne are rather charming in change-of-pace roles and there are cameos from Jack Benny and Cary Grant..."

With Claudette Colbert.

Without Reservations - Review is taken from Empire Online, 01.01.2000:

"Authoress Claudette Colbert is summoned to Hollywood to adapt her best-selling philosophical novel for the movies and happens, on the cross-country train, to run into Marine John Wayne, whom she thinks would be ideal for the role of her hero but who happens to think that her book is bunkum. A typical romantic comedy of cross-purposes banter, this also has a vicious anti-intellectual streak that winds up with the producer's wish-fulfilment plot twist of the novelist begging a Hollywood studio to leave all the intellectual business out of the film of her book. Colbert and Wayne are rather charming in change-of-pace roles and there are cameos from Jack Benny and Cary Grant, not to mention an amazingly dreadful turn from gossip diva Louella Parsons." 

- Kim Newman, Empire

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Cameo - Without Reservations (Lobby Card Style)

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"I Know You!"...The Cameos of Cary Grant April 29 2020

Quote From Today... Notorious! (1946)

"Daisies and buttercups, wasn't it?"

With Ingrid Bergman.

Notorious! was Cary Grant's 49th full length feature film.

Devlin: I can't help recalling some of your remarks about being a new woman. Daisies and buttercups, wasn't it?

Alicia: You idiot! What are you sore about, you knew very well what I was doing!

Devlin: Did I?

Alicia: You could have stopped me with one word, but no, you wouldn't. You threw me at him!

Devlin: I threw you at nobody.

Alicia: Didn't you tell me what I had?

Devlin: A man doesn't tell a woman what to do; she tells herself. You almost had me believing in that little hokey-pokey miracle of yours, that a woman like you could change her spots.

Alicia: Oh, you're rotten.

Devlin: That's why I didn't try to stop you. The answer had to come from you.

Alicia: I see. Some kind of love test.

Devlin: That's right.

Quote From Today... Without Reservations (1946)

"At home? I never do things like that at home.  

Come on, let's try it!"

With  Claudette Colbert.

Without Reservations featured a Cary Grant cameo.

Kit: It's amazing how these boys make themselves feel at home.

Cary: At home? I never do things like that at home. Come on, let's try it!

Dink: Attaboy, Cary!

Cary: Hmm? Oh, attaboy lieutenant!

On This Day...Alice In Wonderland (1933)

 Cary Grant's 13th full length feature film, Alice in Wonderland, was released today, back in 1933. 

Summary: 

In Victorian England, Alice (Charlotte Henry), a bored young girl, dreams she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland where she finds even more fantastical characters, such as Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen), White Knight (Gary Cooper). Humpty Dumpty (WC Fields), March Hare (Charlie Ruggles) and Mock Turtle (Cary Grant).

Cast:

Richard Arlen...Cheshire Cat

Roscoe Ates...Fish

William Austin...Gryphon

Gary Cooper...White Knight

Leon Errol...Uncle Gilbert

Louise Fazenda...White Queen

W.C. Fields...Humpty-Dumpty

Alec B. Francis...King of Hearts

Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher...Rabbit (as Skeets Gallagher)

Cary Grant...Mock Turtle

Lillian Harmer...Cook

Raymond Hatton...Mouse

Charlotte Henry...Alice

Sterling Holloway...Frog

Edward Everett Horton...Mad Hatter

Roscoe Karns...Tweedledee

Baby LeRoy...Joker (as Baby Le Roy)

Mae Marsh...Sheep

Polly Moran...Dodo Bird

Jack Oakie...Tweedledum

Edna May Oliver...Red Queen

May Robson...Queen of Hearts

Charles Ruggles...March Hare (as Charlie Ruggles)

Jackie Searl...Dormouse

Alison Skipworth... Duchess

Ned Sparks...Caterpillar

Ford Sterling...White King

Did You Know?

The failure of the film at the box office was attributed to the fact that although a top-rank cast was used, many of them were virtually unrecognizable under their heavy makeup and costuming.

Bing Crosby was originally sought for the role of the Mock Turtle but refused it because he felt the role was demeaning to his career.

Sterling Holloway, who played The Frog in this movie, later went on to be the voice of The Cheshire Cat in the well known Disney adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (1951).

The running time, 76 minutes, is the length of the time Alice is through the looking glass: clock on the mantelpiece starts at 3:40 and she returns at 5:00.

During the Mad Tea Party, the Hatter asks Alice what day of the month it is and Alice answers that it's the 4th. The Hatter checks his watch and bewails the fact that "it's two days off." When Alice examines the watch, the hands on the dial indicate the date as being a Tuesday in June. In 1933 when this film was made, June 4th fell on a Sunday - two days off from what the Hatter's watch indicates.

Goofs:

When the White Knight falls off of his horse into the ditch, he falls face down and his feet can be seen with the toes pointed downward. However, when Alice comes over to check on him, he is lying on his back and his toes are pointed upward.  When Alice helps him out, he continues telling a story about how he invented things, yet initially neither his lips nor Alice's are moving, nor do they match what is being said when they do.

During Baby LeRoy's brief appearance he initially is walking, but the action cut-in has him running with a different expression on his face.

Alice is an English girl, but speaks with an American accent.

When the White Queen flies in to see Alice after the fight between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, you can quite clearly see wires attached to her shoulders.

Posterss:

Directed by Norman McLeod.

Distributed by Paramount Publix.

Running time: 90 minutes (Varies)

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...Without Reservations (1946)

Today saw the release of Without Reservations in 1946, featuring a cameo appearance by Cary Grant as himself.

Summary:

Kit Madden is traveling to Hollywood, where her best-selling novel is to be filmed. Aboard the train, she encounters Marines Rusty and Dink, who don't know she is the author of the famous book, and who don't think much of the ideas it proposes. She and Rusty are greatly attracted, but she doesn't know how to deal with his disdain for the book's author.

Cast:

Claudette Colbert...Kit Madden
John Wayne...Captain 'Rusty' Thomas
Don DeFore...Lieutenant 'Dink' Watson
Anne Triola...Connie
Phil Brown...Soldier
Frank Puglia...Ortega
Thurston Hall...Baldwin
Dona Drake...Dolores Ortega
Fernando Alvarado...Mexican Boy
Charles Arnt...Salesman
Louella Parsons...Louella Parsons (as Miss Louella Parsons)

Cary Grant...Cary Grant (uncredited) 

Did You Know?

The opening shot shows "Arrowhead" Pictures motion picture studio. This is the actual RKO Pictures Studio Building at 780 Gower Street in Hollywood, retouched with "Arrowhead" replacing the RKO signs on the building. It remains a historic structure on the corner to this day.

Claudette Colbert's character travels to Hollywood to make a movie from her best-selling novel. Already cast is Lana Turner in the female lead. She meets John Wayne's character and decides to take him for a screen test, as the perfect type to play the male lead. Wayne would later star with Turner in The Sea Chase (1955).

Quotes

Rusty: Everything she's doing, she's doing to make me jealous.
Dink: To make you jealous?
Rusty: And you know what I'm gonna do about it?
Dink: Get jealous.
Rusty: I am. Take a letter.
Dink: Yes, captain.

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

Produced by RKO Radio Pictures.

Running Time: 107 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.

On This Day...Alice In Wonderland (1933)

 Cary Grant's 13th full length feature was Alice in Wonderland in 1933.

Synopsis:

On a boring winter afternoon, Alice (Charlotte Henry) dreams that she's visiting the land behind the mirror. This turns out to be a surrealistic nightmare, with all sorts of strange things happening to her, like changing her size or playing croquet with flamingos.

Cary Grant plays the Mock Turtle.

"Why mince matters? Alice in Wonderland is...one of the worst flops of the cinema.

...Mary Pickford, who once contemplated doing it, was right when she said that "Alice" should be made only in cartoons.

...It's a cinch that all the grown-ups will get is the mild fun of trying to identify the Big Names behind turtle shells and teddy bear skins." - Bob Wagner, Script

With William Austin and Charlotte Henry...or is he? Apparently he only provided the voice!

Did You Know?

Virtually the entire star stable was thrown into this movie because Paramount was trying to keep from going bankrupt and thought that such a star-laden movie could save the studio from failing. It didn't work since most of the stars couldn't be recognized because of their costumes. Instead, two Mae West movies, She Done Him Wrong (1933) and I'm No Angel (1933), saved the studio from bankruptcy instead (both with Cary Grant).

The running time, 76 minutes, is the length of the time Alice is through the looking glass: the clock on the mantelpiece starts at 3:40 and she returns at 5:00.

Although much of the technical crew of the film is left completely uncredited (standard practice at the time), the opening credits sequence is one of the longest up to that time, lasting almost a full three-and-a-half minutes. Its length is due to the fact that practically every character was played by a major star or character actor of the time, and all are listed, one by one.

The Mock Turtle, who says he is what mock turtle soup is made from, is a cow in a turtle's shell. This was because mock turtle soup (for those who couldn't afford to have real turtle soup) was generally made from veal.

The film was one of several theatrical films based on literary classics which were released to US schools in the 1950s and '60s, for showing to children. The others included Heidi (1937) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). They were all released to the schools in heavily cut versions that had a running time of no more than forty-five minutes.

"Hmmm!"

Cast:

 Richard Arlen ... Cheshire Cat
 Roscoe Ates ... Fish
 William Austin ... Gryphon
 Gary Cooper ... White Knight
 Leon Errol ... Uncle Gilbert
 Louise Fazenda ... White Queen
 W.C. Fields ... Humpty-Dumpty
 Alec B. Francis ... King of Hearts
 Richard 'Skeets' Gallagher ... Rabbit
 Cary Grant ... Mock Turtle
 Lillian Harmer ... Cook
 Raymond Hatton ... Mouse
 Charlotte Henry ... Alice
 Sterling Holloway ... Frog
 Edward Everett Horton ... Mad Hatter

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Norman McLeod.

Distributed by Paramount Publix.

Running time: 90 minutes (Varies)

"I Know You!"...The Cameos of Cary Grant.

Cary Grant produced quite a body of work, starring in over 70 full length films.

But if you think you'd seen everything...think again!!

He made a number of cameo appearances, on film, as listed below.

Singapore Sue (1932):

Starring Anna Chang, this was the first short film that Cary Grant made. It was released in the summer of 1932.
Three of his full length films were already in distribution.

Interestingly, he is credited as Archie Leach.

Pirate Party on Catalina Island (1936):

Running at just 20 minutes, MGM released this colour film, with a number of stars appearing as themselves.

Topper Takes a Trip (1939):

Originally, Cary Grant was to appear in this sequel to Topper, however, he was unavailable and the script was rewritten.

Although, he didn't work on the film at all, he appears in film clips from Topper, as a way of explaining the story!

The Road to Victory (1944):

This was a 10 minute short, by Warner Bros., to support the war effort.

The Shining Future (1944):

This was a much longer version of "The Road to Victory", using the same footage of Cary Grant, reading a letter from a Canadian soldier.

Without Reservations (1946):

This film starring Claudette Colbert and John Wayne, including a number of cameo appearances.

However, Cary Grant, is referenced throughout until making an appearance towards the end of the film.

Polio and Communicable Diseases Hospital trailer (1940)

An appearance.

Ken Murray's Hollywood (1965);

Ken Murray's candid home movies caught the stars off set, including Cary Grant.

Elvis: Thats the Way It Is (1970):

This film was a documentary about the Elvis Summer Festival in Las Vegas. Cary Grant is one of a number of celebrities who attended.

Appearance comes at rhe end credits.