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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Quote From Today 18 August 2022

Sinners In The Sun (1932)

     "How fortunate we are who, in this era of science, are enabled by the talkie invention to hear, as well as see, the smacks which maidenly indignation administers to the cheek of importunate millionaires!"

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

"Sinners In The Sun is, in effect, a display of luxury, and the tale of a man and a girl who temporarily despise love in a cottage, but virtuously return to it at last as being of more importance than the limousines, the Long Island parties, the fashion-parades, and the underclothes that enrich their unregenerate interlude.  These things have now become so much a formula that Hollywood has learned not to take them too seriously, with the result that they are less tedious than they might otherwise be.  Miss Carole Lombard and Mr. Chester Morris discharge their sentimental duties with easy accomplishment, while Miss Adrienne Ames, though afflicted with dialogue of the utmost crudity, gives a genuine touch of character to the rich young woman whom our hero erroneously marries.  But the film's chief merit is the sickness of its luxurious accompaniment.  The dresses are good, the flow from scene to scene is smooth and glittering, and our heroine is eternally unruffled even when she has plunged into a moonlit sea, clambered upon a raft and been forcibly kissed by an amateur wrestler who applies his art to persuade her.  How fortunate we are who, in this era of science, are enabled by the talkie invention to hear, as well as see, the smacks which maidenly indignation administers to the cheek of importunate millionaires!"

- The Times (London)

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 2 - Sinners In The Sun (Lobby Card Style)

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Quote From Today 13 May 2022

 

Quote From Today... In Name Only (1939)

    "Come with me madame, I'll show you where the animals sleep."

With Carole Lombard

In Name Only was Cary Grant's 34th full length feature film.

Alec Walker: Come with me madame, I'll show you where the animals sleep.

[Escorts Julie to the bedroom]

Alec Walker: Pardon me, madame, do you snore?

Julie Eden: No.

Alec Walker: Oh, well, I guess I'll have to buy an alarm clock, won't I?

On This Day...In Name Only (1939)

Today in 1939 saw the release of Cary Grant's 34th full length feature film and his last of the 1930's.

Cary Grant plays Alec Walker, a married man who falls in love with a widow, Julie(Carole Lombard).

His wife, Maida(Kay Francis), tries to save the marriage but only to keep hold of the family money.

When Alec becomes ill, which woman will pull him through?

"A mature, meaty picture, based on the novel Memory of Love....In Name Only has its many knowing touches deftly underscored by Director John Cromwell, brought out by a smoothly functioning cast." - Time

"This is a well-made depressing little picture of unhappy marriage...The picture is made quite creditably, by three people - Miss Carole Lombard, Mr. Cary Grant and Miss Kay Francis." 
- Graham Greene, The Spectator

With Carole Lombard and Kay Francis.

Cast:

Julie Eden                  Carole Lombard
Alec Walker               Cary Grant
Maida Walker            Kay Francis
Mr. Walker                Charles Coburn
Suzanne                    Helen Vinson
Laura                         Katharine Alexander
Dr. Gateson               Jonathan Hale
Dr. Muller                  Maurice Moscovich
Mrs. Walker               Nella Walker
Ellen                           Peggy Ann Garner
Gardner                      Spencer Charters

With Carole Lombard.

Lobby Cards:

 

Directed by John Cromwell
Produced and distributed by RKO Radio.
Running time: 94 minutes.

On this Day...The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)

The Eagle and the Hawk was Cary Grant's 10th full length feature film.

Also starring Fredric March and Carole Lombard, the story of flying aces and  the trauma of war.

The New York Times noted,"Here is a drama told with a praiseworthy sense of realism, and the leading role portrayed very efficiently by Fredric March....there are noteworthy impersonations by Cary Grant, Sir Guy Standing,and Miss Lombard."

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Stuart Walker

Produced and distributed by Paramount Publix

Running time: 72 minutes

On this day...Sinners in the Sun (1932)

This was Cary Grant's second full length feature film, released on May 13th, 1932.

The main stars were Carole Lombard and Chester Morris, in a story of love and riches and the affect one has on the other.

"Sinners in the Sun is, in effect, a display of luxury, and the tale of a man and a girl who temporarily despise love in a cottage, but virtuously return to it at last as being of more importance than the limousines, the Long Island parties, the fashion-parades, and the underclothes that enrich their unregenerate interlude" - The Times (London)

Cary Grant played the role of Ridgeway.

Cary Grant with Carole Lombard.

Cary Grant as Ridgeway, with Carole Lombard(Doris) and Pierre De Ramey(Louis)

Lobby Card

With Rita La Roy(Lil), Carole Lombard(Doris), Walter Bryon(Eric Nelson).

Directed by Alexander Hall.

Running time: 70 minutes.

Produced and Distributed by Paramount Publix.

From a story "Beach-Comber" by Mildred Cram.

Leading Ladies...Part 1.

Cary Grant, over the course of his film career, starred alongside the most iconic female stars of the time and who still maintain that status, even today!

The list is impressive.

Some actresses appeared more than once with Cary Grant on screen.

Katharine Hepburn:

She appeared in the most films with Cary Grant, a total of four times.

Also, on July 20th, 1942, on the radio, in The Philadelphia Story.

Sylvia Scarlett (1936)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Holiday (1938)

The Philadelphia Story (1941)

"She was this slip of a woman and I never liked skinny women.

But she had this thing, this air you might call it, the most totally magnetic woman I'd

ever seen, and probably ever seen since.

You had to look at her, you had to listen to her. There was no escaping her."

- Cary Grant

"Cary was a lovely, very generous actor. A good comedian. And so funny. He had a wonderful laugh. When you looked at that face of his, it was full of a wonderful kind of laughter at the back of the eyes."

- Katharine Hepburn

Irene Dunne:

Appearing in three films.

Two were probably amongst the best screwball comedies on film.

Her radio appearences with Cary Grant also included:

Theodora Goes West (June 13th, 1938)

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House  

(Oct 10th, 1950)

The Awful Truth (Jan 18th, 1955)

The Awful Truth (1937)

My Favorite Wife (1940)

Penny Serenade (1941)

"Her timing was marvelous. She was so good that she made comedy look easy.

If she'd made it look as difficult as it really is, she would have won her Oscar."

- Cary Grant

"I loved working with Cary - every minute of it. Between takes he was so amusing with his cockney stories. I was his best audience. I laughed and laughed and laughed. The more I laughed, the more he went on."

- Irene Dunne

Deborah Kerr:

Appearing in three films with Cary Grant.

Dream Wife (1953)

An Affair to Remember (1957)

The Grass Is Greener (1961)

"Mostly, we have manufactured ladies - with the exception of Ingrid, Grace, Deborah and Audrey."

- Cary Grant

"His elegance, his wit, his true professionalism were outstanding, and I learned so much from just watching him work. The ability to ad-lib, the timing of a double-take, in fact, all his timing - so essential for true comedy."

- Deborah Kerr

Myrna Loy:

Appearing in three films.

In 1941, June 30th, she also joined Cary Grant for a radio adaptation, I Love You Again.

Wings in the Dark (1935)

The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947)

Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House (1948)

Carole Lombard:

Appearing in three films with Cary Grant, and one radio performance on December 11th, 1939 - In Name Only.

Sinners in the Sun (1932)

The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)

In Name Only (1939)

Sylvia Sidney:

Appeared in three films.

Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)

Madame Butterfly (1932)

Thirty-Day Princess (1934)

So six actresses, appeared in three or more films with Cary Grant.

But ten more starred in two films each with him.

That will be the subject of Leading Ladies: Part Two...