My Life In Five Years with Archie.

 It all started on the 1st of January, 2020.

I had posted a few times before this using pictures of Cary Grant to relate something that was going on in my life, or just a means of reflecting on life in general. 

I thought the pictures of Cary Grant would work well for two reasons...1. It's Cary Grant and I am a big fan and 2. Who would want to see pictures of me.

By the end of 2019, I was beginning to enjoy spending a little bit of time, adding captions to Cary Grant pictures and amusing myself.

Posts that appeared before My Life In A Year With Archie!

Then the thought came to me! Could I do this for an entire year? Would I have enough to say and post about every single day?

The first posts in 2020 for Cary Grant's birth and death.

Well... I thought at least 74 days could be dedicated to the films Cary Grant appeared in... only 291 posts then... 5 marriages to comment on.... 286 posts... birth and death!... 284!!

'On This Day' posts mainly feature film releases. Each year had a different format with a corresponding blog. In 2020 there were posters and stills. In 2021 - commissioned artwork from Studio 36. 2022 featured film quotes, with a return to commissioned  artwork and stills in 2023. Finally in 2024 - poster and lobby cards.

It was beginning to take shape in my mind. If I included key dates; arriving in America, Awards, deaths associated etc it might be doable... a challenge but doable!!

I got so much out of it... searching for a picture that fitted my daily life, thinking of a caption, and sometimes trying to find a quote that fitted a picture... that the one year challenge became a 5 year project. It was also instrumental in setting up this blog!

So to be here 5 years later, having posted every day except one (it still annoys me!!) is an amazing personal achievement.

So, I think I have earned a rest from Instagram posting!

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

 "...a superb blend of horror and comedy..."

With Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre.

Arsenic and Old Lace - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"My favorite scene is the one from the picture Arsenic and Old Lace which begins with Cary Grant making the spine-chilling discovery that his two dear old maiden aunts are poisoners who have murdered some dozen men.  

The old ladies' sweetly matter-of-fact attitude toward their gruesome hobby is a superb blend of horror and comedy, and the scene develops uproariously.  

I was helpless with laughter as I watched Cary change from a normal young man to a decidedly dizzy one, talking to himself, staring into the window seat from which bodies mysteriously appeared and disappeared, and making various wild attempts to cope with the situation."

- Ida Lupino, Saturday Evening Post

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 47 - Arsenic and Old Lace (Lobby Card Style)

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People Will Talk (1951)

   "...turns in one of the most intelligent performances of his nineteen-year Hollywood career."

With Walter Slezak.

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

"And once again, Hollywood's ranking "genius" - the only man to win four Academy Awards in two years - has something to say and says it frankly and funnily.  

The film, which has a three-way plot, concentrates on one of the strangest and most adult love affairs ever to emerge from Hollywood.   The wedding between                  Dr. Praetorius and Deborah Higgins takes place when the doctor knows she is more than a month pregnant, although he is not responsible - a situation handled in perfect taste, and resulting in an exceptionally happy union.  

These heterogeneous plot strands are welded together by Grant, who turns in one of the most intelligent performances of his nineteen-year Hollywood career.  And       Miss Crain proves, as she did in Pinky, that she is ready to graduate from her usual pigtail roles.  Much of the credit for an impressive film goes to the very adult and literate writing of Mankiewicz."

- Newsweek

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 56 - People Will Talk (Lobby Card Style)

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I Was A Male War-Bride (1949)

   "...a past master at playing the handsome      he-man thrown for a loss by a difficult dame..."

I Was A Male War-Bride - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"A temperamental French army captain and a strong-minded WAC lieutenant stationed in Occupied Germany spend the first half of this comedy hating each other and the second half trying to find a way for the captain to emigrate to the United States.  There is a short intermission between halves in which the two sparring partners get married.  

The film is poorly paced.  By the time Captain Rochard and Lieutenant Gates get to the altar, it seems as if we've had our money's worth.  But, no - complications are barely beginning.  It appears that the only provision under which Rochard may accompany his wife back to the States is the law regulating the immigration of war brides.  It is with this embarrassing predicament that the film finally gets down to the business announced in the title.  

The comedy has its share of bright and breezy moments.  Cary Grant is a past master at playing the handsome he-man thrown for a loss by a difficult dame or an undignified situation.  But none of the boy-girl situations in this opus is original enough to stand being spun out for two hours."   

- Scholastic Magazine

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 54 - I Was A Male War-Bride (1949) (Lobby Card Style)

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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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Devil and the Deep (1932)

 "...the best dramatic talkie we have yet seen."

With Tallulah Bankhead.

Devil and the Deep - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"The Picture is, in my opinion, the best dramatic talkie we have yet seen.  It is unabashed melodrama at times, but Charles Laughton's magnificent acting disarms criticism of the more violently sensational incidents.  He appears as the jealous, half-demented commander of a submarine, stationed on the West African coast.  His wife, played by Tallulah Bankhead, has endured five years of hell through his insane jealousy, but to the world at large he appears as a goodnatured fellow with an impossible wife.  At length, driven from home by a maniacal outburst of rage, Tallulah meets Gary Cooper and succumbs to his manly charms, only to discover, the next morning, that he is the newly arrived second officer.  

The submarine leaves port for diving maneuvers, and, through an accident, Tallulah is on board, with her half-mad husband and unsuspecting lover.  The vessel is rammed by a liner, owing to the machinations of Laughton, and the crew are entombed at the bottom of the sea.  This sequence is admirably done, in spite of the occasional use of models in the shooting.  The half-mad commander orders his second officer to be arrested, but Tallulah reveals her husband's insanity, and one by one the crew make their escape by means of the emergency apparatus.  

Only Laughton is left behind, and as he smashes his wife's portrait to atoms with an axe, the water rushes in and he is drowned in his cabin.  Tallulah Bankhead has better opportunities than of late as the distrait wife, but she is overshadowed by Laughton's amazing performance.  Gary Cooper is completely negligible as the lover."

- David Fairweather, Theatre World

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 4 - Devil and the Deep (Lobby Card Style)

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Notorious (1946)

      "...with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to bring glamour and sultry vitality to the leads..."

With Ingrid Bergman.

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

"The unease that assaults an artist transplanted bodily out of his native soil has affected even veteran director Alfred Hitchcock who, since his arrival in Hollywood, has consistently failed to live up to the standards of Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes.  A celebration is therefore in order for his most recent effort, Notorious.  With a highly polished script by Ben Hecht, and with Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant to bring glamour and sultry vitality to the leads, Mr. Hitchcock has fashioned a film in the supercharged American idiom of the sort that made Casablanca popular.  With a minimum of tricks and an uncluttered story line, he tells of a beautiful American spy who marries an enemy leader and is rescued at Zero hour by her secret service superior when her husband tries to poison her.

- Hermine Rich Isaacs, Theatre Arts Magazine

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 49 - Notorious (Lobby Card Style)

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North by Northwest (1959)

      "...two of the very slickest operators before and behind the Hollywood cameras."

With Eva Marie Saint.

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

"If it does nothing else (but it does, it does), North by Northwest resoundingly reaffirms the fact that Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock are two of the very slickest operators before and behind the Hollywood cameras.  Together they can be unbeatable.  Each has his own special, career-tested formula.  Actor Grant's is a sartorial spiffiness and mannered charm; producer-director Hitchcock's is an outrageously simple yet effective blend of mayhem and humor at mayhem's expense, the whole usually framed by a famous piece of scenery that no one else had ever considered a suitable backdrop for melodramatic shenanigans.  The present shiny and colorful collaboration offers Grant as a dapper Madison Avenue advertising executive being chased by foreign agents over the slippery precipices of the Presidential faces carved into Mount Rushmore - a most unlikely bit of contrived suspense, but one that is hypnotizing while it jangles the nerves." 

- Newsweek

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 66 - North by Northwest (Lobby Card Style)

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Crisis (1950)

      "...brittle and diamond-brilliant... His sincerity in the story's guts is its premise for being believed..."

With Paula Raymond.

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

"Crisis is a bold piece of movie adventuring.  Under Dore Schary's progressive administration at MGM, we are now considered adult enough to enjoy an unbuttoned screenplay on the violent temperature that erupts in Latin-American civil war and dictatorship.  

Cary Grant is more brittle and diamond-brilliant than before as the enlightened doctor.  His sincerity in the story's guts is its premise for being believed.  Jose Ferrer is cunning to the point of evil genius." 

- Reed Porter,  The Mirror (Los Angeles)

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 55 - Crisis (Lobby Card Style)

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An Affair to Remember (1957)

      "...an early exponent of cinematic charm, still looks good and talks good..."

With Deborah Kerr.

An Affair to Remember - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Leo McCarey has had the good sense not to pretend that this romantic comedy is ever anything more than that, meanwhile exploiting a quality so long absent from the screen that it comes through with all the force of a brand new discovery - namely, charm.  Jerry Wald, the producer, observed that one reason there were so few real love stories being made any more was because there were so few actors who could play them convincingly.  "Today's actors," he said, "either look good and talk lousy or they look lousy and talk good."  Well, Cary Grant, an early exponent of cinematic charm, still looks good and talks good - and his graceful performance as a playboy is one good reason for seeing this film." 

- Arthur Knight, Saturday Review

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 62 - An Affair to Remember (Lobby Card Style)

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Night and Day (1946)

      "...the score of Night and Day, a radiant web woven tight of Cole Porter's melodies..."

With Monty Woolley and Jane Wyman (The film was released both in Black and White and Colourised).

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

"In Hollywood they are acclaiming the twentieth anniversary of the talkies.  The Warners with a proprietary interest in the event have designated Night and Day, their motion picture biography of Cole Porter, as the anniversary film.  If they planned to celebrate some of the incredible inanities that have been perpetrated in the name of talk during the past two decades, they could not have chosen a better film with which to do it.  But the sound track was designed to carry a load of music as well as words, and it must be admitted that the score of Night and Day, a radiant web woven tight of Cole Porter's melodies, makes it seem well worth having struggled through the first twenty years."

- Theatre Arts Magazine

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number  48 - Night and Day(Lobby Card Style)

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Singapore Sue (1932)

    "It was probably on the basis of this film that Grant obtained his first five-year contract with Paramount..."

With Anna Chang.

Singapore Sue - taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"The first short film that Cary Grant made was Singapore Sue which was released in the summer of 1932.  Three of his full length films were already in distribution.  However he had made this short film in New York City.  In it he played an American sailor who visits a cafe run by actress Anna Chang.  It was probably on the basis of this film that Grant obtained his first five-year contract with Paramount.  The film was written and directed by Casey Robinson.  The dialogue was staged by Max E Hayes."

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Singapore Sue (Lobby Card Style)

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Born To Be Bad (1934)

     "...a hopelessly unintelligent hodgepodge, wherein Loretta Young and Cary Grant have the misfortune to be cast in the leading roles."

With Loretta Young.

Born To Be Bad - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Ralph Graves, who has given several fairly interesting performances, is responsible for the narrative of Born To Be Bad.  If this opus is any criterion of Mr. Graves's literary skill, he is scarcely to be congratulated on having temporarily abandoned his acting.  It is a hopelessly unintelligent hodgepodge, wherein Loretta Young and Cary Grant have the misfortune to be cast in the leading roles." 

- Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 15 - Born To Be Bad (Lobby Card Style)

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My Favorite Wife (1940)

     "...a very pleasant style of male-animal humor, with charm and a distinct sense of where to poise or throw his weight"

With Donald MacBride and Irene Dunne.

My Favorite Wife - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"There is some of the best comedy work in My Favorite Wife, a sort of nonsense-sequel to The Awful Truth.  There is also some of the worst plot making, and Irene Dunne.  The story was written by Bella and Samuel Spewack and I am not going to tell it; but apart from its being quite impossible, which may be called comic license, it forces its best people to treat each other with an aimless viciousness that even Boris Karloff might hesitate to reveal to his public.  And while most of the characters can manage to cover up this bankruptcy of motivation with quips and tumbles, Miss Dunne has apparently become very interested in acting and what may be achieved with the Human Voice.  So it becomes her field day.  She is not one person but seven, and if she is not all seven at once she is seven in rapid succession without aid from script or meaning, running the gamut from Little Eva to Gracie Allen, from The Women to (by actual account) Amos and Andy.  What a lark.  

But this is a Garson Kanin picture and to miss it would not be sensible, for Mr Kanin is already first-string in comedy, and comedy is no steady boarder these last few months.  In addition, it shows Cary Grant developing a very pleasant style of male-animal humor, with charm and a distinct sense of where to poise or throw his weight.   ... The best indication of a director's presence is the opening scene in court, where Granville Bates as the Judge had himself a picnic.  Only four people, only one room, and it went on quite a time - but so easily you would not realize till afterwards that all the heavy exposition of Act I, Scene I, had run off in it like a shout.  There was another courtroom scene near the end, too, though with more people; and there were scenes here and there all the way through, covering the retreat of the story.  Such flowers will not bloom unseen, but it's a pity there has to be so damn much desert air around."

- Otis Ferguson, The New Republic

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 36 - My Favorite Wife (Lobby Card Style)

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