Sunday, February 28, 2021

Cary Grant on the Bookshelf! Part 1- 2020 to 2000.

My Cary Grant book collection, dare I say, is pretty much completed. I have posted various archive or Archi(v)e updates but this blog brings all the books together in one place.

So here goes! In release date order from newest to oldest - Part 1: 2020 to 2000.

(Picture size gives a rough idea of book format; small, medium or large)

Cary Grant: The Making of a Hollywood Legend  by Mark Glancy (2020)


Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise by Scott Eyman (2020)


Alfred Hitchcock: The Complete Films by Taschen (2019)


Cary Grant: Movie Poster Book (Special Edition) by Greg Lenburg (2016)


American Legends: The Life of Cary Grant by Charles River Editors (?)


Women I've Undressed: The Fabulous Life and Times of Legendary Hollywood Designer by Orry-Kelly (2016)


Is That All There Is?: The Strange Life of Peggy Lee by James Gavin (2014)


Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow by Sophia Loren (2014)

Last man Standing: Tales From Tinseltown by Roger Moore (2014)


Hollywood Cats, introduction by Gareth Abbot (2014)


All The Best Lines: An Informal History of the Movies in Quotes, Notes and Anecdotes by George Tiffin (2013)


How to Become Cary Grant: A Remarkable Life in Quotes and Remembrances by Horace Martin Woodhouse (2013)


The Killer Detail: Defining Moments in Fashion by Francois Armanet and Elisabeth Quin (2013)


The Film Book by Ronald Bergan (2011)


Cary Grant: A Life in Pictutres by Pavillion (2011)


Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant by Jennifer Grant (2011)


Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant by Dyan Cannon (2011)


Chaplin's Girl: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill by Miranda Seymour (2010)


High Society: Grace Kelly and Hollywood by Donald Spoto (2009)





Harold Lloyd: Magic in a Pair of Horn-Rimmed Glasses and Other Turning Points in the Life and Career of a Comedy Legend by Anette D'Agostino Lloyd (2009)


The Alfred Hitchcock Story by Ken Mogg (2008)


My Word Is My Bond by Roger Moore (2008)


Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn by Donald Spoto (2007)


Movie Icans: Cary Grant by Taschen (2007)


The Audrey Hepburn Treasures: Pictures and Mementos from a Life of Style and Purpose by Ellen Erwin and Jessica Z. Diamond (2006)


Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style by Richard Torregrossa (2006)


Cary Grant: The Wizard of Beverly Grove by Bill Royce (2006)


Cary Grant: A Biography bu Marc Eliot (2004) 


Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best by Nancy Nelson (2003)


Cary Grant: In Name Only by Gary Morecambe and Martin Sterling (2003)


North By Northwest (York Press) by Dan Williams (2001)


Hollywood Wit by Rosemarie Jarski (2000)

Part 2 continues with Books from 1999 to 1963.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

On This Day...When You're In Love (1937)

 On this day back in 1937, Cary Grant released his 25th full length film, When You're In Love.  The British title was For You Alone.


Summary:

Artist Jimmy Hudson (Cary Grant) is stuck in Mexico unable to pay his hotel bill. Meanwhile, Louise Fuller (Grace Moore), an opera singer, is stuck in the same town unable to return to the US due to visa problems. 

The solution: Hudson agrees to marry Fuller, in return for which she pays him $2,000, which allows her to return to New York to resume her opera career. Hudson and Fuller continue to meet and trade barbs, but it's clear they are falling for each other. A highlight is when Fuller joins a 5 piece band to sing "Minnie the Moocher", the Cab Calloway signature number. True love appears to be thwarted by Fuller's career obligations and divorce papers are exchanged. But in the end love is triumphant!


"The picture is a worthy successor to the long line of Grace Moore triumphs. Her rendition of "Minnie the Moocher" is alone worth the price of admission." - Scholastic Magazine.

Cast:

Grace Moore ... Louise Fuller
Cary Grant ... Jimmy Hudson
Aline MacMahon ... Marianne Woods
Henry Stephenson ... Walter Mitchell
Thomas Mitchell ... Hank Miller
Catherine Doucet ... Jane Summers 
Luis Alberni ... Luis Perugini
Gerald Oliver Smith ... Gerald Meeker
Emma Dunn ... Mrs. Hamilton
George C. Pearce ... Mr. Hamilton
Frank Puglia ... Carlos


Did You Know?

Louise Brooks was originally cast in a supporting role. But after several spats with Columbia Pictures chief  Harry Cohn, she was abruptly fired and most of her scenes deleted. Brooks can be glimpsed (uncredited) doing a specialty turn as a ballet dancer in one of the musical numbers.


Grace Moore's scene singing "Minnie the Moocher" (with severely laundered lyrics) was included in preview showings, but was left out of the film in the original theatrical and later television release; the scene is now included in Sony's film restoration.


Filmed in 1936, released in 1937, this was Grace Moore's second to last Hollywood film.



Quotes:

AT LAST! GRACE MOORE GOES TO TOWN! Madcap fun in a riotous swingtime hit! (Tagline)





With Squeezit.


Lobby Cards:



Posters:


"When You Are A Guy" (Swedish)



"The Heart in Celebration" (French)


Directed by Robert Riskin.
Distributed and Produced by Columbia.
Running time: 110 minutes.


Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.


Wednesday, February 17, 2021

On This Day...Gunga Din (1939).

 Cary Grant's 32nd full length film, Gunga Din, was released today in 1939.


Summary:

Born in British India, Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) always wanted to join the British army like many of his fellow Indians, but Indians were not allowed to do so. So he starts observing the British and learns accordingly. He befriends Sgt. Archibald Cutter (Cary Grant) and warns him about a Thuggee uprising that may threaten their base.


 Sgt. Cutter and others are able to fend off the attack, but when Gunga gets information of a much larger rebel attack, Cutter accompanies him to the cult's temple embedded with gold statues of Hindu deities. Gunga finds out he is regarded as a traitor by his countrymen, and Cutter, as well as Sergeants MacChesney (Victor McLaglen) and Ballantine Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), is held captive by the Thuggees in a bid to force the British to leave India.


With Robert Coote.

"We are grateful...for Grant's cheery, Cockney sergeant, and for George Stevens's good direction..."
- Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal.


Cast:

Cary Grant ... Sergeant Archibald Cutter
Victor McLaglen ... Sergeant MacChesney
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ... Sergeant Thomas Ballantine
Sam Jaffe ... Gunga Din
Eduardo Ciannelli ... Guru
Joan Fontaine ... Emmy
Montagu Love ... Colonel Weed
Robert Coote ... Sergeant Higginbotham
Abner Biberman ... Chota
Lumsden Hare ... Major Mitchell



Did You Know?

Upon release, a campaign was launched by the Indian magazine "Filmindia" against what it called misrepresentation of Indian characters in the film and the displaying of insensitivity towards Hindu customs. Following riots in India and Malaya, the film was withdrawn by the censors.

Was second only to Gone with the Wind (1939) as the biggest money-maker of 1939.



The "bridge over the deep chasm" scene, in which Annie the elephant shakes a rope bridge while Cutter and Gunga Din are trying to cross it, was actually filmed on a bridge just eight feet off the ground. The background was a realistic painting of a chasm.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. recounted how the backdrops and locations were so convincing that they fooled actual Indians who had visited the real Khyber Pass. They even refused to believe him when he told them the truth.

Director George Stevens had Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Cary Grant flip a coin for the role of Cutter. Grant won. However, there's also a report that Grant was dissatisfied with his original role of Ballantine and convinced producer Pandro S. Berman to allow him to switch roles with Fairbanks.


Quotes:

Sgt. Archibald Cutter: Eight feet away from where I'm sitting, right here, there's enough gold to make me sole owner and proprietor of a pub as big as the Crystal Palace. Best pub in Hampshire.



Sgt. Archibald Cutter: Now get me some tools. Something to rip these blinking bars out.
Gunga Din: Already bring all tools could find. Is this satisfactory, sahib?
[holds up a fork]
Sgt. Archibald Cutter: Look... What do you think I want to break out of - a bloomin' pudding? Now go on, get something big.
[Din returns with an elephant]
Sgt. Archibald Cutter: What are you doing, Din?
Gunga Din: The large tool you asked for, sahib.


With Victor McLaglen.



On set.



Lobby Cards:



Directed by George Stevens.
Produced and distributed bu RKO.
Running time: 117 minutes.


Artwork created by Rebekah Hawley.



On This Day...The Woman Accused (1933)

The Woman Accused was Cary Grant's 9th full length film and was released on this date in 1933. It was also his second film with Nancy Carroll.


Summary:

Glenda O'Brien's (Nancy Carroll) romance with Jeffrey Baxter (Cary Grant) is endangered by the return of her old lover. During a three-day pleasure cruise, a murder victim's friend (John Halliday) tries to trick a new bride  into admitting her guilt.


"...The hero, as done capably by Cary Grant.." - Daily Variety.


Cast:

Nancy Carroll ... Glenda O'Brien
Cary Grant ... Jeffrey Baxter
John Halliday ... Stephen Bessemer
Irving Pichel ... District Attorney Clark
Louis Calhern ... Leo Young
Norma Mitchell ... Martha
Jack La Rue ... Little Maxie
Frank Sheridan ... Inspector Swope
John Lodge ... Dr. Simpson
William J. Kelly ... Captain of Boat
Harry Holman ... Judge Osgood
Jay Belasco ... Tony Graham
Gertrude Messinger ... Evelyn Craig
Lona Andre ... Cora Matthews
Donald Stuart ... The Steward


Did You Know?

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. Its initial television broadcast took place in Chicago Sunday 4 January 1959 on WBBM (Channel 2); other sponsors resisted its pre-code plot twists, and it appears that it was not taken out of the vault again for a year and a half. However, curiosity and interest in seeing Cary Grant in one of his earliest leading roles overcame that situation and it eventually surfaced on more television channels in 1960. It was released on DVD 19 April 2016 as one of 18 [Paramount] titles in Universal's Cary Grant: The Vault Collection, and again 12 October 2016 as part of the Universal Vault Series.


The story "The Woman Accused" appeared in "Liberty" Magazine between January 21 and February 18, 1933.


Lobby Cards:







Directed by Paul Sloane.
Produced and distributed by Paramount Publix.
Running time: 73 minutes.


Artwork  created by Rebekah Hawley.