On This Day...Cary Grant Marries His Second Wife: Barbara Hutton.

Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton were married on July 8th, 1942.

The press dubbed the couple "Cash and Cary", but Grant never needed Barbara Hutton's money or her name. 

Cary Grant was Freddie Brisson's Best man at his wedding and Barbara Hutton was one of Rosalind Russell's bridesmaids.

They first met on the French liner "Normandie" and then encountered each other in various parts of the world. They managed to keep their relationship quiet and the wedding was planned as a top secret event. Even the local pastor, who was to conduct the six minute service in the Lake Arrowhead home of Frank Vincent, did not know the identity of the couple!

Cary took a day off filming Once Upon a Honeymoon for the wedding.

Hutton was one of the wealthiest women in the world. She married seven times, and had one son, Lance, with second husband, Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow.

Lance and Grant were fond of each other, Grant becoming a father figure, and Lance called Grant "General".

They were married for 3 years, and in the divorce settlement Cary Grant didn't request and money. 

 

On This Day... Crisis (1950)

On today's date back in 1950, Cary Grant's 55th full length feature film, Crisis, was released. 

Summary: 

Husband and wife Americans Dr. Eugene (Cary Grant) and Mrs. Helen Ferguson (Paula Raymond) - he a renowned neurosurgeon - are traveling through Latin America for a vacation. When they make the decision to return to New York earlier than expected, they are detained by the country's military. They learn the reason is that President Raoul Farrago (José Ferrer), the tyrannical military dictator of the country, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and will die without an operation to remove it, and has chosen Gene as the doctor to lead the surgical team. Because of the volatile politics within the country and for his own safety, as revolutionary forces would like to see him dead, Farrago refuses to go to a hospital for the operation, instead it to be done at his home. Despite not particularly liking Farrago or his ways, Gene agrees purely in his oath as a doctor. However, he ends up being caught in the middle between Farrago/his brutal regime and the revolutionaries, each side who is willing to use him and Helen to get what they want, namely the life or death of Farrago.

Cast:

Cary Grant... Dr Eugene Norland Ferguson

José Ferrer...Raoul Farrago (as Jose Ferrer)

Paula Raymond...Helen Ferguson

Signe Hasso...Senora Isabel Farrago

Ramon Novarro...Colonel Adragon

Gilbert Roland...Roland Gonzales

Leon Ames...Sam Proctor

Did You Know?

The film was originally banned in Mexico, Central and South America.

The South American dictator, Farrago, and his beautiful wife, seem clearly modeled on Argentine dictator Gen. Juan Domingo Perón and his wife Eva Perón, something writer-director Richard Brooks conceded in a 1965 interview.

Although great pains were used to disguise the name of the country in the film, Dr. Ferguson mentions that President Farrago should go to a neurological hospital (which he mentions is just across the border) in Chile--which narrows the country down to either Argentina, Bolivia or Peru. Other hints include: Peso/Dollar law, the blankets worn on the train, license plates on vehicles.

Directorial debut of Richard Brooks.  Brooks was at the Santa Anita race track where he met Cary Grant and struck up a conversation about this film; Brooks wrote the story but also wanted to direct; however, none of the studios would let him. Grant asked for a copy of the script and loved it... so much so that he went to MGM and said he would love to do the movie but only if Brooks was the director.

The original story was about the doctor's daughter getting kidnapped and there was no wife. However, once MGM had Cary Grant cast it insisted on a re-write so that Grant would have a love interest.

Quotes:

[Farrago is about to be operated by Eugene]

Raoul Farrago: Doctor, do many people die in an operation like this?

Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson: Under the best conditions, about 12 percent. These are not the best conditions.

Raoul Farrago: You don't like me, do you?

Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson: I try to regard my patients impersonally.

Raoul Farrago: Can you?

Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson: No.

Raoul Farrago: Well, doctor, did the operation go well?

Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson: Fine. You just died.

Raoul Farrago: At least permit me to thank you. You have done a great service not only to me but to the people of my country.

Dr. Eugene Norland Ferguson: I only saved your life I didn't vote for you.

Raoul Farrago: Neither did they.

Posters:

Directed by Richard Brooks.

Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Running time: 95 minutes

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...An Affair To Remember (1957)

Cary Grant's 62nd film was An Affair to Remember and released on today's date back in 1957. 

Summary: 

The suave, cosmopolitan and first-rate philanderer, Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), has finally decided to settle down. Sailing from Europe to New York to reunite with his lovely celebrity fiancée, Miss Lois Clarke, and her enviable inheritance, the great seducer crosses paths with the charming professional singer, Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr), who is returning to her lover. Despite both being engaged to others, the two transatlantic commuters will laugh, tease each other, and flirt--and by the time they reach New York City's Port, the clandestine couple will have fallen madly in love. Now an unforeseen and troubling dilemma burdens Nickie and Terry, only a sincere promise and a face-to-face meeting atop the iconic Empire State Building in six months' time can seal their bond. Still, is this love meant to be?

Cast:

Cary Grant...Nickie Ferrante

Deborah Kerr...Terry McKay

Richard Denning...Kenneth Bradley

Neva Patterson...Lois Clark

Cathleen Nesbitt...Grandmother Janou

Robert Q. Lewis...Self - Announcer

Charles Watts...Ned Hathaway

Fortunio Bonanova...Courbet

Did You Know?

The 53-year-old Cary Grant was only 15 years younger than Cathleen Nesbitt, who played his grandmother.

Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant improvised many of their scenes throughout filming, and a number of lines that made it to the final cut of the film came from the actors' improvisation.

Nickie and Terry make their conditional promise to meet in six months at exactly the halfway point of the film (59-1/2 minutes into the 119-minute movie).

After the confrontation with the photographer on the ship's deck, Deborah Kerr turns to Cary Grant and says, "So, I go my way [traces a straight path by her hand] and you go yours [traces a twisty path with the wave of her hand]." The same exchange takes place between Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in The Awful Truth (1937), where she says, "As we go down the life's highway, you go in your way [traces a twisty path with the wave of her hand] and I go in my way [traces a straight path]."

Deborah Kerr's character was previously played by Irene Dunne in Love Affair (1939), of which this film is a remake. Both were directed by Leo McCarey. The year before this film was made, Kerr played Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1956), also a role that had previously been played by Irene Dunne in the black-and-white classic Anna and the King of Siam (1946). "The King and I" is a musical based on the same book.

The film was shot mostly in Hollywood, though there were location shoots in New York City and the South of France. When Cathleen Nesbitt's friends asked if she had enjoyed filming her scene as Cary Grant's grandmother in France, she had to inform them that the interior scenes had been done on the 20th-Century-Fox back lot.

During filming cinematographer Milton R. Krasner pointed out to Cary Grant that a lump on his forehead was making it hard to film his close-ups. The lump was the result of a childhood accident, but Grant had been habitually rubbing it for years, leading it to swell. Doctors told him it would take four to six weeks for him to recover from its removal. Instead, he took a few days off, had his wife, Betsy Drake, hypnotize him, and had the procedure performed in the doctor's office under a local anesthetic. He recovered within days with no scarring.

To help promote the film, Cary Grant did a product endorsement, something he had tried to avoid for years. In this case, however, he was being honest. The ad was for TWA, his airline of choice.

Ingrid Bergman was the first choice to play Terry McKay. Doris Day was also considered before Deborah Kerr was cast.

This film was referenced in the movie 'Sleepless in Seattle'. Rita Wilson's character explains the story to Tom Hanks and breaks down in tears doing so.

Quotes:

Terry McKay: What makes life so difficult?

Nickie Ferrante: People?

Grandmother Janou: [talking about Nickie] Everything comes too easily to him. He's always attracted by the art he isn't practising, the place he hasn't been, the girl he hasn't met.

Interviewer: I'm sure you had some wonderful experiences in Europe.

Nickie Ferrante: Yes.

Interviewer: Would you care to expand on that statement?

Nickie Ferrante: No.

Terry McKay: My father drank beer. In the morning.

Nickie Ferrante: He was a beer drinker?

Terry McKay: Later in the day, he drank anything.

Terry McKay: We were talking about the place where I was born...

Nickie Ferrante: I can hardly wait for you to grow up.

Terry McKay: Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories... we've already missed the spring!

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Leo McCarey.

Distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Running time: 114 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...Night and Day (1946)

Back in 1946 on today's date Cary Grant's 48th full length film was released...Night and Day!

Summary:

A fictionalized biopic of composer Cole Porter (Cary Grant) from his days at Yale in the 1910s through the height of his success to the 1940s.

Cast:

Cary Grant ... Cole Porter

Alexis Smith ... Linda Lee Porter

Monty Woolley ... Monty

Ginny Simms ... Carole Hill

Jane Wyman ... Gracie Harris

Eve Arden ... Gabrielle

Victor Francen ... Anatole Giro

Alan Hale ... Leon Dowling

Dorothy Malone ... Nancy

Tom D'Andrea ... Tommy

Selena Royle ... Kate Porter

Donald Woods ... Ward Blackburn

Henry Stephenson ... Omar Cole

Paul Cavanagh ... Bart McClelland

Sig Ruman ... Wilowski

Did You Know?

When the studio asked Cole Porter who he might like to play him in the movie, Porter suggested Cary Grant as a joke. He thought Grant was about as far from himself as you could get. The studio went out and signed Grant to play the role.

First Cary Grant film in color.

In addition to rewriting all issues pertaining to the sexual orientation of Cole Porter and Monty Woolley, the film takes substantial liberties in terms of the timing of career events in the lives of its characters, some of which occurred only a year or two earlier (i.e. the release date of the film version of The Man Who Came to Dinner [1942]) and might have been fresh in audiences' memories.

The lack of musical performers on the Warner Bros. roster led to the studio putting some of its non-singing contract players, including Eve Arden, Jane Wyman and Dorothy Malone, to work in song-and-dance numbers. The only performer who doesn't sing is Alexis Smith, who, ironically, would become a Tony Award-winning musical theatre star decades later as the star of Broadway's "Follies" and "Platinum."

Cary Grant performs his own vocals in this film.

Quotes:

Cole Porter: Thanks for all the flowers.

Monty Woolley: Yes, one can only send them to a man when he's flat on his back.

Monty Woolley: Haven't you ever wanted to be alone?

Gracie Harris: Yes, but with somebody.

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Michael Curtiz.

Distributed by Warner Bros.

Running time: 132 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...Mr. Lucky (1943)

 Released today back in 1943, Mr. Lucky was Cary Grant's 43rd full length feature film

Summary:

Joe Adams (Cary Grant) takes on the identity of a dead gangster in order to avoid the draft. Adams plans to use a war relief charity to get his gambling operation up and running, until he falls in love with Dorothy Bryant (Laraine Day) and has a change of heart.

Cast:

Cary Grant ... Joe Adams posing as Joe Bascopolous
Laraine Day ... Dorothy Bryant
Charles Bickford ... Hard Swede
Gladys Cooper ... Captain Veronica Steadman
Alan Carney... Crunk
Henry Stephenson... Mr. Bryant
Paul Stewart... Zepp
Kay Johnson... Mrs. Mary Ostrander
Erford Gage... Henchman
Walter Kingsford... Commissioner Hargraves
Florence Bates... Mrs. Van Every

Did You Know?

RKO's second biggest hit of 1943, netting $1.603 million, it was only outperformed at the box office by the vastly lower-budgeted Hitler's Children (1943).

The rhyming slang used by Cary Grant's character is a form of slang in which a word is replaced by a rhyming word, typically the second word of a two-word phrase (so stairs becomes "apples and pears"). The second word is then often dropped entirely ("I'm going up the apples"), meaning that the association of the original word to the rhyming phrase is not obvious to the uninitiated. For example: "Sherman" for an American (Sherman tank = Yank). The exact origin of rhyming slang appears to be unclear, partly because it exists to some extent in many languages. In English, rhyming slang is strongly associated with Cockney speech from the East End of London.

Quotes:

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: [to Crunk] Never give a sucker an even break and always keep an eye on your pals.

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Now watch this.

[rolls dice]

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Seven.

Captain Veronica Steadman: How do you do it?

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Influence. You bring me the right people, I'll get you that hundred thousand.

Captain Veronica Steadman: But it's gambling!

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Not the way I do it.

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Well, now this is quite a surprise!

Dorothy Bryant: Not particularly. It so happens I rather expected it. And if you think your persistence is going to have any effect on me, you're mistaken.

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Well, I can't see how you people can pass up $80,000 for the cause.

Dorothy Bryant: For whose cause? If you're so interested in serving your cause, why don't you join the Army?

Blood Bank Nurse: Next, please!

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Oh...

[produces draft card]

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: 4F.

Dorothy Bryant: You look 1A to me.

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Hey, you don't look too bad yourself!

[He chuckle, she stares, he lets out awkward groan]

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Well, it's my arteries.

Blood Bank Nurse: Right this way...

Dorothy Bryant: Well, should you be giving blood?

Joe Adams aka Joe Bascopolous: Oh, well... my blood's 1A, just my arteries are 4F.

Lobby Cards:

Directed by H.C. Potter.

Distributed by R.K.O Radio.

Running time: 100 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...The American Citizen (1942)

 On this day, 26th June 1942, Archie Leach not only became Cary Grant, officially, but also became an American Citizen.

Newspaper clipping reporting the event.

U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services documentation.

Still a British Citizen and still Archie Leach at age 37!!

First Passport stamped 1946!

This passport shows travel in the 1960's.

Issued in 1965.

Issued in 1975 and expired in 1980.