Friday, July 16, 2021

On This Day... North By Northwest (1959)

North by Northwest was Cary Grant's 66th full length feature film and was released this day in 1959.  



Summary:

Madison Avenue advertising man, Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), finds himself thrust into a world of espionage when mistaken for another man. When Thornhill tries to make sense of the case, he is framed for murder. On the run from the police, he boards the 20th Century Limited train bound for Chicago where he meets a beautiful blonde, Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who helps him to evade the authorities....but is Eve the innocent bystander he thought she was? 



Cast:

Cary Grant...Roger Thornhill
Eva Marie Saint...Eve Kendall
James Mason...Phillip Vandamm
Jessie Royce Landis...Clara Thornhill
Leo G. Carroll ...The Professor
Josephine Hutchinson...Mrs. Townsend
Philip Ober...Lester Townsend
Martin Landau...Leonard
Adam Williams...Valerian
Edward Platt...Victor Larrabee
Robert Ellenstein...Licht
Les Tremayne...Auctioneer
Philip Coolidge...Dr. Cross
Patrick McVey...Sergeant Flamm
Edward Binns...Captain Junket
Ken Lynch...Charley



Did You Know?

While filming Vertigo (1958), Sir Alfred Hitchcock described some of the plot of this project to frequent Hitchcock leading man and "Vertigo" star James Stewart, who naturally assumed that Hitchcock meant to cast him in the Roger Thornhill role, and was eager to play it. Actually, Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to play the role. By the time Hitchcock realized the misunderstanding, Stewart was so anxious to play Thornhill that rejecting him would have caused a great deal of disappointment. So Hitchcock delayed production on this movie until Stewart was already safely committed to filming Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder (1959)" before "officially" offering him the role in this movie. Stewart had no choice but to turn down the offer, allowing Hitchcock to cast Grant, the actor he had wanted all along.

Vandamm remarks in the Rapid City, South Dakota house scene that the plane taking them out of the country should touch down in "ten minutes". It is exactly ten minutes in real-time when they see the plane landing on the landing strip.


Cary Grant found the screenplay baffling, and midway through filming told Sir Alfred Hitchcock, "It's a terrible script. We've already done a third of the picture and I still can't make head nor tail of it!" Hitchcock knew this confusion would only help the movie; after all, Grant's character had no idea what was going on either. Grant thought the movie would be a flop right up until its premiere, where it was rapturously received.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock filmed Cary Grant's entrance into the United Nations building from across the street with a hidden camera. When he gets to the top of the stairs, a man about to walk down does a double take upon seeing the movie star.


The scene where the crop duster is chasing and shooting at Thornhill was filmed with a real airplane while the shot where the plane crashes into the fuel truck was done using large models of both truck and plane.

It was journalist Otis L. Guernsey, Jr. who suggested to Sir Alfred Hitchcock the premise of a man mistaken for a nonexistent secret agent. He was inspired, he said, by a real-life case during World War II, known as Operation Mincemeat, in which British intelligence hoped to lure Italian and German forces away from Sicily, a planned invasion site. A cadaver was selected and given an identity and phony papers referring to invasions of Sardinia and Greece. The Man Who Never Was (1956) recounted the operation.


In a Turner Classic Movies interview, according to screenwriter Ernest Lehman (who worked in close collaboration with Sir Alfred Hitchcock), the working title was "In A Northwesterly Direction". The head of the story department at MGM said "Why don't you call it 'North by Northwest'?" Lehman says that he and Hitchcock adopted that as the new working title, always assuming that they'd come up with something better. Hitchcock also jokingly wanted to call it "The Man in Lincoln's Nose", but claimed the idea was vetoed by the Park Commissioner. Other working titles included "Breathless", "In a North West Direction", and "The C.I.A. Story". So the creators thought the title was a meaningless placeholder. However, in fact Thornhill flew north from Chicago to South Dakota on Northwest Airlines, or "north by Northwest."

The footage of Park Avenue in Manhattan, which appears as a reflection in the facade of an office building under Saul Bass' opening credits, is an approximately 12-seconds-long "loop" which plays four times. The "splice" in the loop is covered by a 2-second lap dissolve each time.


If the fictional Thornhill had plans, as he stated, to attend the Winter Garden Theatre when the movie opened in the U.S. in July of 1959 (when he was kidnapped from the Oak Room), his tickets would have been for "West Side Story."

Thornhill orders a Gibson on the train. This is composed of gin and dry vermouth, as in a traditional martini, but with cocktail onions instead of olives.


Originally cast and crew were staying at the Palms Motel in McFarland, CA for the crop dusting scene. However, the first night staying there they realized the bar closed at 10:30pm each evening. So they moved their accommodations for the remaining stay of the crop dusting scene to Bakersfield, CA.


In 2006, a panel of GQ Magazine fashion experts said the gray suit worn by Cary Grant throughout almost the entire movie was the best suit in movie history. It was also the most influential on men's style, stating that it has since been copied for Tom Cruise's character in Collateral (2004) and Ben Affleck's character in Paycheck (2003). This sentiment has been echoed by writer Todd McEwen, who called it "gorgeous", and wrote a short story "Cary Grant's Suit", which recounted this movie's plot from the viewpoint of the suit.



Quotes:

[Thornhill is wearing sunglasses to hide his identity]
Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes?
Roger Thornhill: Yes, they're sensitive to questions.

Roger Thornhill: Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself "slightly" killed.


Roger Thornhill: No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser.

Eve Kendall: Roger O. Thornhill. What does the O stand for?
Roger Thornhill: Nothing.

Man at Prairie Crossing: That's funny, that plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops.


Eve Kendall: [Hanging by their fingers from Mount Rushmore] What happened with your first two marriages?
Roger Thornhill: My wives divorced me.
Eve Kendall: Why?
Roger Thornhill: They said I led too dull a life.

Roger Thornhill: You're police, aren't you? Or is it FBI?
The Professor: FBI, CIA, ONI... we're all in the same alphabet soup.



Posters and Lobby Cards:






Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Running time: 136 minutes.


Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio 36.



On This Day... Topper (1937)

 On today's date back in 1937, Cary Grant's 27th full length feature film, Topper, was released. 


Summary: 

The fun-loving Kerbys, stockholders in the bank of which henpecked, stuffy Cosmo Topper is president, drive recklessly once too often and find that they died and are now ghosts. In limbo because they've never done either good or bad deeds, they decide to try a good one now: rehabilitating Topper.



Cast:

Constance Bennett...Marion Kerby
Cary Grant...George Kerby
Roland Young...Mr. Cosmo Topper
Billie Burke...Mrs. Clara Topper
Alan Mowbray...Wilkins
Eugene Pallette...Casey
Arthur Lake...Elevator Boy
Hedda Hopper...Mrs. Grace Stuyvesant
Virginia Sale...Miss Johnson
Theodore von Eltz...Hotel Manager
J. Farrell MacDonald...Policeman (as J. Farrell McDonald)
Elaine Shepard...Secretary
Doodles Weaver...Rustic
Si Jenks...Rustic
Three Hits and a Miss...Three Hits and a Miss




Did You Know?

The easiest parts of the shoot for Cary Grant and Constance Bennett were the many special effects scenes, which only required them to record their lines while special effects artists made the various items they moved, from fountain pens to a pair of frilly lace panties, appear to move on their own.

Hal Roach immediately wanted Cary Grant to play George Kerby, but he had difficulty getting the actor to agree to play the part, since Grant was concerned about the supernatural aspects of the story. Assurance from Roach that the screwball aspects of the story would be played up - plus a fee of $50,000 - were sufficient to convince Grant to do the film.


This was the first black & white film to be "colorized" in 1985.

This was the second film appearance of Lana Turner; she was uncredited and had no lines.

Producer Hal Roach wanted W.C. Fields and Jean Harlow to star as, respectively, Cosmo Topper and Marion Kerby, but neither was available at the time.

This same material was later adapted into a 1953 sitcom which ran for two seasons. Anne Jeffreys played Marion, Robert Sterling was George and Leo G.Carroll played the title role of Topper.

One of Mrs. Topper's society matron friends is played by Hedda Hopper, who later "retired from acting" to become one of Hollywood's most influential gossip columnists, with a daily column syndicated in hundreds of newspapers.




Quotes:

Cosmo Topper: My wife objects to drinking.
George Kerby: Then she shouldn't drink.
Cosmo Topper: She doesn't.
George Kerby: What's her objection?

Marion Kerby: Oh, George, I can see right through you.
George Kerby: Say, that's funny. I can see through you, too.
Marion Kerby: [seeing her body lying next to George's beside the car, which has just crashed] George, look. You know something George? I think we're dead.
George Kerby: I think you're right. Funny; I don't *feel* any different.


[Topper reading annual report of his bank]
Cosmo Topper: Bullion abroad and in transit, thirteen million, two hundred and two thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four dollars and no cents.
George Kerby: No sense.
Cosmo Topper: I just said that, Mr. Kerby.
George Kerby: So did I.


George Kerby: My pet, resting's the sort of thing you've got to work up to gradually... very dangerous to rest all of a sudden.

Marion Kerby: Hey, George, is this 10:30 in the morning?
George Kerby: No, this is Topper's bank.


Marion Kerby: I'll be out before you can say Jack Robinson - only don't say it for a few minutes.


Posters and Lobby Cards:







Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Produced by Hal Roach
Running time: 98 minutes



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.


Wednesday, July 14, 2021

On This Day... Walk, Don't Run (1966)

 Cary Grant's 72nd film, and his last, was Walk, Don't Run, released on today's date back in 1966. 


Summary: 

During the housing shortage of the Summer Olympic Games in 1964, two men and a woman share a small apartment in Tokyo, and the older man soon starts playing Cupid to the younger pair.


Cast:

Cary Grant...Sir William Rutland
Samantha Eggar...Christine Easton
Jim Hutton...Steve Davis
John Standing...Julius D. Haversack
Miiko Taka...Aiko Kurawa
Ted Hartley...Yuri Andreyovitch
Ben Astar...Dimitri
George Takei...Police Captain
Teru Shimada...Mr. Kurawa
Lois Kiuchi...Mrs. Kurawa




Did You Know?

Cary Grant (Sir William Rutland) retired from acting after this movie because, at sixty-one, he had become too old to play the romantic lead. Grant, furthermore, did not think his fans would want to see him playing supporting roles.

When Haversack is recounting his life story to Sir William in the hotel, two Victorian photographs can be seen on the desk. The portraits are of Elias and Elsie Leach who were Cary Grant's parents.



The film's three leading roles were originally intended for Spencer Tracy, Julie Andrews and Jack Lemmon.

In some scenes, Cary Grant whistles the theme music from Charade (1963) and An Affair to Remember (1957), two of his previous movies.



At the race, Julius says the fastest time for the 50 km race-walk is "four hours and fifty-three minutes." At the time of the 1964 Olympics, the men's 50 km race-walk world record was actually 4:00:50. (At the time of the film's release, the record was 3:55:36.)


Quotes:

Christine Easton: After 7:45, you can have the bathroom all day if you'd like.
Sir William Rutland: I wouldn't know what to do in the bathroom all day!


Aiko Kurawa: [Referring to bedlam at police headquarters] You say all you have to do is place an advertisement on the bulletin board?
Christine Easton: Uh-huh.

Christine Easton: I don't know why you wanted a room, you spend all of your time outside!



Posters:




Directed by Charles Walters.
Distributed by Columbia Picture.
Produced by Granley Company (Set up by Cary Grant)
Running time: 114 minutes.



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

On This Day... Kiss and Make Up (1934)

 On this day in 1934, Kiss and Make Up, Cary Grant's 16th full length feature film, was released.


Summary:

A plastic surgeon runs a beauty clinic, where many a beautiful client falls in love with him. However, his unnoticed secretary is in love with him, too.



Cast:

Cary Grant...Dr. Maurice Lamar
Helen Mack...Anne
Genevieve Tobin...Eve Caron
Edward Everett Horton...Marcel Caron
Lucien Littlefield...Max Pascal
Mona Maris...Countess Rita
Katherine Williams ...Vilma
Lucille Lund...Magda
Rafael Alcayde...Rolando (as Rafael Storm)
Doris Lloyd...Mme. Durand
Sam Ash ...Plumber
Helena Phillips Evans...Landlady (as Helena Phillips)
Toby Wing...Consuelo of Claghorne
Henry Armetta...Banquet Chairman
George Beranger...Valet
Judith Arlen...Salon Worker
Joan Gale...Salon Worker
Hazel Hayes...Salon Worker
Lee Ann Meredith...Salon Worker
Helen Cohan...Radio Announcer
Jean Carmen...Maharajah's Wife
Gigi Parrish...Radio Listener (as Gi-Gi Parrish)
Ann Hovey...Lady Rummond-Dray
Betty Bryson...Salon Client
Julie Bishop...Salon Client (as Jacqueline Wells)
Ann Sheridan...Beautician (as Clara Lou Sheridan)
Rita Gould...Mme. Dupont
Bonita Weber...Mme. Severac




Did You Know?

Helen Mack replaced Carole Lombard, who refused to do the role.

A very rare example of Cary Grant singing a fully-orchestrated musical number, 'Love Divided By Two', with a later reprise.


Quotes:

Marcel Caron: Doctor, you've sinned with your scissors and other surgical instruments. You've lured her with lotions, corrupted her with... uh, what was the name of that goo? Crème Supreme.

Marcel Caron: In India, when a husband is about to divorce his wife, he puts a betel nut under her pillow. Therefore I say, madam, betel nuts to you.



Dr. Maurice Lamar: But sweet, this is our honeymoon.
Eve Caron: Yes, honey, but let's wait for the moon.

Marcel Caron: She's not a wife to me, she's an advertisement for you.


Press Kit:




Directed by Harlan Thompson
Distributed by Paramount Publix.
Running time: 80 minutes.



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.


Friday, July 9, 2021

On This Day... The Pride and the Passion (1957)

 Cary Grant's 61st full length feature film, The Pride and the Passion, was released today, back in 1957. 


Summary: 

During the Napoleonic Wars, a British captain is sent to Spain to help prevent the French from stealing a powerful cannon. The story follows the hardships and struggles of moving such a giant weapon across Spain and how it had to be hidden from the French.


Cast:

Cary Grant...Anthony
Frank Sinatra...Miguel
Sophia Loren...Juana
Theodore Bikel...Gen. Jouvet
John Wengraf...Sermaine
Jay Novello...Ballinger
José Nieto...Carlos (as Jose Nieto)
Carlos Larrañaga...Jose (as Carlos Larranaga)
Philip Van Zandt...Vidal
Paco El Laberinto...Manolo (as Paco el Laberinto)
Julián Ugarte...Enrique
Félix de Pomés...Bishop (as Felix de Pomes)
Carlos Casaravilla...Leonardo
Juan Olaguivel...Ramon
Nana DeHerrera...Maria (as Nana de Herrera)
Carlos De Mendoza...Francisco (as Carlos de Mendoza)
Luis Guedes...French Soldier



Did You Know?

Stanley Kramer originally wanted Marlon Brando and Ava Gardner as Grant's costars. Marlon Brando bowed out after reading the script, which he was not to his liking. He was replaced by Frank Sinatra.

Cary Grant had sworn never to make another historical film after The Howards of Virginia (1940) failed both critically and with audiences. He made an exception for this film, which ultimately failed to make a profit, though in this case, his performance was appreciated by audiences.


With seven weeks of shooting in Spain still left on the schedule, Frank Sinatra--who hated Spain--told director Stanley Kramer, "Hot or cold, Thursday I'm leaving the movie. So get a lawyer and sue me," according to Kramer biographer Donald Spoto. Kramer tried to solve the problem with two days of shooting in a Hollywood studio with potted palms.


Quotes:

Miguel: We cannot go up, we must go down.
Anthony: Brilliant.

Miguel: Up or down, it weighs what it weighs.

Juana: Miguel. Carlos will kill him.
Miguel: I will only let him kill him a little.

Miguel: I know peasants. I live with peasants. I do not need anybody to tell me about peasants.

Miguel: [to Anthony] Your face is dirty.



Anthony: [to Miguel] Your face is dirty.

Miguel: I do not ask you to die. Or even to bleed. Just to sweat a little


Posters:





Directed and Produced by Stanley Kramer
Distributed by United Artists
Based on the novel 'The Gun' by C.S. Forrester
Running time: 130 minutes.



Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.