On This Day... The Howards of Virginia (1940)

Released today back in 1940, The Howards of Virginia was Cary Grant's 37th full length feature film.

Summary:

Aristocratic young Virginian Jane (Martha Scott) steps down from her upbringing when she marries down-to-earth surveyor Matt Howard (Cary Grant). Matt joins the Colonial forces in the American War of Independence which puts him in conflict with Jane's brother, Fleetwood (Cedric Hardwicke), who supports the Crown.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Matt Howard

Martha Scott...Jane Peyton-Howard

Cedric Hardwicke...Fleetwood Peyton (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)

Alan Marshal...Roger Peyton

Richard Carlson...Thomas Jefferson

Paul Kelly...Captain Jabez Allen

Irving Bacon...Tom Norton

Elisabeth Risdon...Aunt Clarissa (as Elizabeth Risdon)

Anne Revere...Mrs. Norton

Tom Drake...James Howard at 16 (as Richard Alden)

Phil Taylor...Peyton Howard at 18

Rita Quigley...Mary Howard at 17

Libby Taylor...Dicey

Richard Gaines...Patrick Henry

George Houston...George Washington

Ralph Byrd...James Howard

Dickie Jones...Matt Howard at 12

Buster Phelps...Tom Jefferson at 11

Wade Boteler...Uncle Reuben

Mary Field...Susan Howard

Roy Gordon...Colonel Jefferson (as R. Wells Gordon)

Charles Francis...Mr. Douglas

Did You Know?

Elizabeth Page's book, The Tree of Liberty, served as the source material for this film. Adapting the screenplay from Page's book to the film's 116 minute run-time proved quite a task, as Page's novel is 985 pages long.

With World War II raging in Europe, Columbia Pictures foresaw a need for more patriotic projects and initiated this film early in 1940. Studio executives mentioned that they believed that many Americans felt that the country would be going to war soon and were desirous of patriotic films.

The millionaire heir, John D. Rockefeller Jr., recently had restored Williamsburg, Virginia as a model colonial town for educational, tourism, and amusement purposes. Rockefeller offered Columbia the rights to film exterior scenes for this picture in the newly restored colonial town. This offer saved the studio millions of dollars in set construction and location shooting. Much of the film was shot on location in Williamsburg. What was not shot there was shot on location in Northern California.

Martha Scott lauded Cary Grant's professionalism and assistance to her while shooting this film. This was Scott's second feature film (She only just had finished acting in her debut film, Our Town (1940) several months before.), and she was quite new to the acting world. Scott claimed that Grant was extremely patient, kind, and helpful to her. He made precise lighting and staging demands for her benefit.

The film's failure hit Cary Grant so hard that he refused all period roles he was offered with the he exception of The Pride and the Passion (1957), which ultimately failed to make a profit.

This film garnered Cary Grant some of the worst critical reviews of his thirty-five year acting career. In general, neither audiences nor critics found much to praise about Grant's performance. Grant did not feel the sting of failure for very long, however. 1940 proved to be a busy year for the actor, and this was only one of four films he acted in that year. The other Grant films of 1940 were: His Girl Friday (1940), My Favorite Wife (1940), and The Philadelphia Story (1940). Those films were not only profitable, but they also charmed critics and audiences and, even today, are widely felt to have stood the test of time as prime examples of classic Hollywood comedies.

Alternative Titles:

(original title)                 The Howards of Virginia

Argentina                 Pasión de libertad

Belgium (Flemish title) Howard de opstandeling

Belgium (French title) Howard le révolté

Brazil (alternative title) Flama de Liberdade

Brazil                         A Flama da Liberdade

Canada (English title) The Howards of Virginia

Finland                         Virginialaisia

France (DVD title)         Howard le révolté

Italy                                 Quelli della Virginia

Japan (Japanese title) 明日への戦ひ

Mexico                         Pasión de libertad

Poland                         Howardowie z Wirginii

Portugal                         Paixão da Liberdade

Romania                          Familia Howard din Virginia

Soviet Union (Russian title) Ховарды из Вирджинии

Spain                         Pasión de libertad

Sweden                         En hjälte i Virginia

UK                                 The Tree of Liberty

USA (working title) The Tree of Liberty

USA                         The Howards of Virginia

Uruguay (original subtitled version) Pasión de libertad

Venezuela                 El árbol de la libertad

Posters:

Directed by Frank Lloyd.

Produced and distributed by Columbia.

Running time: 117 minutes..

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day... Blonde Venus (1932)

 On today's date back in 1932, Cary Grant's 5th full length feature film, Blonde Venus, was released. 

Summary: 

When housewife Helen Faraday's (MarleneDietrich) husband needs money for a life-saving operation, she decides to resume her former career as a nightclub singer to raise money.  This creates a chain of events that separate her from her husband and force her to make a choice between her lucrative singing career, and her role as a wife and mother.

Cast:

Marlene Dietrich...Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones

Herbert Marshall...Edward 'Ned' Faraday

Cary Grant...Nick Townsend

Dickie Moore...Johnny Faraday

Gene Morgan...Ben Smith

Rita La Roy...Taxi Belle Hooper

Robert Emmett O'Connor...Dan O'Connor

Sidney Toler... Detective Wilson

Morgan Wallace...Dr. Pierce

Did You Know?

Cary Grant said that Josef von Sternberg didn't really direct him much during the filming, but taught him the most important thing. On the first day Grant came on the set, von Sternberg looked at him and said, "Your hair is parted on the wrong side." So Grant parted it on the other side and kept it that way the rest of his career.

Though Josef Von Sternberg is credited for having written the script to Blonde Venus, the true author of the script was in fact Marlene Dietrich. She agreed not to receive credit for writing the movie due to the obvious struggles it would cause with the Hays Office and Code. This turned out to be a good idea, as both Dietrich and Von Sternberg were suspended for several months as the story was cut and watered down to satisfy the censors. It took nearly a year before the smoke cleared but all the frustrations and drama from the censors caused the story to lose its appeal for both Dietrich and Von Sternberg. By the time filming finally began, both director and star no longer liked, nor wanted to make the picture any longer.

Quotes:

Nick Townsend: Hello, Helen.

Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: Well, if it isn't old Nick himself. I expected you to pop up someday.

Nick Townsend: If this is a dream, Helen, I hope I never wake up. Let me come backstage, will ya?

Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: I seem to remember you came backstage once before.

Nick Townsend: Why don't you cool down and run along? We don't want any trouble.

Big Fellow: Yellow, huh?

Nick Townsend: Yes, maybe I am. As a matter of fact, I'm scared stiff. And being reasonably certain that someone's gonna get a punch in the jaw, I'm going to make sure it isn't me.[punches him]

Minor Role: Are you goin' back for more, or will we go home, ya big stiff? Come on Mary.

Big Fellow: [as he's being picked up off the floor] Who hit me?

Dan O'Connor: Sorry this happened, Mr. Townsend.

Nick Townsend: Oh, that's all right, O'Connor, I rather enjoyed it.

Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: I wish I was someone else. Then I could stay here with you forever.

Nick Townsend: So do I, Helen. Not only for my sake but for your own. There's trouble ahead of you.

Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: I know it.

Helen Faraday, aka Helen Jones: Well, Nick, did you succeed in forgetting me?

Nick Townsend: Forget you? I should say not. I haven't stopped thinking about you a single day since I last saw you.

Posters:

Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Produced and distributed by Paramount Publix.

Running time: 85 minutes

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day... Monkey Business (1952)

 Cary Grant's 58th film, Monkey Business, was released on today's date back in 1952. 

Summary: 

Research chemist Barnaby Fulton(Cary Grant) finds his and his wife's personal and professional lives turned upside down when he believes he's discovered a fountain of youth pill.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Dr. Barnaby Fulton

Ginger Rogers...Mrs. Edwina Fulton

Charles Coburn...Mr. Oliver Oxley

Marilyn Monroe...Miss Lois Laurel

Hugh Marlowe...Hank Entwhistle

Henri Letondal...Dr. Jerome Kitzel

Robert Cornthwaite...Dr. Zoldeck

Larry Keating...G.J. Culverly

Douglas Spencer...Dr. Brunner

Esther Dale...Mrs. Rhinelander

George Winslow...Little Indian

Did You Know?

The off-screen voice during the opening credits is director Howard Hawks.

The small sports car used in the film was a red 1952 MG TD Roadster, which was owned by Marilyn Monroe. It sustained a dent in the front bumper when Cary Grant hit a fence while driving the car. It was later purchased by Debbie Reynolds in a pre-sale at a 20th Century Fox studio auction. It was then stored for several years. In 2011, it was sold at auction for $210,000.

The address that Edwina gives when she calls the police was Ginger Rogers' real-life address: 1605 Gilcrest.

Postal zip codes were not created until 1963. Yet numbers are recited after addresses in the film.  Cary Grant refers to an address as being in Inglewood, but the zip code, 90645, would be in Whittier, quite a distance away.

Quotes:

Barnaby: Hello, Griffith Park Zoo, Snake Department. Sssshhh!

Oliver Oxley: Hello? Hello? What is this?

Barnaby: What do you want?

Oliver Oxley: This is Mr Oxley.

Barnaby: I'll see if he's here.

Oliver Oxley: No, I said *this* is Oxley!

Barnaby: Who is?

Oliver Oxley: I am, speaking!

Barnaby: Oh, you're Mr. Speaking...

Oliver Oxley: This is Mr. Oxley speaking!

Barnaby: Oxley Speaking? Any relation to Oxley?

Oliver Oxley: Barnaby Fulton is that you?

Barnaby: Who's calling?

Oliver Oxley: I am, Barnaby!

Barnaby: Oh, no, you're not Barnaby. I'm Barnaby! I ought to know who I am.

Oliver Oxley: This is Oxley speaking, Barnaby!

Barnaby: No, that's ridiculous! You can't be all three. Figure out which one you are and call me back!

Lois Laurel: [at her secretarial desk, responding to Barnaby's remark that she is at work early] 

Mr. Oxley's been complaining about my punctuation, so I'm careful to get here before nine.

Hank Entwhistle: Well, I can only tell you, Mrs. Fulton. If you had been smart enough to marry me instead of...[points at Barnaby]

Hank Entwhistle: this, you wouldn't be in the kitchen cooking.

Barnaby: No? Where would she be cooking?

Barnaby: Umph! I'm beginning to wonder if being young is all it's cracked up to be. We dream of youth. We remember it as a time of nightingales and valentines. But what are the facts? Maladjustment, near idiocy, and a series of low comedy disasters. That's what youth is. I don't see how anyone survives it.

Barnaby: In my opinion, your opinion that it's a silly song is a silly opinion.

Mrs. Edwina Fulton: Oh, darling! Stop by the automobile agency. Mr Peabody just called and says he had a very good buy.

Barnaby: A good buy? Well, good bye to you!

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Howard Hawks.

Distributed by 20th Century-Fox.

Running time: 97 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...I Was a Male War Bride (1949)

On today's date back in 1949, Cary Grant's 54th full length feature film, I Was a Male War Bride, was released. 

Summary: 

Captain Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) of France is assigned to work with First Lieutenant Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan) of the U.S. Army. Through a wacky series of misadventures, they fall in love and marry. When the war ends, Rochard tries to return to America, like female war brides could under the auspices of America's 1945 War Brides Act. Zany gender-confusing antics follow.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Captain Henri Rochard

Ann Sheridan...1st Lt. Catherine Gates

Marion Marshall...Lt. Kitty Lawrence

Randy Stuart...Lt. Eloise Billings

Bill Neff...Capt. Jack Ramsey (as William Neff)

Did You Know?

Howard Hawks's first film to be shot in Europe, it was beset with problems. The German winter was unbearably cold and most of the cast and crew fell ill. Ann Sheridan caught pleurisy (which developed into pneumonia), Cary Grant contracted hepatitis with jaundice, and Hawks broke out in hives. Production was shut down for three months while Grant convalesced and resumed only after he was able to regain around thirty pounds. Hawks best summed up the lapse in production: "Cary ran into a haystack on a motorcycle and came out weighing twenty pounds less."

Despite his illness, Cary Grant thoroughly enjoyed making the film, calling it "the best comedy I've ever done."

Calling upon his vaudevillian roots, Cary Grant insisted upon doing his own stunts, including one in which he was lifted up by a railroad-crossing gate. Ann Sheridan even got into the act, driving a 400-pound motorcycle with Grant in the sidecar for a sequence. She navigated the bike expertly, except for an unfortunate run-in with a goose; its death terribly upset the actress, but despite this, Sheridan had a positive experience making the film.

Cary Grant's character (French Captain Henri Rochard) is a pseudonym for Belgian Army Major Roger Henri Charlier on whom the movie is loosely based. Major Charlier served as a liaison officer for the Belgian Government at the Nuremberg and Dachau War Crimes trials. While as a representative at the trials, he was accidentally hit by a car, landing him in a U.S. Army hospital. It was there Maj. Charlier met his future wife, U.S. Army nurse Captain Marie Helen Glennon. Upon release from the hospital, he was discharged from the Belgian Army and returned to Nuremberg as a civilian employee of the U.S. War Department.

When screenwriter Charles Lederer was ill, his friend Orson Welles wrote part of a short chase scene as a favor to him.

Quotes:

Capt. Henri Rochard: My name is Rochard. You'll think I'm a bride but actually I'm a husband. There'll be a moment or two of confusion but, if we all keep our heads, everything will be fine.

Sergeant: Any female trouble?

Capt. Henri Rochard: Nothing but, Sergeant.

Soldier: You're not Mrs. Rochard!

Capt. Henri Rochard: I'm MISTER Rochard.

Soldier: Well, it's your WIFE who must report here for transportation to Bremerhaven.

Capt. Henri Rochard: According to the War Department, I AM my wife.

Soldier: You can't be your wife!

Capt. Henri Rochard: If the American army says that I CAN be my wife, who am I to dispute them?

Lt. Catherine Gates: [Rochard is holding a baby for a stranger. His wife and Kitty walk up, both laughing] Ah, Henri, you look so maternal!

Lt. Kitty Lawrence: What is that?

Capt. Henri Rochard: A human fire extinguisher. You wanna try it?

Lt. Kitty Lawrence: Oh, come on.

[takes baby andfrowns at its prodigious wetness]

Lt. Catherine Gates: Aww, he's cute. What's his name?

Capt. Henri Rochard: Niagara.

Lt. Kitty Lawrence: [shaking hand dry] Henri, what a thing to do.

Lt. Catherine Gates: Where's the mother?

Capt. Henri Rochard: She went to get *more* water.

Lt. Kitty Lawrence: She ought to get a plumber!

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Howard Hawks.

Distributed by 20th Century-Fox.

Running time: 105 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...People Will Talk (1951)

 Released today back in 1951, People Will Talk was Cary Grant's 56th full length feature film.

Summary:

Successful and well-liked, Dr. Noah Praetorius (Cary Grant) becomes the victim of  harassment at the hands of Professor Elwell. Things start to get worse when Praetorius befriends young Deborah Higgins, who has become suicidal on finding herself pregnant by her ex boyfriend, a military reservist killed in action in the Korean War.

Cast:

Cary Grant..Dr. Noah Praetorius

Jeanne Crain...Deborah Higgins

Finlay Currie...Shunderson

Hume Cronyn...Prof. Rodney Elwell

Walter Slezak...Prof. Barker

Sidney Blackmer...Arthur Higgins

Basil Ruysdael...Dean Lyman Brockwell

Katherine Locke...Miss James

Did You Know?

In early pre-production, Jeanne Crain campaigned for the female lead, but the role went to Anne Baxter. After Baxter had to forfeit due to approaching motherhood, Crain's wishes were granted.

The working title for the film when it was announced, according to the In Hollywood column by Erskine Johnson, syndicated by NEA, was "Dr. Praetorius", the same as the German original, but acknowledged that the title was expected to be changed. (The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Monday 9 April 1951, Volume LVII, Number 189, page 4.)

Cary Grant left his hand and footprints outside Grauman's Chinese Theater as part of the opening publicity for this film. The pictures of him taking part in the ceremony of making his prints in the cement clearly show the People Will Talk poster on the Theater's famous "next attraction" wall.

Quotes:

Shunderson: Professor Elwell, you're a little man. It's not that you're short. You're...little, in the mind and in the heart. Tonight, you tried to make a man little whose boots you couldn't touch if you stood on tiptoe on top of the highest mountain in the world. And as it turned out...you're even littler than you were before.

Doctor Noah Praetorius: How old were you when you learned to walk?

Arthur Higgins: I could get around alright at four.

Doctor Noah Praetorius: And how old were you when you left the farm?

Arthur Higgins: Sixteen.

Doctor Noah Praetorius: Surely it didn't take you twelve years to make up your mind!

Shunderson: The dog is frightened and unhappy.

Doctor Noah Praetorius: He has that in common with most of humanity.

Posters:

Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Distributed by 20th Century-Fox.

Running time: 109 minutes.

Based on the play "Dr. Praetorius" by Curt Goetz.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.