On This Day... The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Released today back in 1947, The Bishop's Wife was Cary Grant's 51st full length feature film.

Summary:

Newly appointed Bishop, Henry Brougham (David Niven) is having a difficult time raising funds for a new cathedral. His wife, Julia (Loretta Young), misses their old neighborhood in a poor part of town, while he is stressed and preoccupied with his new duties.

 His prayers are answered when an angel, Dudley (Cary Grant), suddenly appears in his study and tells him that he's there as his assistant until no longer needed. Dudley keeps Julia company while Henry attends to church business and becomes increasingly stressed at having to compromise his principles in order to please a prospective benefactor.  Dudley has his own way of getting her cooperation. As Christmas arrives, Dudley spins his charms ensuring a happy Christmas for everyone, particularly Julia and Henry.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Dudley

Loretta Young...Julia Brougham

David Niven...Henry Brougham

Monty Woolley...Professor Wutheridge

James Gleason...Sylvester

Gladys Cooper...Mrs. Hamilton

Elsa Lanchester...Matilda

Sara Haden...Mildred Cassaway

Karolyn Grimes...Debby Brougham

Tito Vuolo...Maggenti

Regis Toomey...Mr. Miller

Sarah Edwards...Mrs. Duffy

Margaret McWade...Miss Trumbull

Anne O'Neal...Mrs. Ward (as Ann O'Neal)

Ben Erway...Mr. Perry

Erville Alderson...Stevens

Robert J. Anderson...Defense Captain (as Bobby Anderson)

Teddy Infuhr...Attack Captain

Eugene Borden...Michel

Almira Sessions...First Lady in Michel's

Claire Du Brey...Second Lady (as Claire DuBrey)

Florence Auer...Third Lady

Margaret Wells...Hat Shop proprietress

Kitty O'Neil...Hat Shop customer (as Kitty O'Neill)

Isabel Jewell...Hysterical Mother

David Leonard...Blind Man

Dorothy Vaughan...Delia

Edgar Dearing...Policeman

The Robert Mitchell Boy Choir...Vocal Ensemble (as The Mitchell Boychoir)

Did You Know?

After two weeks of shooting Sam Goldwyn hated the early rushes, fired the original director, William A. Seiter, hired Henry Koster, scrapped the script, ordered all the sets to be completely altered and started all over again at a cost said to be $900,000.  

Originally Cary Grant played the bishop and David Niven the angel. When Henry Koster replaced William A. Seiter and viewed what had been shot so far, he realized that the two were in the wrong roles. It took some convincing because Grant wanted the title role of the Bishop. He eventually accepted the change and his role as the angel was one of the most widely praised of his career.  Teresa Wright was playing the bishop's wife in the William A. Seiter version but she was not recast as she was then pregnant. 

Quotes:

Dudley: Well, if you had sent me to represent you with Mrs. Hamilton, I would've gone. You didn't. So I represented you with your wife.

Henry Brougham: Is that part of the normal duties of a... of an angel?

Dudley: Sometimes, Henry, angels must rush in where fools fear to tread.

Henry Brougham: I haven't the faintest idea what that means. I don't want it explained to me.

Henry Brougham: I was praying for a cathedral.

Dudley: No, Henry. You were praying for guidance.

Dudley: Supposing I told you I came from another planet. Would you believe me?

Prof. Wutheridge: I don't know.

Julia Brougham: I'd believe you, Dudley.

Dudley: And you'd be right, Julia, as always. We all come from our own little planets. That's why we're all different. That's what makes life interesting.

Dudley: The world changes, but two things remain constant... Youth and Beauty. They're really one in the same thing.

Julia Brougham: Yes. The trouble is, people grow old.

Dudley: Not everybody. The only people who grow old were born old to begin with.

Henry Brougham: Are you expecting a letter?

Dudley: Oh, one never knows. But if I should get one, the stamp will be worth saving.

Julia Brougham: Oh Dudley, I never know when you are joking or serious.

Dudley: I'm at my most serious when I'm joking.

Henry Brougham: Dudley, if we should need you again, will you come back?

Dudley: Not I. I shall ask to be assigned to the other end of the Universe.

Henry Brougham: Is that because I was so difficult?

Dudley: Oh, no. This difficulty was in me. When an Immortal finds himself envying the Mortal he is entrusted to his care, it's a danger signal. Take her in your arms and hold her tight.

[Coming]

Dudley: Kiss her for me, you lucky Henry!

Lobby Cards and Posters:

Directed by Henry Koster.

Based on the novel by Robert Nathan.

Produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions.

Running time: 105 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day... Hot Saturday (1932)

Cary Grant's 6th full length feature film, Hot Saturday, was released today, back in 1932. 

Summary: 

Virtuous small-town bank clerk, Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll), becomes the victim of a vicious rumour from a bitter, unsuccessful suitor that she spent the night with a notorious millionaire playboy, losing her her job and her reputation.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Romer Sheffield

Nancy Carroll...Ruth Brock

Randolph Scott...Bill Fadden

Edward Woods...Conny Billop

Lilian Bond...Eva Randolph (as Lillian Bond)

William Collier Sr....Mr. Brock

Jane Darwell...Mrs. Brock

Stanley Smith...Joe

Rita La Roy...Camille

Rose Coghlan...Annie Brock

Oscar Apfel...Mr. Randolph

Jessie Arnold...Aunt Minnie

Grady Sutton...Archie

Did You Know?

Cary Grant was originally considered for the role of Bill Fadden.  Gary Cooper and Fredric March turned down the role of Romer Sheffield.  This became Cary Grant's first role as a leading man.  

Quotes:

Ruth Brock: Immoral women shouldn't work in banks, you know. They might corrupt the young dollar bills.

Ruth Brock: [to Romer Sheffield] You're considered much too dangerous for local consumption.

Romer Sheffield: Would it interest you to know that I've wanted you ever since I first saw you in the bank?

Ruth Brock: You're supposed to see things you want in banks.

Romer Sheffield: Yes, but the moment you go to get them, burglar alarms start ringing all over town.

Lobby Cards:

Directed by William A. Seiter.

Produced and distributed by Paramount Publix.

Running time: 73 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day... The Awful Truth (1937)

On today's date back in 1937, Cary Grant's 29th full length feature film, The Awful Truth, was released. 

Summary: 

Before their divorce is finalised, Jerry and Lucy Warriner (Cary Grant and Irene Dunne) both do their best to come up with strategies to ruin each other's plans for remarriage.

Cast:

Irene Dunne...Lucy Warriner

Cary Grant...Jerry Warriner

Ralph Bellamy...Daniel Leeson

Alexander D'Arcy...Armand Duvalle

Cecil Cunningham...Aunt Patsy

Molly Lamont...Barbara Vance

Esther Dale...Mrs. Leeson

Joyce Compton...Dixie Belle Lee

Robert Allen...Frank Randall

Robert Warwick...Mr. Vance

Mary Forbes...Mrs. Vance

Did You Know?

Much of the film was improvised by director Leo McCarey and the cast during filming each day.  

Cary Grant quickly became an accomplished improvisational actor during the shoot. He ad-libbed with such speed and composure that his co-stars often "broke character."

Irene Dunne later recalled the scene where she pretends to be Cary Grant's ill-bred nightclub performer sister, which was written over a weekend and handed to her on the morning she was scheduled to film it. She was supposed to do a burlesque bump in the middle of her musical number, a move she was never able to do. Leo McCarey told her to just say, "Never could do that" when she got to that moment. She did, it stayed in the film, and Dunne found it "a choice comic bit."

The dog playing Mr. Smith was named Skippy, and was most popular for its role in The Thin Man (1934) movie and its sequels, as Asta. During production, the human cast was forced to take several unscheduled days of vacation in late July 1937 because Skippy was booked on another film.

Irene Dunne had never met Cary Grant before, but she later recalled that they "just worked from the first moment" and called Grant a very generous actor. Grant, in turn, said, "we just clicked." Dunne so trusted his comedy judgment that she would often turn to him after a take and ask in a whisper, "Funny?"

At the party at the home of Cary Grant's fiance, Irene Dunne says they called him Jerry the Nipper because he liked to drink. In "Bringing Up Baby", which came out the next year, Katharine Hepburn refers to him as a mobster called Jerry the Nipper when talking to the constable.

Quotes:

'Dan' Leeson: Glad to know you.

Jerry Warriner: Well, how can you be glad to know me? I know how I'd feel if I was sitting with a girl and her husband walked in.

Lucy Warriner: I'll bet you do.

Jerry Warriner: In a half an hour, we'll no longer be Mr. and Mrs.... Funny, isn't it?

Lucy Warriner: Yes, it's funny that everything's the way it is on account of the way you feel.

Jerry Warriner: Huh?

Lucy Warriner: Well, what I mean is, if you didn't feel the way you do, things wouldn't be the way they are, would they? I mean, things could be the same if things were different.

Jerry Warriner: But things are the way you made them.

Lucy Warriner: Oh, no. No, things are the way you think I made them. I didn't make them that way at all. Things are just the same as they always were, only, you're the same as you were, too, so I guess things will never be the same again.

Jerry Warriner: What do we drink to?

Lucy Warriner: Well, let's drink to our future. Here's hoping you and Barbara will be very happy, which I doubt very much.

Jerry Warriner: No, let's drink to your happiness with Buffalo Bill, which doesn't even make sense.

Lucy Warriner: We call him Jerry the Nipper

[Lucy is attempting to embarrass Jerry as a habitual drinker in front of his new girlfriend and her upper-class family. Katherine Hepburn refers to Cary Grant with this epithet in 'Bringing Up Baby' whereupon Grant retorts 'Constable she's making all this up out of motion pictures she's seen']

Jerry Warriner: [to Barbara Vance on the phone] Naturally she's anxious to meet you, too, but...

Lucy Warriner: Yes, tell her I'd love to meet her. Tell her to wear boxing gloves.

Lucy's Attorney: [a late middle-aged man answers the telephone] Hello! Hello, Lucy. What's that? Divorce? You and Jerry? Now, now, Lucy. Don't do anything in haste that you might regret later. Marriage is a beautiful thing, and you...

Celeste: Why can't she call you back, after we've finished eating?

Lucy's Attorney: [Turns toward his wife] Please be quiet, will you?...

[Turns back toward the phone]

Lucy's Attorney: You seem agitated, Lucy. Try and calm yourself. I hate to see you take any hasty action in a matter like this. Marriage is a beautiful thing, and you...

Celeste: Why don't you finish your meal? Why can't they call you back later?

Lucy's Attorney: [Turns toward his wife] Will you shut your mouth?

[Turns back toward phone]

Lucy's Attorney: As I was saying, Lucy, marriage is a beautiful thing. And when you've been married as long as I have, you'll appreciate it too.

Celeste: Your food is getting ice cold. You're always complaining about your food. How do you expect me...

Lucy's Attorney: [Turn to his wife] Will you shut your big mouth? I'll eat when I get good and ready, and if you don't like it, you know what you can do. So shut up.

[Turns back toward phone]

Lucy's Attorney: Lucy, darling, marriage is a beautiful thing.

 Posters :

Directed by Leo McCarey.

Distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Running time: 89 minutes

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day...The Last Outpost (1935)

Cary Grant's 20th full length film, The Last Outpost, was released on this day in 1935.

Summary:

During WW1, the destinies of British officers Michael Andrews (Cary Grant) and John Stevenson (Claude Rains) seem intertwined on the battle front as much as on a more personal level.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Michael Andrews

Gertrude Michael... Rosemary

Claude Rains...John Stevenson

Margaret Swope...Nurse Rowland

Jameson Thomas...Cullen

Nick Shaid...Haidar

Kathleen Burke...Ilya

Colin Tapley...Lieutenant Prescott

Billy Bevan...Private Foster

Claude King...General

Did You Know?

Cary Grant, impersonating a nobleman, uses a fictitious title. When Gertrude Michael asks about the name, he says, "It's from Burke's Peerage by way of Ananias." Burke's Peerage lists all the genuine titles in the United Kingdom, but Ananias is an early Christian who was struck dead for lying, so the name has come to mean "liar."

The shots of the native migration are taken from Merian C. Cooper's silent documentary Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) which traces the arduous journey of Iranian nomads. It is probable that the first half of the story was written to take advantage of this footage and the production value it provided.  Stock footage from Four Feathers (1929) is used to augment the battle scenes in the later half of the film.

Taglines:

Men of steel in an empire of fire! (original poster)

They wanted an assignment in Hell...and a woman gave them the job! (original-ad)

The Grandest Adventure Picture Ever Filmed!

The woman they both desired fired one man to murderous hatred and vengeance! (Print Ad- Washington Reporter, ((Washington, Penna.)) 4 November 1935)

SPECTACLE!...ACTION!...ROMANCE! (print ad - Lubbock Morning Avalanche - Texan Theatre- Lubbock, Texas - Feb. 27, 1936 - all caps)

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Charles Barton and Lois Gasnier.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Running time: 75 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.

On This Day... Wedding Present (1936)

 Released today back in 1936, Wedding Present was Cary Grant's 24th full length feature film.

Summary:

When Charlie Mason (Cary Grant) is promoted from irresponsible reporter to hard-nosed city editor, it costs him his girlfriend, ace reporter Rusty Fleming (Joan Bennett). After he hears she's engaged to another, he quits and tries to win her back.

Cast:

Joan Bennett...Monica 'Rusty' Fleming

Cary Grant...Charlie Mason

George Bancroft...Pete Stagg

Conrad Nagel...Roger Dodacker

Gene Lockhart...Archduke Gustav Ernest

William Demarest...'Smiles' Benson

Inez Courtney...Mary Lawson

Edward Brophy...Squinty

Purnell Pratt... Howard Van Dorn

Douglas Wood...Willett

George Meeker...Gordon Blaker

Damon Ford... Mike Haley

Lois Wilson...Laura Dodacker

Mary Forbes...Mrs. Dodacker

George Offerman Jr....Sammy Smith

John Henry Allen... Jonathan

Quotes:

Marriage License Clerk: [Reviewing a marriage license] Do you solemnly swear that the statements are?... Say! What's the matter with you? You've got the day of your birth down here August 4, 1934. That makes you two years old!

Charlie: That's right. Next year I'll be eligible for the Kentucky Derby... and if you were marrying a girl like mine, you'd feel that young yourself.

Taglines:

We're almost married . . . and we want to stay that way !

JOAN and CARY, the madcap lovers of "Big Brown Eyes", take another hilarious fling at romance. (Print Ad - Albany Evening News, ((Albany NY)) 16 October 1936)

Miss Big Brown Eyes would rather race to a fire than trip to the altar and Cary is the lad who tuned the fire-gongs to the Wedding March.

Lobby Cards:

Directed by Richard Wallace.

Distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Original by Paul Gallico.

Running time: 81 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day... I'm No Angel (1933)

 Released today back in 1933, I'm No Angel was Cary Grant's 12th full length feature film.

Summary:

Sideshow entertainer Tira (Mae West) thrives in an unconventional lifestyle and gets great pleasure from outwitting numerous suitors that fall under her spell. Upending a tricky situation to become the toast of high society, she lands 'Mr. Right' (Cary Grant) but must outfox a pesky antagonist to secure success.

Cast:

Mae West...Tira

Cary Grant...Jack Clayton

Gregory Ratoff...Benny Pinkowitz

Edward Arnold...Big Bill Barton

Ralf Harolde...Slick Wiley

Kent Taylor...Kirk Lawrence

Gertrude Michael... Alicia Hatton

Russell Hopton...The Barker Flea Madigan

Dorothy Peterson...Thelma

William B. Davidson...The Chump Ernest Brown (as Wm. B. Davidson)

Gertrude Howard...Beulah Thortdyke

Libby Taylor...Tira's Maid

Did You Know?

In 1935 and 1949, the production code was more rigorously enforced, and the film was not approved for re-release.

When Tira opens the chest to show her friend some jewelry, there are photos attached to the inside lid of several men, including actors Barton MacLane (who was originally set to co-star in this film), Nat Pendleton, Edmund Cobb and Randolph Scott (real-life roommate of the film's leading man Cary Grant).

Mae West's famous line in this film, "Beulah, peel me a grape," was inspired by West's pet monkey, Boogie. The monkey loved grapes, and one day West noticed that although he would eat grapes by the dozens, he would always peel the skin off each one before popping it into his mouth.

Considered to be one of fifteen films that changed American cinema.

Posters and Lobby Cards:

Directed by Wesley Ruggles.

Distributed by Paramount Publix.

Running time: 87 minutes

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.