On This Day... Houseboat (1958)

 Released today back in 1958, Houseboat was Cary Grant's 65th full length feature film.

Summary:

Tom Winters (Cary Grant), a widower and previously absent father, is trying to understand and raise three precocious children alone. He gets a little unexpected help from Cinzia (Sophia Loren), when the children decide she is be the new maid. She is actually a spoiled brat Italian socialite who is trying to get away from her overprotective father.

Cast:

Cary Grant...Tom Winters

Sophia Loren...Cinzia Zaccardi

Martha Hyer...Carolyn Gibson

Harry Guardino...Angelo Donatello

Eduardo Ciannelli...Arturo Zaccardi

Murray Hamilton...Capt. Alan Wilson

Mimi Gibson...Elizabeth Winters

Paul Petersen...David Winters

Charles Herbert...Robert Winters

Madge Kennedy...Mrs. Farnsworth

John Litel...Mr. William Farnsworth

Werner Klemperer...Harold Messner

Did You Know? Goofs:

Tom's apartment is in Washington, D.C., but when he's shown driving his kids to the concert at the Watergate, he approaches the area from the Virginia side of the Memorial Bridge, the opposite direction from which he should logically have been coming.

The harmonica that Cinzia wins for Robert is labeled "ECHO". An echo harmonica has 2 reeds for each note, each reed slightly detuned sharp and flat to provide a tremolo effect. The sound when Robert is playing this instrument is of a normal harmonica.

During Cinzia's first visit to Tom's apartment, at one point he is adjusting the sofa bed; as the two converse the camera moves closer to them and the shadow of the moving camera can be seen on Cinzia's dress.

When driving in the open convertible there is no wind in their faces, hair or clothes.  

When driving to the house, singing in the car, they are pulling a small trailer with their belongings. However the shots from the front angle (with the rear screen process) show no trailer behind them.

When the house is stuck on the railroad track, we first hear the whistle of an approaching steam engine; when the train actually arrives and crashes through the house, however, it is a diesel engine.

When Tom comes outside after hurriedly dressing to discover the houseboat has broken loose, his shirt is unbuttoned to his waist. In the following shot a split-second later his shirt is completely buttoned all the way up to his collar.

The water does not move in any shot in the galley or other room in which there is a view out the windows.

Posters:

Directed by Melville Shavelson.

Distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: 112 minutes.

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36.

On This Day... Suspicion (1941)

 Cary Grant's 40th full length film, Suspicion, was released on this day in 1941.

Summary:

Handsome gambler, Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) seems to live by borrowing money from friends. While trying to travel in a first class train car with a third class ticket, he meets shy Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine). After a short courtship, they marry but, after the honeymoon, she starts to become suspicious when Johnnie's friend and business partner, Beaky, is mysteriously killed...

Cast:

Cary Grant...Johnnie

Joan Fontaine...Lina

Cedric Hardwicke...General McLaidlaw (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)

Nigel Bruce...Beaky

May Whitty...Mrs. McLaidlaw (as Dame May Whitty)

Isabel Jeans...Mrs. Newsham

Heather Angel...Ethel [Maid]

Auriol Lee...Isobel Sedbusk

Reginald Sheffield...Reggie Wetherby

Leo G. Carroll ...Captain Melbeck

Did You Know?

Based on the 1932 novel "Before the Fact", by Francis Iles, which was the pen name for Anthony Berkeley.  There are many differences between the movie and the novel. Johnnie Aysgarth's infidelity is not featured in this movie: Lina's best friend, with whom Johnnie has an affair, does not appear at all. In the novel, the maid Ella has an illegitimate son by Johnnie.

At the "milk scene", all the ladders are dark but the glass shines because Alfred Hitchcock put a little bulb inside the milk with a battery for the enhancing the impression.

In interviews, Alfred Hitchcock said that an RKO executive ordered that all scenes in which Cary Grant appeared menacing be excised from the movie. When the cutting was completed, the movie ran only fifty-five minutes. The scenes were later restored, Hitchcock said, because he shot each piece of film so that there was only one way to edit them together properly. This is a technique called 'in-camera editing', a trick Hitchcock had already employed a year before during filming of Rebecca (1940), to prevent producer David O. Selznick from interfering with the final cut of the movie.

Quotes:

Johnnie: Well, well. You're the first woman I've ever met who said yes when she meant yes.

Johnnie: Your hair's all wrong. It has such wonderful possibilities that I, well, I got excited. For the moment I became a, a passionate hairdresser.

Lina: Why are you frank with me, because I'm... different?

Johnnie: No, no, it isn't that. I'm honest because with you I think it's the best way to get results.

Johnnie: Darling, you're not shivering, are you?

Lina: I have a bit of a chill.

Johnnie: Cold in all this sunshine? Well, let me warm you up. My poor little shivering baby. How do you feel now? Better?

Lina: Much.

Johnnie: Good. Perhaps this will help.

[Johnnie takes Lina and kisses her passionately]

Johnnie: What do you think of me by contrast to your horse?

Lina: If I ever got the bit between your teeth, I'd have no trouble in handling you at all.

Lobby Cards and Posters:

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Produced by RKO Radio.

Running time: 99 minutes

Artwork by Rebekah Hawley of Studio 36.

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.