Topper (1937)

      "The giddy rigmarole is for those who can take their death ribald and their fantasy straight."

With Roland Young and Constance Bennett.

Topper - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Thorne Smith fans will be delighted to learn that Culver City studio has again gone stark looney .  This one is about the gay couple who wander about upsetting mortals after they've been killed in a motor accident.  Though it will hardly influence cinema history, Topper comes off a lot better than Night Life of the Gods, MGM's other attempt to plant the novelist's insanity on a screen.  

Ghosts are far more amenable to camera tricks, of course, than walking statues.  The now-you-see-me-now-you-don't theme is paradise to a photographer.  It is thoroughly disconcerting to Mr. Topper, the timid banker whom the Kerbys propose to liberate from a nagging wife and a humdrum career.  

The giddy rigmarole is for those who can take their death ribald and their fantasy straight.  Constance Bennett and Cary Grant are suitable as Kerbys.  But it is Roland Young's show.  Between the capricious antics of his abstract companions and the carping of Billie Burke as his wife, his talent for being harassed finds exquisite expression.  

- Literary Digest

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Number 27 - Topper (Lobby Card Style)

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Walk, Don't Run (1966)

      "...a light, bright touch and a debonair smile..."

With George Takei, John Standing, Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar.

Walk, Don't Run - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Too long as are most comedies today, Walk, Don't Run seems to take its title far too literally; but there are several very funny sequences, a jaunty score by Quincy Jones, and the unflawed elegance of Mr. Grant.  With a light, bright touch and a debonair smile, he gives the film the happy sheen of charade that must never be taken seriously.  It almost works."

- Arthur Knight, The Saturday Review

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Number 72 - Walk, Don't Run (Lobby Card Style)

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Kiss and Make-Up (1934)

      "Plenty of sight stuff and plenty of laughs in spots."

With Edward Everett Horton and Helen Mack.

Kiss and Make-Up - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Either a gag comedy with a romantic thread or a light romance with gag comedy, but more gags than romance.  A nice picture lacking sufficient strength to wow but should do all right.  Plot is thin, though sufficient.  

Cary Grant does well as the doctor but both he and E. E. Horton play too strongly for laughs.  Genevieve Tobin fills the specifications for the beauty, but acting honors go to Helen Mack as the secretary.  A delightful sincere performance.  Plenty of sight stuff and plenty of laughs in spots.

- Winthrop Sargent, Variety

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The Pride and The Passion (1957)

      "...Kramer has used locale and crowds of people superbly, alternating the big panoramic canvas with telling close-ups that are right from Goya"

With Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren.

The Pride and The Passion - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"One great advantage that The Pride and The Passion has over most epic films is its unity of theme; all action revolves around the gun, the symbol of men fighting for what they believe in.  The English captain, skillfully played by Cary Grant, is a trained soldier, an authority on ordnance who has been commanded by his commodore to rescue the giant cannon, which was jettisoned by the fleeing Spanish army, and deliver it to a British warship.  The guerrilla leader, played by Frank Sinatra, is an uneducated, undisciplined patriot determined to deliver his hometown, Avila, from the occupying French.  Again and again the two men are contrasted: the smart, immaculately dressed, cold but sentimental English officer versus the emotional, cruel, provincial Spaniard.  Each has his big moments: the Englishman muddies his clothes as he assembles the broken cannon and directs its perilous journey, blows up a bridge and even eloquently pleads with the Bishop at the Escorial that the cannon be hidden in the cathedral; with less eloquence but with greater passion, the guerrilla leader persuades a group of townfolk to help drag the cannon out of the river and he effectively commands the peasants who work under him in the long march to Avila...  

It is fortunate that producer-director Stanley Kramer stressed the visual aspects in telling his story.  The script, written by Edna and Edward Anhalt, and stemming from C. S. Forester's novel The Gun, is strangely ineffectual; and the dialogue, whether due to the actors' odd mixture of accents due to poor recording, does not come through well.  The plot's argument is, therefore, difficult to follow at times; but Kramer has so directed the picture that the visuals succeed in developing the themes with little help from the spoken word.  Kramer's film is occasionally reminiscent of For Whom The Bell Tolls, another movie in which a foreigner was involved in one particular objective in helping the war-torn Spaniards; although the characters in the film made from the Hemingway novel were better drawn and motivated, The Pride and The Passion is far superior visually.  In magnificent scenes, like those showing the Holy Week procession in the Escorial, the dragging of the cannon through a dangerous mountain pass, the storming of Avila's walls and the routing of the French, Kramer has used locale and crowds of people superbly, alternating the big panoramic canvas with telling close-ups that are right from Goya.  Without minimizing the horrors of war, The Pride and The Passion is an epic sung in praise of the triumph of will over all obstacles.

- Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal

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Number 61 - The Pride and The Passion (Lobby Card Style)

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Crisis (1950)

      "...brittle and diamond-brilliant... His sincerity in the story's guts is its premise for being believed..."

With Paula Raymond.

Crisis - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Crisis is a bold piece of movie adventuring.  Under Dore Schary's progressive administration at MGM, we are now considered adult enough to enjoy an unbuttoned screenplay on the violent temperature that erupts in Latin-American civil war and dictatorship.  

Cary Grant is more brittle and diamond-brilliant than before as the enlightened doctor.  His sincerity in the story's guts is its premise for being believed.  Jose Ferrer is cunning to the point of evil genius." 

- Reed Porter,  The Mirror (Los Angeles)

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An Affair to Remember (1957)

      "...an early exponent of cinematic charm, still looks good and talks good..."

With Deborah Kerr.

An Affair to Remember - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Leo McCarey has had the good sense not to pretend that this romantic comedy is ever anything more than that, meanwhile exploiting a quality so long absent from the screen that it comes through with all the force of a brand new discovery - namely, charm.  Jerry Wald, the producer, observed that one reason there were so few real love stories being made any more was because there were so few actors who could play them convincingly.  "Today's actors," he said, "either look good and talk lousy or they look lousy and talk good."  Well, Cary Grant, an early exponent of cinematic charm, still looks good and talks good - and his graceful performance as a playboy is one good reason for seeing this film." 

- Arthur Knight, Saturday Review

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Number 62 - An Affair to Remember (Lobby Card Style)

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Night and Day (1946)

      "...the score of Night and Day, a radiant web woven tight of Cole Porter's melodies..."

With Monty Woolley and Jane Wyman (The film was released both in Black and White and Colourised).

Night and Day - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"In Hollywood they are acclaiming the twentieth anniversary of the talkies.  The Warners with a proprietary interest in the event have designated Night and Day, their motion picture biography of Cole Porter, as the anniversary film.  If they planned to celebrate some of the incredible inanities that have been perpetrated in the name of talk during the past two decades, they could not have chosen a better film with which to do it.  But the sound track was designed to carry a load of music as well as words, and it must be admitted that the score of Night and Day, a radiant web woven tight of Cole Porter's melodies, makes it seem well worth having struggled through the first twenty years."

- Theatre Arts Magazine

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Mr. Lucky (1943)

      "If it weren't for Cary Grant's persuasive personality the whole thing would melt away to nothing at all."

With Alan Carney, Paul Stewart and Charles Bickford.

Mr. Lucky - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Mr. Lucky is what is known as a vehicle picture.  If it weren't for Cary Grant's persuasive personality the whole thing would melt away to nothing at all.  Its story is preposterous.  The leading character is a rogue, a draft dodger, an unscrupulous gambler.  He carefully specifies that he is a gambler, not a gangster; but his methods tend toward the latter classification.  H. C. Potter has directed all this with an understanding of cinema.  Even though you don't believe the events as you see them, most of the incidents prove entertaining, especially those that show Joe in action with the War Relief ladies.  As I said, Mr. Lucky depends on Grant's ability to hold you.  Perhaps this is just wherein the picture is dangerous; the first thing you know, you like this loose-moraled chiseler because of the way he tilts his hat or kids you so delightfully before he cheats you.  Films frequently get mixed up in their ethics;  it is difficult to decide what this one is trying to sell us - gamblers, draft dodgers, converted gangsters, or Mr. Grant.  Maybe only Mr. Grant, but it chooses a strange way to do it."

- Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal

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Number 43 - Mr Lucky (Lobby Card Style)

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Gambling Ship (1933)

      "Grant proves his potentialities for femme box office for this inept assignment..."

With Benita Hume.

Gambling Ship - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"A fair flicker.  Of the gangster meller genera with a new slant in the gambling ship locale off the coast of Long Beach, California.  Another new angle is in the finale where the ship's anchor is cast loose and the waves are permitted to sweep the anti-element off into the briny while the sympathetic faction of the lawless lot fights its way to safety and a suggestion of regeneration for the happy ending.  

Cary Grant is the big shot gambler who thinks he's found the real thing in Benita Hume, a gambler's moll, during their cross-country trek from Chicago to Los Angeles.  The fact that it's an open-and-shut 'make' on the part of both principals establishes a dubious premise from which to evolve the highly romantic aura which has been essayed.  Grant thinks Miss Hume is the McCoy on the swank stuff.  

Film doesn't drag, save in negligible moments, but in toto it's a familiar formula of mob vs. mob with the sympathetic Grant commandeering one bunch to hijack La Rue's more sinister hoodlums.  Speaking of sinisterness, La Rue should never go Raftish and try to act up as a hero; he's the most repellent villyun in major film league and he'll stay on top of the batting order if he doesn't get the Rover Boy complex.  Grant proves his potentialities for femme box office with this inept assignment; ditto Miss Hume, who makes a difficult, chameleon characterization sound almost convincing.

- Abel Green, Variety

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Number 11 - Gambling Ship (Lobby Card Style)

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Dream Wife (1953)

      "...Cary Grant is on hand to get laughs where it isn't always possible to find them in the script."

With Deborah Kerr.

Dream Wife - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Dream Wife was made under the personal supervision of Dore Schary and Cary Grant is on hand to get laughs where it isn't always possible to find them in the script.  Nevertheless, this uneven mixture of sophisticated humor and downright slapstick amounts to little more than a fairly amusing comedy.

- Newsweek

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Number 59 - Dream Wife (Lobby Card Style)

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Holiday (1938)

     "...again turns in a smooth performance of the type that has made him one of Hollywood's most-sought-after leading men."

With Katharine Hepburn.

Holiday - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"When Philip Barry's Holiday was produced on Broadway in 1928, Hope Williams took the comedy's outstanding role, that of Linda Seton.  Her understudy was an unknown, inexperienced actress named Katharine Hepburn.  For two years Miss Hepburn marked time offstage, waiting for her chance. It never came.  In 1930 the play was filmed.  This time Ann Harding was Linda.  Now Columbia's refilming of Holiday gives Katharine Hepburn her first chance at the coveted role that seems made to order for her.  

The first screen Holiday was an almost literal transcription of the play.  The modern version, brilliantly adapted by Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman, is equally faithful, forwarding its slight story almost entirely by conversation.  But it is superb conversation - part of it Barry's own, the rest brought up to date with significant and satiric topical allusions.  

Directed by George Cukor, the story resolves the triangle with an intelligence and penetrating humor that gives an excellent cast a field day.   Henry Kolker, Lew Ayres, Jean Dixon, and Edward Everett Horton are outstanding in lesser roles; Cary Grant again turns in a smooth performance of the type that has made him one of Hollywood's most-sought-after leading men.  

It is more to the point that Katharine Hepburn gives one of the most successful characterizations of her screen career.  Several weeks ago the Independent Theatre Owners Association attacked a batch of high salaried stars which it considered on the skids to oblivion.  Miss Hepburn was one of them.  At the time, Jack Cohn, vice-president of Columbia, rallied to her defense.  Now he is turning the association's attack to his own ends.  The advertising campaign for Holiday will sound one note across the country - "Is it true what they say about Hepburn?" Judging from the film, the producer knew the answer in advance.

- Newsweek

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Number 31 - Holiday (Lobby Card Style)

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Merrily We Go To Hell (1932)

    "...a brief treat among the supporting players though, in the shape of Cary Grant..."

With Sylvia Sidney and Fredric March.

Merrily We Go To Hell:

"Merrily We Go To Hell focuses on the turbulent relationship between Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney) and Jerry Corbett (Arzner regular Fredric March). They first meet at a party, where Jerry is drunk but charming and they arrange a dinner date, which Jerry is late for but eventually attends.

Though Jerry’s drunken antics cause concern for Joan, she’s too smitten by him to give up. After they marry, he becomes much better behaved, though they have financial worries whilst he struggles to make a name for himself as a playwright.  When Jerry does get a play sold, it stars his old flame, Claire Hempstead (Adrianne Allen), and this reunion knocks him off the wagon. He also starts to get romantically involved with Claire again, barely hiding it from Joan in his frequently drunken state.

Joan attempts to stand fast and keep Jerry on the straight and narrow but eventually has enough and attempts to show her husband what pain he’s causing by living a wild and free life herself.

Merrily We Go To Hell has quite an unusual tone. From the title and blurb I’d read, I was expecting a riotous screwball comedy. However, though there is plenty of comedy in the film, it’s countered by quite serious drama. It’s very much a film of two halves in fact, with the first leaning more heavily towards romantic comedy, then the second skewing much closer to drama, ending on a particularly moving note of tragedy. In the wrong hands, this shift in tone might have been a problem, but Arzner keeps the transition smooth and natural. In fact, it helps strengthen the depiction of the problems the central relationship faces, with Jerry’s alcoholism seeming charming to begin with, before becoming destructive. This mixture of warmth and comedy with cold cynicism makes for a deep and believable depiction of marriage too.

Also helping sell the concept are a pair of great central performances. March plays drunk very well and has enough charisma to prevent his character’s many flaws from turning the audience completely away from him. Sidney is the real star of the show though. Her richly textured performance feels way ahead of its time, with subtle changes in expression belying her breezy, cheerful demeanour. The wedding scene is a particularly strong moment between the pair as their body language and reactions make for a wonderfully awkward atmosphere and add great depth to a scene that’s very straightforward on paper.

The rest of the cast are a bit of a mixed bag, with George Irving a little flat as Joan’s father, for instance, whereas Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher is enjoyable as Jerry’s drunken cohort, Buck. There’s a brief treat among the supporting players though, in the shape of Cary Grant, who features in a very early role.

The script can be a bit hit and miss too. There are some amusingly witty lines but it’s not as sharply written overall as some other classic comedies from the era. The story also ladles on the melodrama towards the end with a final scene that ties things up too simply for my liking.

Visually, Arzner and DOP David Abel do a great job. There’s plenty of camera movement that’s only subtly used for the most part, though there are a couple of quite complicated tracking shots in there too. There’s also a nice use of depth in frame, to keep the film visually interesting.

I didn’t feel the pace was well maintained though. Perhaps it’s because I was expecting more of a screwball comedy, or it’s due to the quieter nature of the early sound era, but the film didn’t feel as ‘punchy’ as it could be.

Overall, however, Merrily We Go To Hell is a sensitive, yet frank and honest examination of a troubled marriage. Its move from comedy to tragedy was unexpected for me and made for an unusual blend, but the transition is well handled. The film isn’t perfect and has some lulls here and there, but some fantastic central performances and assured, intuitive direction make it something special, regardless."

 

- David Brook, BlueprintReview.co.uk, 5 June 2021

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Number 3 - Merrily We Go To Hell (Lobby Card Style)

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Singapore Sue (1932)

    "It was probably on the basis of this film that Grant obtained his first five-year contract with Paramount..."

With Anna Chang.

Singapore Sue - taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"The first short film that Cary Grant made was Singapore Sue which was released in the summer of 1932.  Three of his full length films were already in distribution.  However he had made this short film in New York City.  In it he played an American sailor who visits a cafe run by actress Anna Chang.  It was probably on the basis of this film that Grant obtained his first five-year contract with Paramount.  The film was written and directed by Casey Robinson.  The dialogue was staged by Max E Hayes."

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Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

      "...this Columbia film easily outranks most of its plane-crashing, sky-spectacular predecessors."

With Jean Arthur and Crew.

Only Angels Have Wings - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"The year's output of aviation films subtracts none of the vigor and little of the freshness from Only Angels Have Wings.  More than a year in production, and coming at the tail end of an overworked screen cycle, this Columbia film easily outranks most of its plane-crashing, sky-spectacular predecessors.  

Produced, directed and written by Howard Hawks (Ceiling Zero and the Dawn Patrol of 1930), whose original story Jules Furthman has turned into a taut, economical script, this is the collective drama of a group of American aviators in the banana town of Barranca, set at the base of the mountains in the Latin-American tropics.  

Worthy of script, direction and particularly effective recreation of its tropical setting is the film's first-rate company.  Grant and Miss Arthur, perfectly cast in the leading roles, are supported by skillful and convincing characterizations, particularly by Sig Rumann as owner of the rickety plane service, Thomas Mitchell as a grounded flyer, and in lesser roles, Rita Hayworth, Allyn Joslyn, and Noah Beery, Jr.  Perhaps of most interest to screen fans is the fact that Richard Barthelmess, after a three-year absence from the screen, takes to the comeback road with a splendid performance."

- Newsweek

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Indiscreet (1958)

     " ...as impeccably tailored and deft with a witty line as ever and looking very little older..."

With Ingrid Bergman.

Indiscreet - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Indiscreet  is an attempt to revive the kind of urbane romantic comedy that was popular some twenty years ago.  To qualify for this category it was necessary that the leading characters be rich and handsome and spectacularly well dressed and that they behave in the somewhat irresponsible fashion equated in the mind of the average audience with genuine sophistication.  It was also helpful, though not altogether obligatory, to have Cary Grant as the male star.  

Cary Grant, as impeccably tailored and deft with a witty line as ever and looking very little older, is on hand in this new one (in fact, with director Stanley Donen he also co-produced it).  Playing opposite him is a magnificently gowned Ingrid Bergman.  

The film was adapted by Norman Krasna from his play, Kind Sir.  It was not much of a play and the addition of some clever new dialogue does not make the movie version much better.  Even so, the two principals, though a trifle mature for this kind of shenanigans, are thoroughly expert and so are Phyllis Calvert and Cecil Parker.  And an ultra-handsome Technicolor production rounds out what I suppose could be called glamorous escapism."

- Moira Walsh, Catholic World

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Number 64 - Indiscreet (Lobby Card Style)

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The Eagle and The Hawk (1933)

     "Here is a drama told with a praiseworthy sense of realism..."

The Eagle and The Hawk - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"In The Eagle and The Hawk, John Monk Saunders has written a vivid and impressive account of the effect of battles in the clouds upon an American ace.  It is, fortunately, devoid of the stereotyped ideas which have weakened most of such narratives.  Here is a drama told with a praiseworthy sense of realism, and the leading role is portrayed very efficiently by Frederic March.  

Stuart Walker's direction of this picture is thoroughly capable.  Nothing appears to be overdone and no episode is too prolonged.  Aside from the good work by Mr. March and Mr. Oakie, there are noteworthy impersonations by Cary Grant, Sir Guy Standing and Miss Lombard."

- Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times - Reviewer

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Number 10 - The Eagle and The Hawk (Lobby Card Style)

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Born To Be Bad (1934)

     "...a hopelessly unintelligent hodgepodge, wherein Loretta Young and Cary Grant have the misfortune to be cast in the leading roles."

With Loretta Young.

Born To Be Bad - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Ralph Graves, who has given several fairly interesting performances, is responsible for the narrative of Born To Be Bad.  If this opus is any criterion of Mr. Graves's literary skill, he is scarcely to be congratulated on having temporarily abandoned his acting.  It is a hopelessly unintelligent hodgepodge, wherein Loretta Young and Cary Grant have the misfortune to be cast in the leading roles." 

- Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times

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Number 15 - Born To Be Bad (Lobby Card Style)

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