Movie Talk/Vicodin Talk
July 25th, 2005 - 10:38 pm
Growing up on old movies, I wanted to grow up to be Cary Grant. Needless to say, in that sense puberty was a big disappointment. Not tall enough. Too skinny. Good chin, but uncleft. And try as I might, I still sound too Jewish to be as WASPy as Cary. So I set my sites comfortably lower, and aimed for William Powell.
Was Powell suave? Sure – but still a little goofy. That, I could handle. Even better, I got to marry a very 21st Century version of Powell’s frequent costar, Myrna Loy.
But we were talking about Cary Grant, weren’t we?
Want to know exactly why, all these years later, Grant is still the coolest cat who ever was? Start here, and scroll up until you’re done.
Well Stephen, you set your standards so frickin’ high you were bound to be disappointed.
See, I wanted to be Sean Connery, so I was stuck with the same problem.
Look on the bright side, AIAPN – you might have more hair than Sean.
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Sea Bass.
Line them up right here.
Who would have thought those golden oldies would have Blondie and Jimmy Stuart?
Sadly, I don’t.
Cary Grant was the Man. They just don’t make them like that anymore.
That was a very perceptive analysis regarding the secret of his sexual allure. Think of North by Northwest: “Why are you so good to me?” Or Notorious where Bergman has to taunt him into kissing her. She wouldn’t have had to try nearly so hard with me, but that’s why I’m not Cary Grant.
Sidebar: Several years ago, my wife and I were watching The Ten Commandments on TV. During a commercial break one of those little fun fact blurbs popped up on the screen, stating that Cary Grant had originally been considered for the part of Moses. I couldn’t imagine a more ill-considered bit of casting, and in a moment of inspiration I did the best Cary Grant impersonation of my life with the line: “Let my people go!”
I spend many hours watching TCM. I inherited a love of movies, and these days the classics are a huge relief from crap like Deuce Bigalow!
I’m sure it would be hard to realize you’re never going to be Cary Grant, but us women folk had to deal with Myrna Loy, Lana Turner, Ingrid B. and on and on. I watch those movies and those beautiful women and wonder what happened that women just don’t look like that anymore.
I love cary grant movies, 30 so far and counting. One of my favorite lines (I will have to watch it again) is in “I was a male war bride”. The setup is where cary’s character is gossiped about hitting a woman. Another actress said she would let cary grant, “I’d bring the stick”. You should watch the scene to fully appreciate it.
Heheh. I Was a Male War Bride is underappreciated. Grant is even less convincing as a Frenchman than he is as a woman, but it’s still a funny movie.
There’s a funny scene where he’s going through a war office building looking at the acronyms on the different doors. He gets to one, and he’s trying to decipher it: “War Office Management…” A woman walks out, gives him a funny look, and he realizes the ‘acronym’ is WOMEN, as in restroom.
The Philadelphia Story is the absolute funniest though. You wouldn’t think that he and Jimmy Stewart would mix–the polished Brit, and the slouching American–but their scenes together are classic.
“I thought I’d better hit you before he did. He’s in better shape than I am.”
“Oh, you’ll do.”
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“C.K. Dexter HAVEN!!”
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Stewart: (Spots bottle.) “Mind if I…?”
Grant: “No, help yourself.”
Stewart: (Pours himself a drink, and downs it.)
Grant: “Coals to Newcastle.”
Love that movie.
The only person who looked even better at 80 than he did at 20. Never made a wrong move, at least on film.
“arsenic and old lace” has been one of my favorite movies since i was very young – i remember thinking even at an early age how much i would like to marry that man. “his girl friday” sealed the deal, i knew he was perfect after that.
Speaking of Powell and Loy–I LOVED the “Thin Man” series. Such great dialogue.
I hear that the entire series is hitting DVD as a boxed set this fall. I’m saving up my pennies, of course.
Frankly, I’d have picked Powell to start with. My Man Godfrey is quite possibly the drollest film ever made.
I think some Thin Man movies are on tonite on some channel.
Wow – thanks so much for linking to my obsessive little posts on the coolest movie actor EVER!!
ardsgaine, fancy meeting you here.
Just watched TPS a couple of weeks ago, I like watching what Grant does when Stewart is drunk in his house. Watch his hands under the table, that sort of thing.
We have The Thin Man on laser, if it’s coming on DVD, sign me up. Always wanted to name a dog Asta.
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Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
“What did you do?”
“I don’t know, they won’t tell me!”
undercover cop running a nearby missionary and is bent on “saving” her.
What does running a missionary mean?
Sandy,
I’ll have to look for that next time we watch it. It’s on heavy rotation, so that shouldn’t be long.
I like the Thin Man series too, but I haven’t been able to catch all of them. We rented the first one recently through Netflix, but they didn’t have the others. That’s good news about the box set. It will end up on someone’s Christmas list.
I always wanted to be William Holden. Since he was at his best in middle age, I still have a little time left to kid myself.
Beth
Lexington Green
William Holden… not me. He had a penchant for dying face down in the water/mud in his movies. It got to be a thing between me and my dad. After getting me to sit through Bridges at Toko Ri and Bridge Over the River Kwai, if he asked me to watch a movie, I would ask him first whether it had William Holden in it. If so, no way. (Yeah, I know there are plenty of exceptions, but there’s also 77 Sunset Strip, and in Stalag 17 he just barely missed being the guy face down in the mud. “Sprachen zie Deutsch?”)
William Holden and Glenn Ford always played the Good Man with a Fatal Flaw, which is why they were always second-billed behind Jimmy Stewart and the Duke.
Lex, you want to die in a pool being known as a consort to an aged loon or escape from Stalag 17?
I love the light/chess scene.
Glenn Ford – Advance to the Rear.
Really stupid movie and I still like it.
Of course, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Bad night, Madam.
Cary Grant had a couple of great lines. In one movie, I forget the name but he and a partner are on leave and all they want to do is get drunk on Stingers and molest cute women. A father asks him if his intentions are honorable, Cary answers, “Most of them.” or something similar.
I also like his line from Operation Petticoat (a great movie), “When they’re under 21 they’re protected by law, when they’re over 65 they’re protected by nature. In between they’re fair game.”
Saying that, when I was young I wanted to be Peter O’Toole. He is the coolest person ever, as far as I’m concerned.
The boxed “Thin Man” set was release this week – try Amazon
I still sound too Jewish to be as WASPy as Cary
Just remember something. Cary’s birth name was Archibald Alexander Leach.
Funny–I grew up wanting to be Myrna Loy. Specifically, Myrna Loy as Nora Charles. I so wanted to call down for sandwiches and more ice while entertaining my husband’s criminal friends. However, I would’ve settled for Irene Dunne.
One of my favorite Cary Grant moments happens in His Girl Friday. Ralph Bellamy, completely slow on the uptake, says something about not understanding how someone who’s only been married five months could be having a baby. The look Cary Grant gives him is priceless. I can’t think of one single modern actor who could pack that much into a glance.
Most Cary Grant are my favourite Cary Grant movies, but I think the one that tops the lot is Charade. In it, Grant was pursued by the beautiful, elegantly dressed Audrey Hepburn, who is in terrible danger. You never know, in the movie, who Cary Grant really is and whether he’s really married. Hepburn falls in love with him while she’s being chased by her dead husband’s criminal compadres – a stunning James Coburn among them. Wonderful funny lines and great music, too – and it all takes place in Paris.
And no one’s mentioned Notorious, with Ingrid Bergman. That was a great movie with great photography.
Charade and Notorious are both great. Cary Grant…..ohhhhhhhhhhh (swooning)
My favorite Cary Grant Film that no one mentioned is “That touch of Mink”with Doris Day that movie was absolutely hysterical.I also am a big fan of the “The thin Man”series to.Beth, I know how you feel,actresses of today just aint got it.My favorites are Carol Lombard,Jane Russell,Ava Gardener,and Film Noir actress Lisabeth Scott.Hollywood had a mystique back then that it doesn’t have now.The leading men were actually men,like Gable,and others.Also,the old stars had a great deal of respect for their public which is what you won’t see today.I also forgot Rita Hayworth,who is also a favorite.
How could everyone ignore To Catch a Thief? Hitchock, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant and in color (although I love black and white). I’m not sure it gets better than that.
Hollywood, In A Nutshell
Steve Green (who gains bonus street cred for his admiration of debonair William Powell), highlights exactly what’s gone wrong with Hollywood, by examining, of all things, the trailer for Rob Schneider’s Deuce Bigalow: European Gigalo:The trailer for “D…
Hollywood, Where Art Thou?
VodkaPundit wants to be William Powell, but only because he doesn’t have the chops to pull of Cary Grant. If I could have been born a Star from Hollywood’s Golden Age, I’d have been Jimmy Stewert just to have Grace Kelly around in Rear Window.