Or he became me.

June 1, 2004 6:47 PM

TCM is playing tribute this month to Archie Leach, better known to the world as Cary Grant. The range of films, the types of roles, the co-stars. Makes you long for another era of american film-making. Of interest to you architect types might be Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House of 1948, with the fabulous Myrna Loy - whose 1947 film The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer partly occupies that special message place on my answering machine. Grant's films with Hitchcock - especially North by Northwest with its great fake FLW house and fantastic Saul Bass titles - Cukor, and Hawks are well worth searching out. Don't miss his final role - Walk Don't Run - a film set at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and itself a remake of The More the Merrier of 1943. Who said that Hollywood couldn't do remakes?

One of the most interesting items to come out of the TCM documentary is Cary's embracing LSD in the early pre-illegal tests of it.
posted by grimley (25 comments total)

FLW = Frank Lloyd Wright, and unfortunately I can't find a screen cap of it.
posted by grimley at 6:49 PM on June 1, 2004

Here's the obituary of Oscar Janiger, the psychiatrist who turned on Grant, as well as Aldous Huxley and Jack Nicholson. Also, Erowid has a vault on the shrink.
posted by jbrjake at 6:55 PM on June 1, 2004

One of the most interesting items to come out of the TCM documentary is Cary's embracing LSD in the early pre-illegal tests of it.

"Judy, Judy, Judy, the walls are breathing, breathing, breathing, breathing..."
posted by jonmc at 6:59 PM on June 1, 2004

Where's... the... White... House?

Ok, so it's Jimmy Stewart. It's still funny.
posted by loquacious at 7:11 PM on June 1, 2004

Cary Grant is the coolest. I love Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic & Old Lace, Philadelphia Story, etc. He was great.
posted by riffola at 7:11 PM on June 1, 2004

jbrjake - thanks for the links... i've become interested now in this strange LSD TLA.
posted by grimley at 7:15 PM on June 1, 2004

Grant's use of legal LSD isn't new info. It's been well known for decades; in fact, Grant himself was an outspoken proponent of therapeutic LSD (which is how he used it, under medical supervision). He and wife number...umm...3?...Betsy Drake is often credited with introducing him to it back in the 50s. And--get this!--Timothy Leary claimed Grant's interest is what led him to check out LSD!

I've never understood where that "Judy, Judy, Judy" reference is from. Grant himself never said it.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:20 PM on June 1, 2004

I love him...and he may have loved guys : >
posted by amberglow at 7:34 PM on June 1, 2004

The Philadelphia Story ranks as probably my favorite movie. C.K. Dexter Haven -- the name is absolutely perfect for Grant.

And His Girl Friday - with Roslind Russell - is priceless. The first 20 minutes alone are worth the price of admission.

A true Hollywood legend.

(And fercryinoutloud - can we just get off of the LSD thing? It is NOT what defined him, made him famous, or made him loved by millions. /rant)
posted by davidmsc at 7:38 PM on June 1, 2004

Oh, and grimly, great list but how on earth could you have left out His Girl Friday?? AFI regards it as one of the top 20 funniest movies of all time and--let's just say--they're not wrong. Speaking of remakes: The Front Page (play) -> The Front Page (movie) -> His Girl Friday, The Front Page (movie remake), and Switching Channels.

Cary Grant rocked. His three minute onscreen kiss with Ingrid Bergman, shot back in the Hayes Office days when a censor stood next to the camera with a stopwatch to make sure no lip-lock went longer than 3 seconds, is the stuff of legend. Erotic, funny, sensual, poignant, breathless...it Hitchcock's brilliant dodge around an absurd system.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 7:39 PM on June 1, 2004

It was a stream of consciousness thing, ncm. I didn't want to repeat the whole imdb list. There are too many. Too many.
posted by grimley at 8:02 PM on June 1, 2004

"I don't know from water buffaloes!" - His Girl Friday - one of the best (and best-delivered) lines in movies - ever.
posted by davidmsc at 8:05 PM on June 1, 2004

Need I add his famous quote: "I wish I was Cary Grant."

North By Northwest is my favorite Hitchcock movie (which is saying something). Grant warned Hitchcock that the plot was too complex, and no one would be able to follow it!

What Grimley said abour repeating the IMDb list. Too many classics to start listing.
posted by pmurray63 at 8:11 PM on June 1, 2004

For me, the one that hasn't been mentioned yet that is a favorite is Only Angels Have Wings.

The best quote I ever heard about Cary Grant: "He made men seem like a good idea."
posted by dobbs at 8:28 PM on June 1, 2004

Cary Grant is the coolest.

Indeed.
posted by rushmc at 8:32 PM on June 1, 2004

NxNW: Classic.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 8:39 PM on June 1, 2004

Cary Grant once received a telegram from a journalist: "How Old Cary Grant?"

He replied, "Old Cary fine, how you?"
posted by jonp72 at 9:11 PM on June 1, 2004

The best quote I ever heard about Cary Grant: "He made men seem like a good idea."

I'd switch for Cary Grant in a second. Harrison Ford too, but he'd have to be dressed as Indiana Jones.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:57 PM on June 1, 2004

TCM did a good job of covering the great Cary Grant films. My newest discovery is The Talk of the Town, with Jean Arthur.

I love how Eva Marie Saint said "Look for the next Cary Grant . . . NADA."
posted by divrsional at 11:03 PM on June 1, 2004

Two words: Monkey Business.
posted by ed at 12:16 AM on June 2, 2004

It's times like these that I really wish I could afford cable. Cary Grant was always a fixture in my house growing up, in films like The Bishop's Wife, but as I got older I discovered him in roles like the North by Northwest role, and was shocked by his range of ability. I'd love to see the documentary!
posted by dryad at 5:59 AM on June 2, 2004

Cary Grant will always be my definition of handsome, and pretty much all the romantic comedies I love have him in the lead. Just to name a couple of (slightly) lesser-known ones: Father Goose, Indiscreet.
posted by of strange foe at 9:50 AM on June 2, 2004

The American Musem of the Moving Image in New York is in the middle of a retrospective.
posted by muckster at 10:58 AM on June 2, 2004

I absolutely love Father Goose. And if you can check out Holiday, another film that he shot will Kate Hepburn.
posted by beatnik808 at 1:29 PM on June 2, 2004

fercryinoutloud - can we just get off of the LSD thing? It is NOT what defined him, made him famous, or made him loved by millions.

how about no? piss-poor comments like that are the reason this post is the first i've ever heard about it.

i always loved his performances. now i'm very interested in the man. color me "turned on."

For a slow learner, I learned a great deal — and the result of it all was rebirth. A new assessment of life and myself in it. An immeasurably beneficial cleansing of so many needless fears and guilts, and a release of the tensions that had been the result of them.

- The Acid Trips of Cary Grant
posted by mrgrimm at 4:59 PM on June 2, 2004