January 18, 2004

Local boy made good

Posted by Chris

Today is the centenary of Cary Grant’s birth. Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, the city where I live and work and attended Bishop Road School, the same local primary school where my own children went many year later (and which Nobel-prize-winning physicist Paul Dirac also attended). There’s a statue of him in the new Millennium Square (near to Bristol boy-poet and forger Thomas Chatterton ). His best films? I’d vote for Bringing Up Baby and North By Northwest .

Posted on January 18, 2004 10:14 AM UTC
Comments

Notorious.

Posted by Peter Briffa · January 18, 2004 10:37 AM

Yeah, “Bringing Up Baby” was hilarious! “Arsenic and Old Lace,” too! But “Charade” with Audrey Hepburn probably gets my vote.

Posted by Anon · January 18, 2004 11:16 AM

Great actor; his mother I believe stayed in England for the rest of her natural life owing to her mental illness and refusal to move to the US, despite his earnest entreaties to do so. I think he visited regularly as was possible after setting her up comfortably in her own home, I can’t remember whether she lived out the rest of her life in Bristol or somewhere else. Elements of this relationship can be seen in his performance as a son taking care of his sick mother in “None but the Lonely”.

His best film? I would go for “Philadelphia Story” not only an excellent film but one where he manages to outshine Jimmy Stewart, doing his wide-eyed, amiable-innocent routine, not an easy feat.

Posted by Conrad Barwa · January 18, 2004 01:56 PM

No His Girl Friday?

Posted by Dedman · January 18, 2004 04:59 PM

Holiday. Everybody’s seen Baby, hardly anyone’s seen Holiday. But it’s great.

Still, I’m not sure it has the equivalent of my two favorite bits of Baby -

‘Because I just went gay, all of a sudden!!’

and

‘Oh look at the nasty little cur.’

Posted by Ophelia Benson · January 18, 2004 05:25 PM

I’m with Jim: His Girl Friday puts the banter on Moonlighting to shame.

Posted by Rook · January 18, 2004 06:36 PM

Notorious.

Bringing Up Baby is horrible. Almost unwatchable. Just saying.

Posted by david · January 18, 2004 07:11 PM

When she was alive my mom used to rave about a movie that starred both Cary Grant and Mae West. Has anyone here seen it?

Posted by Julian Nightingale · January 18, 2004 08:24 PM

I’d also like to register my vote for His Girl Friday.

Posted by Invisible Adjunct · January 18, 2004 09:34 PM

North By Northwest, His Girl Friday, My Favorite Wife, Holiday

Posted by Andrew Boucher · January 18, 2004 09:58 PM

I had to go to some trouble to conceal his homosexuality from my grandmother in later years (only because it would wreck her crush, not because she objected to gay people in general). She was disappointed enough about Montgomery Clift.

Posted by Belle Waring · January 18, 2004 10:34 PM

The Boys from Brazil

Posted by degustibus · January 19, 2004 01:04 AM

Notorious is great. Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House is pretty funny.

Posted by skybluewater · January 19, 2004 02:20 AM

Julian, that’s “I’m No Angel”. That was the movie where Mae West spoke her most famous line: “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?” (Not: Why don’t you come up and see me sometime.) And the person she said this line to was Cary Grant.

Posted by scott h. · January 19, 2004 06:07 AM

“To Catch A Thief” is also a really good Grant film. (Directed by Hitchcock, too.)

Posted by scott h. · January 19, 2004 07:55 AM

His mother stayed in (or close to) Bristol till her death. He was, by all accounts, an extremely good son. Ronnie Corbett has a cute anecdote in his autobiuography about Cary Grant turning up at a show he did in Bristol, and then coming backstage to say what a fan he was.

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Posted by Pastrami Sandwich · February 10, 2004 01:54 PM
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