Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, with Grace Kelly.
Cary Grant on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ series continues with To Catch a Thief, My Favorite Wife
Cary Grant will have his “Summer Under the Stars” day on Sunday, Aug. 9.
Turner Classic Movies will not present any Cary Grant rarities or little-seen films, which is unfortunate, but if Cary Grant is in it, no matter what it may be, it will be worth a look. Likely even a second (or third, etc.) look as well.
Now, one single look may be enough for the juvenile Irving Reis-directed comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), which happened to be one of the biggest box office hits of the year and the Best Original Screenplay Oscar winner (written by Sidney Sheldon). Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, and Rudy Vallee costar, but it’s the always reliable Harry Davenport who steals the show in a small supporting role.
Now, the three Cary Grant comedies below are worthy of more than a mere look.
The Awful Truth (1937)
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are perfectly matched in Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth, one of the best screwball comedies of the 1930s. Marital problems are at the core of the humor, with the other man played by Ralph Bellamy, who seems to have lost more girls during that decade than just about any other Hollywood actor.
Dunne and Bellamy were both nominated for Oscars that year; Dunne should have won, but Luise Rainer took home the best actress statuette for The Good Earth. McCarey, for his part, won as best director. Viña Delmar was credited for the sparkling screenplay, taken from Arthur Richman’s play.
The 1929 version, starring Ina Claire (who originated Dunne’s role on Broadway) and Henry Daniell (?!), is supposed to be a lost film.
My Favorite Wife (1940)
In Garson Kanin’s amusing comedy My Favorite Wife, Cary Grant is well paired with Irene Dunne and Gail Patrick, both as his wives. A case of accidental bigamy, made more complicated the presence of studly Randolph Scott, who, as it happens, was Grant’s real-life roommate in the mid-1930s. “Enoch Arden”-inspired screenplay credited to Sam and Bella Spewack.
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a featherweight but enjoyable comedy about American bourgeois values, as papa Cary Grant and mama Myrna Loy move with their brood to the suburbs after having had enough of big-city life. Once there, they set out to build the family abode of their dreams.
The result is chaos, but, needless to say, a home is eventually borne out of the couple’s middle-class mess. Melvyn Douglas is great as the family’s friend and lawyer, while the presence of former silent-screen star Reginald Denny is an added curiosity.
An aside: And so is the presence of silent superstar Ramon Novarro in Richard Brooks’ Crisis, a so-so political thriller who was a difficult taskmaster much disliked by the film’s cast and crew.
Another recommendation: Set during Tokyo’s Olympic Games in the mid-1960s, the Charles Walters-directed Walk, Don’t Run (1966) is the remake of George Stevens’ much more prestigious The More the Merrier (1943), with Grant in the old Charles Coburn role. But unprestigious or no, Walk, Don’t Run is a pleasure to watch, partly because of Grant – as suave as ever in his last screen appearance – and partly because of Samantha Eggar, an excellent actress who merited better roles than those she usually got in those days. Jim Hutton is also enjoyable as Eggar’s romantic interest.
9 Sunday PDT
3:00 AM Once Upon a Time (1944)
Director: Alexander Hall.
Cast: Cary Grant, Janet Blair, James Gleason.
88m4:30 AM Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
Director: Don Hartman.
Cast: Cary Grant, Franchot Tone, Diana Lynn, Betsy Drake, Alan Mowbray, Elisabeth Risdon, Richard Gaines, Chick Chandler, Anna Q. Nilsson.
85m6:00 AM My Favorite Wife (1940)
Director: Garson Kanin.
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick, Ann Shoemaker, Scotty Beckett, Donald MacBride, Granville Bates.
88m7:45 AM The Awful Truth (1937)
Director: Leo McCarey.
Cast: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D’Arcy, Cecil Cunningham, Molly Lamont, Esther Dale, Joyce Compton, Robert Allen, Robert Warwick, Mary Forbes.
91m9:30 AM The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
Director: Irving Reis.
Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Harry Davenport, Ray Collins, Johnny Sands, Don Beddoe, Veda Ann Borg, William Bakewell.
95m11:15 AM Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Director: H.C. Potter.
Cast: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Denny, Sharyn Moffett, Louise Beavers, Ian Wolfe, Lex Barker.
94m1:00 PM Father Goose (1964)
Director: Ralph Nelson.
Cast: Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor Howard.
116m3:00 PM To Catch a Thief (1955)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis.
106m5:00 PM Notorious (1946)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Reinhold Schünzel, Ivan Triesault, Alexis Minotis, Wally Brown, Charles Mendl.
101m7:00 PM Houseboat (1958)
Director: Melville Shavelson.
Cast: Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer.
110m9:00 PM Crisis (1950)
Director: Richard Brooks.
Cast: Cary Grant, José Ferrer, Paula Raymond, Signe Hasso, Ramon Novarro, Gilbert Roland, Leon Ames, Antonio Moreno, Pedro de Cordoba.
96m11:00 PM Mr. Lucky (1943)
Director: H.C. Potter.
Cast: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, Paul Stewart, Kay Johnson, Florence Bates.
100m1:00 AM Walk, Don’t Run (1966)
Director: Charles Walters.
Cast: Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar, Jim Hutton.
114m