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VII: Stanley Donen, Charade (1963)
I saw a remake, The Truth About Charlie (2002) onna plane, and actually enjoyed it, although later it occurred to me that Mark Wahlberg was hardly the new Cary Grant (insert "How old Cary Grant?" joke here), although Tim Robbins does as Walter Matthau. So sue me. The original is a rather Hitchcockian thriller with blond ice maiden Regina Lambert (Audrey Hepburn) returning to Paris to find her apartment empty and her husband murdered. And a number of gangsters are after the money they say her husband had. Naturally she turns to Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) for help, only for her to realise that he might be about to betray her.
This is Grant cast largely against type - he's usually the hero, not the villain, so it comes as a real surprise when it turns out to be more complicated, and the action cuts away from Lambert's point of view. There are plenty of twisty turny bits (Eye of the Beholder's Marc Behm co-wrote the story), and some great support villainy from James Coburne and the other criminals. There's a fantasticly edited chase scene at the end of the film, with match cutting between the participants.
The version I saw was rather poor, but I suspect that, due to the film being in the public domain, this was one of the unrestored DVDs rather than a cleaned up one.
VIII: Garson Kanin, My Favorite Wife (1940)
Happenstance and unfinished business threw up another Cary Grant film: the second of his three collaboration with Irene Dunne, after The Awful Truth and before Penny Serenade. These appear to be all the same kind of rom com: not about two strangers who dislike each other getting together (see Bringing Up Baby and Desk Set), but a married couple who rediscover their love.
Nick Arden (Grant) has Ellen his long missing wife (Dunne) declared dead so he can marry Bianca (Gail Patrick) - only Ellen reappears and follows him to his second honeymoon. Nick first has to deal with the fall out, then Ellen tries to win him back and plays hard to get when he doesn't leap at the chance. There is much game playing as in The Awful Truth, but the latter is a sharper film. A couple of cameos steal the film from under the leads' noses: a witless judge (Granville Bates) and a disapproving hotel manager. Randolph Scott is eye candy rather than the rival that Ralph Bellamy is in The Awful Truth (and Grant and Scott were rumoured to be lovers). Patrick's role is thankless - I'm not clear why Nick would fall for her.
OK, I have Penny Serenade somewhere round here, so maybe that should be next. Walk Don't Run is coming my way.
Totals: 8 [Cinema: 3; DVD: 5; TV: 0]
I saw a remake, The Truth About Charlie (2002) onna plane, and actually enjoyed it, although later it occurred to me that Mark Wahlberg was hardly the new Cary Grant (insert "How old Cary Grant?" joke here), although Tim Robbins does as Walter Matthau. So sue me. The original is a rather Hitchcockian thriller with blond ice maiden Regina Lambert (Audrey Hepburn) returning to Paris to find her apartment empty and her husband murdered. And a number of gangsters are after the money they say her husband had. Naturally she turns to Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) for help, only for her to realise that he might be about to betray her.
This is Grant cast largely against type - he's usually the hero, not the villain, so it comes as a real surprise when it turns out to be more complicated, and the action cuts away from Lambert's point of view. There are plenty of twisty turny bits (Eye of the Beholder's Marc Behm co-wrote the story), and some great support villainy from James Coburne and the other criminals. There's a fantasticly edited chase scene at the end of the film, with match cutting between the participants.
The version I saw was rather poor, but I suspect that, due to the film being in the public domain, this was one of the unrestored DVDs rather than a cleaned up one.
VIII: Garson Kanin, My Favorite Wife (1940)
Happenstance and unfinished business threw up another Cary Grant film: the second of his three collaboration with Irene Dunne, after The Awful Truth and before Penny Serenade. These appear to be all the same kind of rom com: not about two strangers who dislike each other getting together (see Bringing Up Baby and Desk Set), but a married couple who rediscover their love.
Nick Arden (Grant) has Ellen his long missing wife (Dunne) declared dead so he can marry Bianca (Gail Patrick) - only Ellen reappears and follows him to his second honeymoon. Nick first has to deal with the fall out, then Ellen tries to win him back and plays hard to get when he doesn't leap at the chance. There is much game playing as in The Awful Truth, but the latter is a sharper film. A couple of cameos steal the film from under the leads' noses: a witless judge (Granville Bates) and a disapproving hotel manager. Randolph Scott is eye candy rather than the rival that Ralph Bellamy is in The Awful Truth (and Grant and Scott were rumoured to be lovers). Patrick's role is thankless - I'm not clear why Nick would fall for her.
OK, I have Penny Serenade somewhere round here, so maybe that should be next. Walk Don't Run is coming my way.
Totals: 8 [Cinema: 3; DVD: 5; TV: 0]
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