Update. Welcome Instapundit readers, hope you enjoy our reflections on Mr Cary Grant.
Today is the birthday of Cary Grant, who was born on the 18th January 1904 and died November 29 1986.
Happy birthday Mr Grant, wherever you are.
For me Cary Grant is the very personification of manly style.
He was unique and even after all these years no actor comes close to replicating his witty charm, his style or his joie de vivre. I did not “get” Cary Grant when I was younger but started to appreciate him as my knowledge of the world broadened and deepened. There is a great deal to Cary Grant and his style and one needs to have enough depth to appreciate him. Here are a few of my appreciations of him.
One of the most important and most obviously manly things about him was his athletic, animal physicality. I was reminded of this when I last watched “To catch a Thief”, which many consider his finest movie. The second scene of TCAT introduces Cary Grant as John Robie, at home in the South of France. Robie is a resistance hero and jewel thief. In the scene he wears a finely woven striped crewneck pullover, grey pleated Italian trousers and tan loafers. Around his neck he wears a red-atterned silk foulard, tucked into the pullover. So far, so metrosexual.
Suddenly he hears the screech of a police car racing into his drive. His walk becomes swift (but still unhurried) and as he reaches the stairs to the first floor he takes them in an effortless loping leonine run. The change in Grant is electric and shocking. He goes from calm to action in a split-second. Suddenly this debonair handsome man shows the reflexes of an athlete, or of a killer.
Cary Grant started out in showbusiness as an acrobat and that clearly helped. But somewhere in his evolution he built a harmony of mind and body that informs all of his roles. Comfortable in his own skin, he is capable of becoming a physical powerhouse in a moment and we, his audience, sense that. Men particularly, sense the presence of dangerous men. With Cary Grant there is always a sense that there is power in reserve, that this is a very dangerous man.
He does it again in North by Northwest, in the famous crop-duster scene. As the light aeroplance chases him across a ploughed field, he runs like an athlete (he was actually 55 at the time). Not only that but he looks back mid-run to check the plane’s position. Ever tried that? We would be lucky not to fall and break our necks. Cary Grant makes it look easy.
Strangely enough the actor that reminds me the most of Cary Grant is Clint Eastwood. There is a similarity in their calm stillness and their confident presence.
Cary Grant and his clothes.
The thing that everyone knows about him is his clothes. He was always immaculately dressed. He believed that a gentleman had a duty to dress well. He also knew that clothes were a key facet of one’s style and he knew that women love stylish men.
Despite being born in poverty and having very limited schooling, Cary Grant believed passionately in learning. He learnt everything he could about style. He learnt about clothes from tailors, he watched wealthy American men to learn about manners and he made friends with intelligent learned men of all kinds. When one stops to think, it is amazing what this poor boy from a broken home made of himself.
He learnt what clothes could do for him. A wider, broader collar to de-emphasis his muscular neck. English-cut suits to make his lean athlete’s body look wider across the shoulders. Made-to-measure suits with high armholes to lengthen his silhouette and make him look taller. He learnt this and hundreds of other details to build his style. Like many men who start off poor, Grant prized good clothing and relished the opportunity to look good in the world. I always felt this way and Cary Grant confirmed the feeling for me.
Grant understood style, his clothes were classic, in proportion, colours complementing each other. And is this not that what men of style try to do? Don’t we stand in front of the mirror, making sure the tie complements the suit, that the cufflinks are right? Style is also about getting the details right. Cary Grant taught me that.
Cary Grant and women
Cary grant loved women and they loved him. He once said “Women are one of my favourite causes!” Over the course of his life he loved many women. This love of women informed both his style and the characters he played on-screen.
Cary Grant was very competitive, especially when it came to women. He would court women persistently, cleverly, with charm and good manners, until they in turn fell in love with him. When other men tried to attract a women he was courting, he treated them as competitors to be beaten. Which, in my view, is absolutely right. A man does not let other men take things from him without a fight, especially intimate relationships.
In his movies he uses his competitiveness over women to good comic effect.
In His Girl Friday (1940) he plays hardbitten newspaper editor Walter Burns, who is still in love with his ex-wife Hildy Johnson, played by Rosalind Russell. Russell turns up with her soon-to-be new husband in tow. She wants to move to the quiet of the country and be a stay-at-home wife. Burns (Grant) takes them both out to lunch and proceeds to slyly mock “life in the country” to ribbons. It is one of the funniest scenes on film.
He did it again later that year in The Philadephia Story, one of those perfect Hollywood movies that define American cinema. He plays C.K. Dexter Haven, a debonair man-about-town who is obliged by circumstances to attend the forthcoming wedding of his ex-wife, played by Katherine Hepburn. Haven (Grant) still loves his wife and dislikes her nouveau riche husband-to-be, who he suspects is marrying her for her position and money. Grant plays this out to perfection in a scene where he quietly skewers the husband-to-be for his pretension, pomposity and niggardly ways.
Incidentally if you want to see great actors playing off each other, get this movie and watch the scenes of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart together. Pure cinematic genius.
The other, more important aspect of Cary Grant’s love of women was his respect for them and his interest in them as people. In an age when women were treated as less than men, his enlightened understanding stood out. Almost all of the women in his life remained his friends and they all had something good to say about him.
In the movies the fact that he was listening to his leading ladies made the dialogue seem more real and the scenes more alive. If we go back to ”To Catch a Thief” again, Grant’s jewel thief plays opposite Grace Kelly’s spoilt little rich girl, Francie. Francie is often arrogant and snippy but Grant’s John Robie listens to everything she says, with courtesy and consideration. The end result is that Grant’s character looks even more manly and assured and Kelly’s Francie becomes more real and touchingly vulnerable.
And all of this rings true today, in real life as in the movies. Women love men who hear them, men who have the courage and gravitas to engage with them honestly. Cary Grant was the pioneer, the model to copy and the man who made loving women central to a man’s style.
So much of Cary Grant’s charm lies in his good manners and his consideration of others. Everyone who knew him talked of his respect for other people and his simple joy in talking to anyone he happened to meet.
You know, I think that is the secret of his style, his joy in life. His joy in clothes, women, movies and anything else he came across.
When he is onscreen he is alive in a way no other actor has every been. His good humour, his confidence in the fundamental goodness of life is transmitted from the screen to us. The great film critic Pauline Kael said that just by appearing he makes us smile. Well, yes. He is telling us that manliness is good and graceful, that a sense of humour and consideration for others is style and that it is a joy to be alive.
There is so much more that I could write about Cary Grant but everything has to end somewhere. However, there is one really important thing to say.
Thank you Mr Grant, for everything.
For those readers who want more of Cary Grant (and who would not?) here are my five favourite Cary Grant films.
To Catch a Thief
Stylish caper about a jewel thief on the French Riviera whose robberies are being blamed on Cary Grant’s John Robie. Robie is obliged to catch the thief in order to clear himself. Grant plays opposite Grace kelly who never looked more beautiful than in this film. Her flair for dialogue and Grant’s generous and subtle acting make their interaction crackle and the jokes pop and there is a real erotic charge between them. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock with consummate care and perfect timing.
The Philadephia Story
Cary Grant gives a wonderful performance, by turns tricky, funny, loving and kind. His stylish socialite anchors this tale of a rich cultured American family beset by celebrity hunting media in the approach to a divisive wedding. Katherine Hepburn is the bewildered patrician bride and Jimmy Stewart the smart-but-stupid reporter. The repartee is sharp enough to cut paper with.
North by Northwest
Hitchcock again, placing Grant in harms way as communist assassins mistake him for an American secret agent. The mood of the film becomes very black towards the end, with Grant having to draw on all of his resources to survive.
Only Angels Have Wings
This really is a man’s film, with Grant as the lead pilot for a small air service that flys dangerous mail runs across the Andes. Directed by Howard Hawks, it focuses on the bravery and professionalism of men in dangerous jobs, whose pride and ingenuity enable them to make near impossible flights. The film is an emotional cauldron, with Grant’s Geoff Carter trying to hold onto the ruthless discipline that enables him to do his job, in the face of Jean Arthur’s love for him.
Charade
Made in 1963 when Cary Grant was 59, Charade was a light thriller with Nazi gold and devious criminals, set in Paris. Charade proved that Cary had lost none of his magic. Hugely successful when it was released, not least because Grant’s leading lady was Audrey Hepburn, who was the perfect foil for his sophistication and charm. Grant plays a character who may be a thief, a spy or a bureaucrat and has enormous fun inhabiting each of these roles. Audrey hepburn summed Grant up for all time with the following lines:
Reggie (Hepburn): “Do you know what’s wrong with you?”
Peter (Grant): “What?”
Reggie (Hepburn): “Absolutely Nothing”
Books
There are also two books that I like about Cary Grant:
Graham McCann:
Cary Grant, a class apart
Excellent on Cary Grant’s life, if sometimes a little light on his movies.
Richard Torregrossa
Cary Grant, a celebration of style.
Now this book is invaluable. Do you want to know how Cary Grant looked so stylish? Would you like to be like Cary Grant? This book tells you where he bought his clothes, how he had them cut and how he customised them. Torregrossa talks about Grant’s style and his life with insight and real information.
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