Cary Grant Box Set

Holiday
Only Angels Have Wings
The Talk of the Town
His Girl Friday
The Awful Truth

A serendipitous trip to the thrift store left me in possession of a five-film Cary Grant box set. These were the films Grant made for Columbia Studios in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Restored, they look and sound good (why do 80 year-old movies have more legible dialog than modern films?) They are all great, each in its own way.

Holiday (1938), a George Cukor remake of a hit 1928 play by Philip Barry, paired Grant with a young Katherine Hepburn who is the kid sister of the woman (Doris Nolan) who is pledged to wed Grant. Sparks fly when Grant and Hepburn are on the screen together, it is only a matter of when, not if, these two finally get together. For an adapted play, the camerawork and direction is excellent and only a little bit stagey. The dialog is clever, the acting superb.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939), directed by Howard Hawks, is a gritty action film set in South America. Grant runs a two-bit airline, trying to make a buck any way he can. A freighter drops Jean Arthur off and she becomes a romantic foil for the hard-bitten Grant. This macho melodrama also contains hints of homo-eroticism. In the middle of the film a smoldering Rita Hayworth (as Grant‘s ex) arrives and almost sets the film on fire. Grant’s character is much darker here than in his usual roles. Moody and very atmospheric with great aerial sequences, this is a real curio, early aviation buffs with get a kick out of it.

The Talk of the Town (1942), is a comedy that veers into social commentary; its look at politics, law, and justice remains timely. Grant is a fugitive from trumped up charges when he seeks refuge with Jean Arthur and is joined by Ronald Colman, playing a law professor who seeks quiet and solitude to write a book. George Stevens directs, a little heavy-handed at times, but balances comedy and drama well. A bit of man-love shows up here between the professor and his black servant. Grant shows his darker side here as well.

His Girl Friday (1940), also directed by Howard Hawks, is an absolute masterwork. A loose remake of the stage play Front Page, it is a dizzying madcap farce with Grant as a newspaper editor and Rosalind Russell as his ex who also happens to be his best reporter in what was then a man’s job. Great supporting cast and the dialog is a mile-a-minute, filled with brilliant word-play. The camera work and editing is also extremely advanced for its era. If you only see one of these films, this is the one to watch.

The Awful Truth (1937), directed by Leo McCarey and star Irene Dunne as Grant’s separated-but-not-yet-divorced wife. McCarey was a veteran of slapstick comedy (he put Laurel and Hardy together as a team!) and this is the frothiest of these movies. Some great physical humor by Grant and Dunne is a perfect foil who gives as good as she gets.

A common thread throughout these films is the way Grant interacts with his female costars. The interplay he has with each of them is worth the price of admission (in my case $3 for five films!) Romantic relationships in these films are subtle, a quality that has been often lost in subsequent years, yet these interactions seem fresh and modern.