Birthday Spotlight: Cary Grant

CARY GRANT, who was born 117 years ago today, is one of the best movie stars of all time. A classical leading man in every sense, at home in comedies, dramas and thrillers alike, Grant set the template that most actors strive for even today. Celebrate with a double bill of two of his many classics, often coming within the same year:

1938 -
This was the year Grant established his bond fides with BRINGING UP BABY and HOLIDAY, two iconic screwball comedies with his greatest co-star, Katherine Hepburn. Bringing Up Baby especially, directed in signature fashion by Howard Hawks, is as perfect as a comedy film can be.

1940 -
Two more comedies from Hawks and George Cukor, respectively. HIS GIRL FRIDAY and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY remain delightful rom coms 80 years later, featuring across-the-board brilliant performances and whip smart scripts. While his 1938 hits established Grant as a slapstick master, these two films cast him as charming cads, yet he never loses his audience.

MASTERFUL MUGGING -
ARSENIC & OLD LACE and MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE are two of the best films of Grant’s mid-1940s run. Both thrive on the premise of dropping the excellent physical comedian in the middle of outrageous domestic chaos, leaving Grant to play exasperation like no one had before or since.

CLASSY SPIES -
With 1946’s NOTORIOUS, Alfred Hitchcock tapped into Grant’s serious side to get one of his best performances of his career in one of Hitchcock’s best movies. Grant and Ingrid Bergman make for one the silver screen’s most fascinating couples in a deceptively complex and powerful thriller that has rarely ever been matched. Nearly 20 years later, Grant teamed with Audrey Hepburn for a funhouse version of the Hitchcock thriller, resulting in a one of the best comedies of the ‘60s.