03.08.10 | guest-blogs | FanFare GuestsPrint this Post
Guest blogger Bill Wren writes:
I rewatched for the nth time (I’ve lost track) Howard Hawk’s Bringing Up Baby (1938). Apart from being great fun each time I watch it, this time was a bit different having read Marc Eliot’s book, Cary Grant: A Biography and having previously watched Cary Grant: A Class Apart (a documentary on the second disc of the two-disc special edition DVD).
Here’s why this is interesting: Seeing Bringing Up Baby, at least as I do, you would think Cary Grant is in full command of what he’s doing — the ever skillful and brilliant, Cary. However, what you find out is that that is anything but the case.
Grant had had huge success with the previous year’s The Awful Truth (1937). However, he never took credit for its success because he had no idea how he had done it. He felt it was a fluke. He had been extremely anxious over his character, not sure how to play him, copying many mannerisms and stances of his then director, Leo McCarey.
Following closely on The Awful Truth, he was worried again about how to play his character in Bringing Up Baby and, compounding this, “… he was afraid to make a movie that was too stylistically similar in which his performance would not be as good.” (From Eliot’s biography of Cary Grant, p. 178.)
“Hawks then suggested to Grant that he look at some of the films of Harold Lloyd. Grant did and was so taken with the comedian’s style of acting that he actually copied it, almost gesture for gesture, in putting together his interpretation of David Huxley, down to the thick horn-rimmed glasses, one of Lloyd’s cinematic trademarks.” (Eliot’s biography of Cary Grant, p. 178.)
Still, while his template may have been Harold Lloyd what ends up on screen is pure Cary Grant, albeit with a Lloyd influence and the Cary Grant of a certain period of his career (younger, pre-Hitchcock etc.).
Of course, background isn’t necessary to enjoying this comedy classic. It may even get in the way until you’ve seen it a few times. It’s one of the great screwball comedies, peppered with absurdities and the better for it.
Bill Wren is a writer-editor, social media and movie enthusiast in Fredericton, New Brunswick (Canada). His blogs are Piddleville and Writelife.
I was not aware Cary Grant had doubts about his performance in the movies you mentioned and I enjoy his performances and watch endlessly "Arscenic and Lace"
I have lost count of the times I have watched Bringing Up Baby. It is entertaining and timeless. Whenever I need a good old-fashioned laugh, I bring out my copy of Bringing Up Baby. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn go together like peanut butter and jelly! Superb!
According to his autobiography, Christopher Reeve based his portrayal of Clark Kent on Cary's David Huxley.
Cary Grant movies never get old and tired, and the laughs are just as good, no matter how often the movie is seen. Those character actors in the casts were pretty amazing back in the '30's, too.
Cary Grant should be remembered as a National Treasure. What Style, What Grace, What a Gentleman. If only we males could all be like him.
Cary Grant was amazing. He once said "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant!" He acted a gentleman named Cary Grant playing a host of other characters but inside he was always Arachibald Alexander Leach. As far as I am concerned he did a superb job with all of his portrayals. My favorite of his comedies is "Arsenic and Old Lace."
How can anyone not like "Bringing Up Baby?" Great backstory for a great picture.
The chemistry that developed between Cary and Deborah Kerr throughout the movie "An Affair to Remember" is outstanding. No wonder this movie is rated in the top five of all romantic films.
Each time I re-watch these two excellent actors, I discover another startling aspect of superb acting. The lighting in this film of course belongs to the director, Leo McCarey.