The Bishop's Wife

 The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven, 

Directed by Henry Koster

Written by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E. Sherwood

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

My Favorite Wife

My Favorite Wife (1940)

Starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, and Gail Patrick 

Directed by Garson Kanin

Written by Leo McCarey, Sam Spewack, and Bella Speawck

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Hitchcock Month - To Catch a Thief

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

There's a winking sensibility on display in To Catch a Thief.  It's a little caper that Hitch doesn't take too seriously which is evident when Cary Grant mugs to the camera, looking at it straight on several times, implying to the audience to just have fun with this one with his suave demeanor.  I don't know if it's just Hitchcock (or Cary Grant or Grace Kelly) fatigue at this point in the Hitchcock Month or not, but I couldn't get into this film in the slightest.  It took multiple sittings simply to get through this one in spite of (or perhaps because of) the two leading stars.

There's an incredibly simple plot.  A retired jewel thief, John Robie (Grant) is accused of a new string of robberies along the French Riviera.  He ends up setting out to prove his innocence, along the way meeting a lovely woman, Francie (Kelly), who quickly discovers Robie's shady past, but ends up falling for him regardless.

One of the problems is that the plot just doesn't go anywhere.  It takes forever to get started and it never manages to pick up any steam.  The finale is probably one of the most boring of any of the Hitch films I've watched, and the supposed "surprise" reveal of the actual thief is easily projected from the very beginning.  Ultimately, the script goes a little more comedic than thriller, but the double entendres (including a ridiculously laughable "fireworks exploding = sex" scene) are just silly rather than sexy.

It certainly doesn't help that I never got any sense of connection between Cary Grant and Grace Kelly.  I never bought that the lovely Kelly would ever fall for the aging Grant.  Funnily enough, Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest probably had the same age gap as Grant and Kelly, but I never bought into the relationship in To Catch a Thief, whereas the duo in North was kind of sexy.  When your movie is essentially rooted in a romance between two characters and you don't feel any sex appeal, your film simply isn't going to work...and that's the case here.

Unfortunately, despite the desire to like the flick because of its two main actors, I simply couldn't find a whole lot to like about this one in the slightest.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Hitchcock Month - Suspicion

Suspicion (1941)

Starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

When playboy Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) meets spinsterish Lina (Joan Fontaine) while on a train, he immediately falls for her, and she him.  Their whirlwind romance leads to a quick elopement and they move into a luxurious home which Lina, whose parents are somewhat wealthy, soon realizes may be outside of Johnnie's means.  In fact, seemingly everything is outside of Johnnie's means.  While he may play the debonair charmer, he can't seem to keep a job and spends nearly all his money at the race track.  When Johnnie begins reading the books of the town's local mystery writer, Lina suspects that her husband may be plotting a murder in order to clear his debts -- and she may just be the victim.

Suspicion is a film that works surprisingly well, but, in the end, it never really amounts to much of anything.  At the beginning of the film, Hitchcock takes such care to make it seem as if we're simply watching the ups and downs of a newly married couple.  When the suspicion on Lina's part of her husband finally begins to surface, we start to get genuinely nervous for her because we've come to know both these characters quite well.  In the rather short film (99 minutes), we don't even get the typical Hitchcock "suspense" until nearly an hour has gone by.  That being said, it works in his favor (Hitch knew what he was doing by gradually building the suspense).  Unfortunately, the payoff (which I won't spoil in this post...maybe in the comments, though) is a letdown.  Apparently, Hitch was quite disappointed in the conclusion as well as it was quite a significant change from the novel on which this film is based.

Cary Grant, as always, is quite the talent.  He's able to walk the line from ladies' man to suspected killer with ease.  Joan Fontaine (who was wonderful Hitch's Rebecca, a new favorite of mine) has a shaky start in this one, but once she breaks out of the fuddy-duddy one-note dowdiness that hampers her character at the outset, she is quite a joy to watch.  I really need to delve into her repertoire a little more as I'm not familiar with her work in the slightest.

Overall, Suspicion is a film whose parts are all very good, but they don't quite add up to a satisfying whole.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the film, but the denouement left a bad taste in my mouth that sort of tarnished everything that came before it.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Hitchcock Month - Notorious

Notorious (1946)

Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Although I'm not through even half of Hitchcock's repertoire at this point, Notorious may be the sexiest movie he ever made.  Granted, that's a 1940s version of sexy, but there's no denying that Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant make quite an alluring couple.  Her cold demeanor and his warm charm mesh quite well together on screen and combine to create a rather steamy romance in the midst of this espionage thriller set in the early 1940s.

After her father is convicted of being a Nazi spy, Alicia Huberman (Bergman) throws a party -- in part to drown her sorrow and in part because she's kind of a drunk.  A guest to the party invites T.R. Devlin (Grant) and Alicia and Devlin immediately have a romantic connection.  However, Alicia soon discovers that Devlin is an FBI agent who wants Alicia to infiltrate a group of Nazis who are now living in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil.  Initially angered, Alicia's love for Devlin and desire to "make up to America" for her father's wrongdoings compel her to agree to Devlin's request.

Unfortunately, complications arise as soon as Alicia's work begins.  Devlin's superiors decide that in order to best defeat this group of Germans, Alicia must seduce one of the men --Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), a friend of her father's.  With Alicia becoming a modern day Mata Hari, Devlin begins to get jealous and his relationship with Alicia becomes strained.  Giving away much more would be a disservice if you've never seen the film before, but, suffice it to say, Notorious is certainly a spy story, but it's also (and perhaps moreso) a love triangle, and the combination of the two creates a rather interesting film.

While I do like Ingrid Bergman as an actress, I can't help but think she's alway a little stoic and icy in her acting.  While that's the case here as well, her part requires that of her.  Alicia is caught between two loves -- a love for her man and a love for her country.  She is, for lack of a better term, whoring herself out.  The irony of it all is that she's doing this because of her love for Devlin.  This conundrum is explored quite well by both Bergman and the screenwriter and what could be a tricky unbelievable character is given motivations that are easily understandable.

Even though Cary Grant gets top billing on the poster, the film really belongs to Bergman.  That being said, while Grant definitely plays his charming self at times in Notorious, his character has a much darker side.  His Devlin has fallen (and fallen hard) for Alicia, but he must sacrifice her in order to fulfill his duties.  The audience can see the jealousy that is eating away at him and, considering Grant isn't necessarily all that well known for playing anything other than a romantic lead, he does a great job here.  [This actually may be my favorite Grant role that I've seen.]

To not mention Claude Rains here would be remiss.  Rains' Alex, the Nazi whom Alicia must seduce, is actually incredibly sympathetic.  He's a nice guy who's also fallen head over heels in love with Alicia.  Hitchcock has a way of crafting films in which you slowly begin to feel bad for the bad guy and he does that here to great effect.  Yes, we know that Alex is trying to do harm to the country, but by not making him the quintessential villain, Hitch plays with the audience a bit. 

All that said, I wasn't digging this movie much in the middle acts.  Something just wasn't clicking with me.  In retrospect, I think it was simply that I wasn't in the mood to watch it because looking back on it, I can't really think of anything I disliked.  Having said that, perhaps my rating below should be taken with a grain of salt.  I'd like to watch this one again in the near future to see if my feelings change for the better because I think they would.  Nevertheless, Notorious certainly has three of the most complicated and intriguing characters I've seen in Hitch's work to date and, I'd venture to guess that these may be the three most complicated and interesting characters in all of his oeuvre.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Hitchcock Month - North by Northwest

North by Northwest (1959)

Starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

A case of mistaken identity causes a criminal tycoon's lackeys to abduct the wrong man sending his life into complete chaos in Hitchcock's North by Northwest, a film that garners the right and deserves to be called a "classic."

The always charming Cary Grant is Roger Thornhill, an advertising exec living in New York City.  While at a restaurant one evening, Thornhill is mistaken for a man named George Kaplan who happens to be an international spy.  Thornhill is abducted by Philip Vandamm (James Mason) who believes that Kaplan works for the CIA and is trying to undermine his criminal plans (which I'll leave vague for the purposes of this discussion).  While Thornhill escapes this initial abduction, Vandamm's men will stop at nothing to kill Thornhill whom they still believe is Kaplan.  As he travels across the United States to try and evade his abductors and clear his own name which has been sullied by being set up for a murder by Vandamm's men, Thornhill meets the alluring Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) who may or may not be aiding him in his escape.

The problem with creating a summary of North by Northwest is that the film is one of the best written screenplays of all time.  A bold statement, I know, but after this viewing, I believe wholeheartedly it is true and anything I write will not give it the least bit of justice.  Not only is the dialog witty, clever,  and surprisingly sexy, but screenwriter Ernest Lehman is ingenious in revealing key plot points as well -- he is constantly giving the viewer little bits of information, keeping us guessing, but allowing us to decipher clues along the way.  Nothing is the least bit confusing either.  Yes, this flick is a spy thriller, but it never feels the least bit bogged down with unnecessary information -- everything in the movie is revealed at exactly the right time and the revelations are for the purposes of furthering the story not for shock value.  The film whizzes by in a flash and considering that it's 135 minutes long that's an admirable accomplishment.

And certainly Hitchcock himself is worthy of praise for the pacing of the flick as well.  There's a sense of playfulness on display in North by Northwest, and while its characters are dealing with some serious predicaments, the film has a tongue-in-cheek tone.  Don't get me wrong...this isn't a comedy, but  there's never a "heaviness" to the proceedings when there very well could have been.

Part of the reason for the reason for the light-hearted aire is Cary Grant.  While he's still portraying the ladies' man (as he often does), he's an aged ladies' man.  Graying around the edges with a wrinkled brow, Grant's Thornhill is more "everyman" than we usually get from a Grant performance.  Couple that with the lovely Eva Marie Saint as Thornhill's sexy love interest who may or may not be conspiring to kill him and they are quite a duo onscreen.  Grant and Saint are surprisingly smoldering in their scenes together.

While I always knew that I liked North by Northwest, I never really appreciated it the way I do now.  As always, whenever I like something, I have a tendency to never give it justice as is likely the case here.  Suffice it to say, if you've never watched this flick, you should.  You won't be disappointed and you'll be treating yourself to one of the best movies Hitch has ever made and one of the best movies Hollywood has ever cranked out.

The RyMickey Rating:  A

Classic Movie Review - His Girl Friday (1940)

Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, and Ralph Bellamy

Written by Charles Lederer

Directed by Howard Hawks

First off, let me say that the poster design on the right doesn't match the movie at all. The poster doesn't scream "comedy" to me...although, if I'm being completely honest, the movie itself didn't really scream "comedy" to me either.

Once again, similar to my recent viewing of City Lights, I saw this one in a theater on actual film. There's something to be said for watching old movies on actual film...it feels right, or something like that. I can't really describe it, but the flickering of the light and the moderate scratches on the print are what seeing movies in a theater is all about. That being said, I just wish that I actually liked this one.

Rosalind Russell is Hildy Johnson, a newspaper reporter who is tired of living the fast-paced life that her job requires of her. She decides that she's getting married to Bruce Baldwin whose slower-paced insurance sales business will allow her to settle down and have a nice calm living. As she enters her workplace to announce her departure, she runs into her ex-husband, Walter Burns, who (I believe) is the editor of the newspaper for which she worked. They bicker, as all divorced couples (who still love each other) do, and from the get-go, you know they're going to end up together in the end. The unfortunate thing is that I didn't really find their rat-a-tat quick dialogue to be anything exciting or funny. So things didn't start out on a great note.

There's a big story going on in the city at the moment involving the hanging of a possibly mentally incompetent criminal. Walter convinces Hildy to write "one last story" with the hope of showing the public that this accused man (who shot and killed a police officer) should not be hung due to his mental incapacities. Oddly enough, this is where the film gets good, but then also falls completely off track to me. It tries to balance this incredibly serious story with witty repartee and it never quite reaches an equilibrium for me.

Admittedly, Rosalind Russell is quite good. She is the grounding force in the middle of the movie when Cary Grant's character seemingly disappears...it felt like Grant's Walter was gone for the middle 40 minutes of this movie, only being "talked to" on the phone by Russell. It was almost as if Grant had another movie to film and could only be used on certain days by the director. And while Russell certainly held her own without him, she had to do so in that awkward "is-this-funny-or-is-this-serious" part of the film.

Yes, the film picks up the pace a little at the end, and Grant, who I disliked in many parts of the movie (he just fell too suave for what I'd picture a newspaper editor to be), actually steals the show a bit in the final scenes. But, unfortunately, this just felt like a movie that couldn't find its footing to me. The humor didn't fit with the serious undertones and vice-versa.

Oh, well. They can't all be winners. (Sorry to my reader, Anonymous...I know this is a favorite of yours!)

The RyMickey Rating: D

Classic Movie Review - The Philadelphia Story (1940)

starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart
directed by George Cukor
screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart

Liz Imbrie: We all go a little haywire at times, and if we don't, maybe we ought to.

I had seen The Philadelphia Story before, and I didn't remember loving it. Since the word "classic" is bandied about in regards to this flick, I thought I'd give it another look. Unfortunately, my opinion didn't change a whole lot.

The film starts promisingly, striking a very comedic tone from the first scene, but it then shifts to a more subdued tone that just doesn't mesh with the beginning.

Tracy Lord (Hepburn) was once married to C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant), but they have since divorced, finding their biting, sarcastic attitudes incompatible. Cut to a few years later and Tracy is due to be married again. The Lord family is famous in the Philadelphia social scene and the editor of Spy Magazine wants to send reporter Macaulay Conner (Stewart) to cover the shindig. There's a variety of misinformation, misunderstandings, and misdeeds that create chaos leading up to the impending nuptials...ideally, that chaos would inspire comedy, but the director really didn't allow the humor to ebb and flow. There were literally 15 minutes at a time where I didn't smile or chuckle. And that's where the problem lies with this flick. If you're trying to be a comedy (which the first 15 seconds of the film tell me that it is), you need to scatter the humor throughout. (Obviously, fault goes to the writer here, as well.)

All the acting is good, but the three leads really get overshadowed by the supporting characters, particularly Ruth Hussey as Macaulay's photographer and Virginia Weidler as Tracy's teenage sister. Weidler steals every scene she's in, and if, as a viewer, you're anxiously waiting for a minor, unimportant character to come back onscreen, there's something wrong with your flick.

It's not that The Philadelphia Story is a bad movie, but I don't think it lives up to the "classic" label that it often receives.

The RyMickey Rating: C