Cary Grant: A Celebration of a Leading Man (1988) - full transcript
Cary Grant was the very essence of a movie star - a man every woman loved and every man wanted to be. His deft comic style merged easily with his strength as a romantic leading man. But the suave exterior concealed a complex and often sensitive individual. Cary's painful journey from his lonely working-class beginnings to the peak of Hollywood royalty is made vivid through family photos, archival footage, clips from many of his films -- including his first, following his discovery by blonde bombshell Mae West, starring role in She Done Him Wrong. Other movies include His Girl Friday, Notorious, An Affair To Remember, To Catch A Thief, North By Northwest, Charade, and more. Among friends and colleagues interviewed on-screen are Leslie Caron, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr, Deborah Kerr, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, Stanley Donen, Richard Brooks and Stanley Kramer.
Man: Are you ready?
Uno, due, tre!
(blows whistle)
(lively music)
Narrator: He was an original.
In the history of
motion pictures, no one,
before or since, has
seemed quite as debonair,
as sophisticated;
and yet, with it all, as human.
For over 30 years,
he was Hollywood's most
sought-after leading man,
acknowledged as one of
its truly great comedians.
He was the star everyone loved.
He was also the star
few really knew.
His name was Cary Grant.
(lively music)
Stanley D.: I
remember him mostly,
and I think most people do,
as a person who
lights up a room.
Garson: Women adored him.
They loved looking at him.
They loved listening to him
and they loved
watching him in action.
Deborah: The most
striking thing about Cary
is how fantastically
good-looking he was.
Stanley K.: He was
such an attractive man
that people presumed, well,
maybe he doesn't
have very much depth.
Douglas: People who knew
him terribly well said
that there were great
storms going on inside.
Richard: He needed
desperately, I think,
not only to be liked;
that was something else,
but for him to be approved of.
Leslie: He had to
make you love him.
That was very important to him.
Narrator: Bristol,
England today.
There still stand the
places he knew as a child:
the street on which he was born;
the school he attended;
and, most important,
the theatre that became his
entranceway to the world.
He was born January 18, 1904,
Archibald Alexander Leach.
Alston: His mother
was over-possessive
in his very young days.
A few years earlier,
she had had another son,
who died shortly before
his first birthday.
It was said that she
never got over that shock.
Narrator: Like many Victorians,
Archie's mother was
class conscious.
Elsie Leach felt she
had married beneath her.
Her husband, Elias, worked hard
as a pants presser,
and was rarely home.
Pampered and
immaculately dressed,
Archie was the center
of Elsie's life.
But that would suddenly end.
He was only 10 years
old when he came home
from school one day to
find his mother gone.
Alston: His father
had her committed
to a local mental hospital,
where she remained
for the next 21 years.
He was told she was
gone for a rest.
She would be back.
But it was all very vague,
and he was then left with
all these self-doubts
as to whether he had
been the cause of it.
Why had his mother
walked out on him?
It was to have, I feel,
a profound effect on him
for most of his life.
Narrator: He rarely
saw his father
and often went to
the Bristol docks
and dreamed of running
off as a cabin boy.
He joined the Boy Scouts
and was later remembered
as a loner who always
looked neglected.
Archie was 14 when
he was expelled for
the childish prank of peeking
into the girls' bathroom.
It marked the end of
his formal education.
Alston: He was hauled in
front of the entire school.
It was cruel, to say the least.
Narrator: But Archie
was a survivor,
and a chance visit backstage to
Bristol's Hippodrome Theatre
would change his life.
Voiceover: Hello, love.
[Lovely].
Please yourself.
(audience laughs)
Do you feel like
a bit of company?
And you?
Narrator: It was like
nothing he believed possible:
the lights, the music.
Archie got a job calling
actors to the stage.
It was magical.
He saw the men and
women who emerged
from these dressing
rooms transformed
before an audience
into performers.
They were cheered,
applauded, adored.
It was an experience
Archie would never forget,
and he was hooked.
Within weeks, Archie
became a member
of Pender's
Knockabout Comedians,
learning the art of prat
falls, stilt walking,
pleasing an audience.
Archie had found
himself a new family.
(ship horn blares)
In two years, the
Pender troupe would be
on its way to perform
in New York City,
and 16 year old Archie
would be with them.
New York was a far cry
from Bristol, England.
The jazz age was being born
and Archie reveled in it.
When the Pender lads
headed for home,
Archie decided he had
nothing to go back to.
His chance for a
future was here,
and he was going to
make the most of it.
When he couldn't
find a job on stage,
he survived by walking
stilts in Coney Island
to advertise the
Steeplechase Amusement Park.
Leslie: He told me
he was very poor
and he used to sell
ties on the sidewalk
on Broadway out of a suitcase,
and he was forever
looking for the police.
If he saw a cop,
he would quickly close
the suitcase and run.
Jean: I had written a skit
for vaudeville and I needed
a very, very handsome man
to carry out the plot.
He came in and my partner said,
"Oh, we saw him already and
he isn't any good for us.
"He has a Cockney accent.
"He has a very peculiar walk
"and no acting
experience whatsoever."
I said, "Well, it doesn't
make any difference to me.
"He's the only really
good-looking man
"who has come in
in the last week.
I just fell madly
in love with him.
Garson: He was a handsome,
imposing young blade
around Broadway.
He'd been on the road for
the Shuberts and
several musicals.
He was always around
looking for work.
Narrator: In 1929,
he managed to get
a screen test from
Paramount Pictures.
He was rejected.
The reason: bowlegs,
and what was described
as a "thick neck."
Archie refused to
accept that verdict.
Vendor girl: [Unintelligible].
Cary: Oh, boy.
What a great day to
have good eyesight.
Narrator: This
short, Singapore Sue,
made in New York
City, was the start of
one of the great screen
careers of all time.
Cary: Hello, [Jeanie]!
Sure, I'll buy a doll.
Sailor for me, and here it is,
and a beautiful
Chinese girl for you.
Now, how about a kiss
for the both of us?
(sailors laugh)
Narrator: It was 1931.
Archie Leach was 27 years old
and determined to succeed.
He drove to Hollywood with
all his possessions crammed
into his first Packard
and soon got
another screen test.
This time Paramount
gave him a contract,
and with it a new name.
Archie Leach would be no more.
He was now Cary Grant.
John: His early films
he made opposite
people like Nancy Carroll
and Marlene Dietrich;
Sylvia Sydney, of course.
He was there to look
tall, dark and handsome.
Gary Cooper or Freddy
March, they were actors.
Cary Grant, he was
kind of a stick.
He was a leading man.
Richard: I'd heard the
usual legendary stories
about how Cary Grant
became Cary Grant.
For instance, I'd heard
that he fashioned himself
after Douglas Fairbanks
and after Noel Coward,
with that elegant style.
I think it started
a different way.
Garson: The first time I
remember him making any
impact was when he was
Mae West's leading man.
Now, Mae West, being
the powerful, powerful
personality that she
was, just obliterated
anyone else who was on
the screen with her.
But, apparently, she liked him.
Mae: Why don't you come
up sometime and see me?
I'm home every evening.
Garson: And he liked her.
Cary: Yeah, but I'm
busy every evening.
Garson: She gave him
a pretty good room
in which to operate.
Cary: [She were]
holding meetings
in Jacobson's Hall
every evening.
Any time you have
a moment to spare,
I'll be glad to
have you drop in.
You're more than welcome.
Mae: I heard you, but
you ain't kidding me any.
Come up, I'll tell your fortune.
Oh, you can be had.
Richard: She needed an opposite.
Not somebody from the
streets, but somebody
with elegance that would
play against her character.
Cary: So, all this is your
famous collection, eh?
Mae: No, it's just
my summer jewelry.
You have to see my winter stuff.
Cary: They always
seem so cold to me.
They have no warmth, no soul.
Mae: Well, I'm sorry
you think more of
my soul than you
do of my diamonds.
Maybe I ain't got no soul.
Cary: Oh, yes you have.
But you keep it
hidden under a mask.
Haven't you ever met a man
that could make you happy?
Mae: Sure, lots of times.
Garson: He had his own
way of talking and it was
so unique that it stamped
him as a personality.
Narrator: After
She Done Him Wrong,
Cary Grant was
acknowledged by Paramount
as being among their more
important leading men.
(girl singing)
But success had its price.
Cary was expected to participate
in every publicity
stunt that came along,
whatever his personal
feelings on the subject.
Cary: Well, I came
up to tell you
how much I enjoyed your song.
Little girl: Oh, but
you're [unintelligible].
Cary: No, no kidding.
All jokes aside, I'm serious.
I really mean it.
Little girl: Why
don't you come up
and I'll put on some
[unintelligible].
Narrator: About this
time, Cary found out that
his mother was still alive
and in a mental hospital.
He would buy her a new home
and would visit her
regularly, but the pain
of her disappearance
would never be forgotten.
Alston: It's difficult
to appreciate
what a stigma attached
to mental instability
in the first 30 years
or so of Cary's life.
So it's not entirely
surprising that Elias Leach
decided not to tell his son
about his mother's illness.
She, of course, had no idea
that by now he was world-famous.
Narrator: Elsie Leach
also had no idea
Cary had fallen in love
and was planning to marry
Virginia Cherrill, an
actress who played opposite
Charlie Chaplin in City Lights,
and opposite Cary
in this PR short.
Cary: Hello, darling.
Have a nice trip?
Virginia: Lovely.
Cary: Hey, where did
you get the flowers?
Virginia: From an admirer.
Cary: Not bad.
Boy: I delivered your flowers
all right, [Mr. Vance].
Virginia: So you sent them.
Narrator: Cary and
Virginia were married
in London in February, 1934.
They appeared to be the
ideal Hollywood couple.
Emcee: He's been a
bridegroom of two months
Narrator: At a
meeting for exhibitors
at the Paramount studio,
Cary affected the casual
good humor that would
become his trademark.
Cary: It's nice to see
who's on the level.
I have to get back to the set.
This tan isn't on the level.
Bye-bye.
Narrator: But the
actor who would show
such ease with women
on screen would have
a more difficult time
in his personal life.
In December, 1934,
Virginia Cherrill
would file for divorce,
accusing Cary of
extreme possessiveness.
For Cary, it would mean a replay
of the old feelings
of being abandoned.
He tried to focus all his
energies on his career,
but again and again he was
cast in uninspiring roles.
In 1936, Paramount
lent him out to RKO
for Sylvia Scarlett,
directed by George Cukor
and co-starring
Katherine Hepburn.
John: The next thing you knew,
Cary was so far away from
anything that he had done
in his Paramount tall,
dark and handsome
leading man days that
it got people thinking,
Hey, this man's a comedian.
Narrator: Suddenly, Cary
knew that his only hope
for better parts lay
outside Paramount.
So, in 1937, he made
a bold decision.
He bought out his contract
and became one of the
few major Hollywood stars
to voluntarily go freelance.
John: Away from Paramount,
secondary studios would
take a chance on someone
who just been a leading man.
And of course, Cary became
a star with a vengeance.
Narrator: In 1937,
Cary signed on for
the Hal Roach comedy,
Topper, and struck gold.
But it was in Columbia
Pictures' The Awful Truth,
released the same year,
that Cary's true brilliance
as a comedian was established.
From day one, it was
a madcap production.
Ralph: Leo McCarey, one of
the greatest directors of
all time, said, Do you
know Home On The Range?
and I said, Yes,
but I can't sing it.
He said, That's great.
"Come on over here.
We went over to a grand piano,
and Irene Dunne had
some sheet music
and she was trying to bang
out Home On The Range.
She said, Leo, I
don't read music.
"I'll never get this.
He said, Do the best you can.
"Ralph, you sing it.
"Belt it out!
(Ralph sings Home on the Range)
At the end of the first
day, Irene was crying.
She didn't know what kind
of a part she was playing.
Cary said, Let me out of this
"and I'll do another
picture for nothing.
From then on, McCarey
came in with sometimes
a piece of brown wrapping
paper in his hand,
and he'd say, You come in here.
"You come in over there,
"and I'll run the
dog through here.
"And then you come
in, or whatever.
And that's the way
we made the picture.
We never had a script.
Irene: He's my
husband, coming along.
Ralph: Cary caught on quickly.
Cary: Well, hello folks!
Ralph: Hello.
Cary: This is Dixie Bell Lee.
This is Mrs. Warriner,
and this is Mr. Leeson,
the gentleman that Mrs.
Warriner is going to marry.
Ralph: It was right
in his groove,
his kind of comedy, of humor.
Cary: Now, are you sure
we're not intruding?
Ralph: Uh, what do you mean?
He could laugh with you
as you were watching him.
He knew you were laughing,
and he was encouraging it.
Cary: So you're going to
live in Oklahoma, eh Lucy?
How I envy you, Oklahoma!
Ralph: We're going to live
right in Oklahoma City.
Cary: Lucy, you lucky girl!
Ralph: New York's all
right for a visit,
but I wouldn't
want to live here.
Irene: I know I'll
enjoy Oklahoma City.
Cary: But of course.
And if it should get dull,
you can always go over
to Tulsa for the weekend.
Garson: He started to
play this more and more
comfortably, more
and more comfortably,
and of course effectively.
(dog barks)
Cary: Check it.
(dog barks)
Garson: By the time
the picture was over,
he had found a persona
that he could cling to
and make more and more his own.
Stanley: And then of
course he developed into
perhaps the brightest
comedian on the horizon.
Narrator: Cary had a field day,
playing once more
opposite Katharine Hepburn
in the zany 1938
Bringing Up Baby.
Cary: I don't believe you, Sue.
Katharine: But you
have to believe me.
Cary: I've been a victim
Cary: of your unbridled
imagination once more.
Cary: I'm going to- AAHHH!
Katharine: No, but if you'll
only wait while I explain,
I just gave you my-
(fabric ripping)
Cary: No, no, no, no.
I'm just trying to tell
you that you told me-
Katharine: Oh, no I didn't.
Why, if you hadn't
been in such a hurry
and waited for my explanation-
Cary: It's not my fault.
Katharine: Your coat would
still be perfectly all right.
Narrator: Wild confusion
was made art in this movie
that would go on to become
a Hollywood classic.
That same year, the
Grant-Hepburn magic
was again at work in Holiday.
Cary was hailed for his
performance as a romantic,
who found himself engaged
to the wrong sister.
Cary: Don't worry, my dear.
If I'm going to get
stuck with a rich girl,
I'll just grit my teeth,
make the best of it.
Doris: Oh, but darling,
you're going to make
millions yourself.
Cary: Oh, but
darling, no I'm not.
Doris: Oh, yes you are.
Cary: Oh, no, no.
Doris: Oh, yes.
Cary: No.
Katharine: Is life
wonderful where you are?
Cary: Well, I don't call
what I've been doing living.
Katharine: And what
do you recommend
for yourself, Doctor?
Cary: A holiday.
Katharine: For how long?
Cary: As long as I need.
Katharine: You
mean just to play?
Cary: I want to know how
I stand, where I fit into
the picture, what it's
all going to mean to me.
I can't find that out
sitting behind some
desk in an office,
so as soon as I get
enough money together,
I'm going to knock
off for a while.
Katharine: Quit?
Cary: Quit.
I want to save part
of my life for myself.
There's a catch to it, though.
It's got to be part
of the young part.
Garson: The more successful
he became as an actor,
the harder he worked.
The bigger a star he became,
the harder he worked.
It wasn't only to get
there but to stay there.
Narrator: With Gunga Din,
Cary extended his range
well beyond the drawing room.
Victor: What do you want?
Soldier: Where's
Sargent Ballantine?
Douglas: Here!
I think one of the
secrets of his success
was that he was such
an unselfish actor.
Soldier: Take your
hands off that man.
Douglas: Cary said that he
was interested in Gunga Din.
I said, Well, which part
did you want me to play?
He said, Well,
we'll toss a coin.
Heads you play this,
and tails I play that.
It was decided in as
simple a fashion as that.
Joan: Darling, please don't go!
Douglas: The trouble
is you don't want
a man for a husband;
you want a coward.
Run out on his friends
when there's danger.
Well, that's not me, and
never was, and never will be.
And that's how it happened
that I won the girl.
Narrator: Gunga Din was
the box office smash
of 1939 and Cary Grant
had become one of
the most exciting male
stars in Hollywood.
The 1940 His Girl Firday,
co-starring Cary Grant
with Rosalind Russell
and Ralph Bellamy,
revealed Screwball
comedy at its best.
Cary: This other fellow,
well I'm sorry I didn't
get a chance to see him.
I'm more or less particular
about who my wife marries.
Where is he?
Rosalind: Oh, he's
right on the job,
waiting for me out there.
Cary: Do you mind if I meet him?
Rosalind: Oh, no Walter.
It wouldn't do any good, really.
Cary: Oh, now you're
not afraid, are you?
Rosalind: Afraid?
Of course not!
Cary: Well, then come on!
Let's see this paragon!
Is he as good as you say?
Rosalind: Better!
Cary: Well then, what
does he want with you?
Rosalind: (laughs)
Now you've got me.
Cary: I'm going to
go out, Mildred.
Voiceover: Okay.
Cary: Oh, I am sorry, Hildy.
I suppose that Bruce-
what's his name?
Rosalind: Baldwin.
Cary: Baldwin?
I suppose he opens
doors for you, huh?
Rosalind: He does.
And when he's with a lady,
he takes his hat off.
Cary, Oh, I am sorry.
Rosalind: And when
he walks with a lady,
he waits for her.
Cary: Oh, well in that case
Rosalind: Allow me.
Cary: Well, I can
see right away,
my wife picked out the
right husband for herself.
How do you do, sir?
Earl: Must be some mistake.
I'm already married.
Cary: Already married?
Ralph: He had wonderful humor,
and it developed into
a style, a comic,
humorous style that
was very appealing.
More than appealing,
it was wonderful.
Cary: Congratulations
again, Mr. Baldwin.
Earl: Oh, no
Ralph: Mr. Burns?
Cary: Oh, excuse me.
What do you want?
Because you just leave
your card with the boy.
What did you say, Mr. Baldwin?
Earl: My name is ...
Ralph: Mr. Burns, Mr. Burns
Cary: Some other time.
I'm busy with Mr.
Bruce Baldwin here.
I didn't hear what you said.
Earl: Pete Davis is my name.
Ralph: Mr. Burns
Cary: Now look,
what is it with you?
Ralph: I'm Bruce Baldwin.
Cary: Oh, you're Bruce Baldwin?
Ralph: Yes.
Cary: Well, who's he?
Who are you?
Earl: My name is Pete Davis.
Cary: Well, Mr. Davis, is
this any concern of yours?
Earl: No.
Cary: Well, from
now on I'd thank you
to keep your nose
out of my affairs.
That doesn't happen
again, that's all.
Mr. Baldwin, I'm terribly
sorry about this mistake.
This is indeed a pleasure.
Narrator: With The
Philadelphia Story,
in which he co-starred
with Katharine Hepburn
and Jimmy Stewart, Cary
Grant established himself
as Hollywood's foremost
light comedian.
But events abroad would change
what brought people into
theaters, and Cary Grant
would have to find a way
of adapting to that change.
(explosions)
The war in Europe
seemed about to consume
the world: a time of
bombings and sacrifice.
Alston: In 1941, when
Bristol was suffering
its greatest from air raids,
hundreds of people
were being killed.
It was that precise moment
that Cary decided to
become an American citizen.
Critics unkindly suggested
it might be to
avoid war service.
The suggestion was very hurtful
because he was
doing a great deal.
Douglas: During the war
he made a whole picture
every year and give
all of his salary to
British war charities
back in his own country.
Stanley D.: He never ever
felt that he wanted to
really remove himself
completely from his origins,
but he loved America
and he loved being
a U.S. citizen.
Narrator: Visiting
U.S. Army camps,
Cary found a ready
welcome for the actor
who had done so much
to cheer millions
during the Depression.
But these were different
times and the appetite for
the zany and the
screwball was gone.
The 1941 Penny Serenade
was a reflection of that change.
Cary: What a grip.
For a girl, I mean.
The first time I saw her,
she looked so
little and helpless.
I didn't know babies
were so little.
When she took hold of my
finger and held on to it,
she just sort of
walked into my heart,
Judge, and she
was there to stay.
I didn't know I
could feel like that.
I'd always been, well,
kind of careless
and irresonsible,
I wanted to be a big shot.
I'm not a big shot now.
I'll do anything.
I'll work for anybody.
I'll beg, I'll borrow.
Please, Judge.
I'll sell anything I've got
until I get going again.
She'll never go hungry
and she'll never
be without clothes,
not as long as I've got
two good hands, so help me!
Narrator: For his
performance, Cary received
his first Academy
Award nomination.
Richard: He was
searching for something,
and I think that's what got
him into the darker period,
so to speak, of his life,
with a picture
such as Suspicion.
But there wouldn't
have been a Suspicion
with Cary Grant unless
he could trust the man
who was making the
movie, Hitchcock.
Joan: There was
something strange
about Johnnie Aysgarth.
I knew it long
before I married him.
It was our first
meeting on a hilltop.
Cary: Now what did you
think I would do, kill you?
Nothing less than
murder can justify
such a violent self defense.
Joan: Even his reassurances
seemed almost sinister.
Cary: I want
nothing but to spend
the rest of my life with you.
If you were to die first, I ...
Peter: Hitchcock
saw in that face
something besides a
handsome leading man.
I think he saw in the
face the potential
to be menacing, to be
equivocal, to be mysterious.
Joan: From that moment on,
my life was filled with fear.
Not of Johnnie.
I loved him too much
to really be afraid.
But the fear of not knowing,
the agony of waiting,
the wondering how
it would happen,
the waking in the
middle of the night
shaking with terror and
finding myself praying
that whatever it was it would be
done quickly and with mercy.
Narrator: Originally,
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary
to play the part of a killer,
but Cary feared
enacting a murderer
would damage his image,
and so the ending of
this film was changed.
Deborah: Cary was a devout
believer in keeping to
and following the kind of
image that you have built up.
Garson: That's the
trick of film stardom.
If an actor or an actress
tries to create a
different person,
a different personality
for every single role,
then the audience doesn't
have anything to latch onto
except the creative
talent of that player.
Deborah: He always
kept Cary Grant.
Garson: That's exactly what
a movie-going public wants.
Deborah: He never
became a murderer,
or a killer, or a mean person.
Garson: They do not
want a movie star
to be anything but his
own or her own self
that they have come
to admire and to love.
Narrator: In 1942,
movie-goers were surprised
to learn that Cary Grant,
the former vaudevillian
who had worked since he
was a boy of fourteen,
had married one of the
world's richest women,
Barbara Hutton.
Alston: Critics suggested
he was after her money.
He was known then
as "Cash and Cary",
a phrase which was to
wound him for years.
What had not been realized,
he'd inserted in the
marriage arrangements,
whatever happened
he was in no way
to benefit from her fortune.
Narrator: In 1944, Cary
risked the greatest departure
he would ever make
from his image,
to play a character whose world
could have been that
of Archie Leach's.
The film was None
But the Lonely Heart.
Cary: Anything in the
shop need mending, Ma?
Ethel: No, I don't need
your help, Ernie sweets.
Richard: Cary was a man of
infinite experimentation
with his own character.
Cary: I mean to do my
best by you, Ma love.
Happy couple, aren't we?
Richard: He was
constantly striving,
it seemed to me,
to become better.
Cary: Peace?
That's what us minions want,
without having to snatch
it from the smaller dogs.
Peace to be not a
hound and not a hare,
but peace with pride and
have a decent human life.
Peter: Unfortunately,
the roles that he
ventured out on, such as
None But the Lonely Heart,
were not his most
successful pictures.
I think it made him
step back a little bit
from playing real
character parts.
Narrator: Though critics praised
None But the Lonely
Heart and he received
his second Academy
Award nomination,
Cary measured success
by box office results,
and there the film
was a disappointment.
In his private life,
Cary would also suffer
a sense of failure.
In 1945, after three
years of marriage,
Barbara Hutton sued for divorce.
Rupert: She had a
lot of titled friends
and they would come to
their house for dinner.
Cary would sit
through the dinner,
but she said he
didn't feel at ease
with these titled people.
Immediately after
dinner he would go up
to his room upstairs
and turn on the radio.
But it must have been a
great turmoil inside him
because he manufactured
himself into this great idol
from a man who had a very
difficult background.
Narrator: The following year,
in Hitchcock's Notorious,
Cary played a
disillusioned secret agent
who falls deeply in love,
in spite of himself.
Cary: A man doesn't
tell a woman what to do;
she tells herself.
You almost had me believing in
that little hokey-pokey
miracle of yours,
that a woman like you could
ever change her spots.
Ingrid: Oh, you're rotten.
Cary: That's why I
didn't try to stop you.
The answer had to come from you.
Ingrid: Oh, you never
believed in me anyway,
so what's the difference?
Cary: It wouldn't have been
pretty if I believed in you,
if I'd figured, "She'd
been made over by love."
Ingrid: Devlin
Cary: Listen, you chocked
up another boyfriend,
that's all; no harm done.
Ingrid: I hate you.
Cary: There's no occasion to.
You're doing good work.
Narrator: With Ingrid
Bergman, Cary created a
romantic screen partnership
that became legendary.
Ingrid: Oh, you love me.
Why didn't you tell me before?
Cary: I know,
but I couldn't see
straight or think straight.
I was a fat-headed
guy, full of pain.
It tore me up, not having you.
Ingrid: Oh, you love me.
Peter: I met Cary
working on the RKO lot
after he made Notorious.
He was very genial,
easy to approach.
He told me his great
ambition at the time was to
own a freighter and just kind
of drift around the world.
I said to him, Cary,
why don't you do it?
And he said, Maybe
someday I will.
"Then I'll live the
life I want to.
Narrator: On another
kind of sea voyage,
during one of his
frequent trips to Europe,
Cary met a young aspiring
actress, Betsy Drake.
Woman in hat:
Anabel, do you mean
you're going to deliberately
set out to trap him?
Betsy: Well, I
know it's dreadful,
but this is the kind of
thing men force us to do.
Cary: Why have you
been chasing after me
for the past two weeks?
Betsy: You?
Really, Dr. Brown!
I've heard of
conceit in my time,
but you absolutely
take the cake.
Cary: And you will know
just how many candles go on it.
Narrator: Betsy and Cary
were married the
following year, 1949.
Cary's sense of what
would be right for him
at the box-office had
generally proved correct.
But when some of his films
were less than successful,
Cary thought it might
be time to retire.
Betsy was opening
new worlds to him:
in philosophy and
in self-knowledge.
And at last, he was able
to fulfill his ambition.
Together, they
took tramp steamers
to explore distant ports
and, more than ever,
the private Cary Grant
seemed to resemble
the image he had
created on the screen.
But if he wondered
whether to enter
permanent retirement,
the question was answered
by Alfred Hitchcock.
The film was the 1955
To Catch A Thief.
Cary: Who brought you up here?
Grace: The police.
We would have caught you,
too, if my dress hadn't got
caught all over the steering
wheel and gear shift.
Cary: As I'd done 20 minutes
ago, I'd said goodbye.
Grace: As quickly as you could.
Cary: Didn't I thank you?
Grace: Politely.
Cary: Well, then.
Grace: Oh, John.
You left in such a
hurry, you almost ran!
Cary: I had work to do up here.
Grace: Were you afraid
to admit that you just
can't do everything by yourself?
Leslie: Cary liked his partners
to be distinguished ladies.
He chose always women who
had a certain breeding.
It was very important to him.
I think he was very, very fond
of Ingrid Bergman
and Grace Kelly.
Announcer: Cary
Grant and this year's
Academy Award
winner, Grace Kelly.
Two exciting personalities
who were made for each other.
Leslie: He liked his
partners to be tall, slim,
to wear jewels beautifully.
Grace: Look, John.
Hold them.
Diamonds.
Have you ever had a better
offer in your whole life,
one with everything?
Leslie: With his
leading ladies he had
this wonderful rapport,
courtesy and tenderness,
but with a great deal of
humor, just like on the screen.
It was really very pleasant.
It was like going
out with a gentleman.
Cary: I guess I'm
not the lone wolf
I thought I was, Francie.
Grace: Well, I just wanted
to hear you say that.
Thank you.
Goodbye.
Cary: Goodbye.
Deborah: And women.
Cary: Oh, women?
Deborah: You've known
quite a few of them,
and I suppose they've all
been madly in love with you.
Cary: I doubt it.
Deborah: But you haven't
had much respect for them.
Cary: Oh, on the contrary-
Deborah: Still, you've
always been very fairI
in your judgements.
Cary: Yes; I've
been more than fair.
I idealized them.
Every woman I meet,
I put up there.
Deborah: Even when he was
having fun and laughing
and making jokes, which
he was excellent at,
there was still this remoteness,
there was still this
keeping something a secret.
Oh, winter must be cold
for those with no warm memories.
We've already missed the spring.
Cary: Yes.
This is probably my last chance.
Deborah: Mine, too.
Cary: It's now or never.
Deborah: There was
a most unexpected
vulnerability in Cary.
If I said fear, that
wouldn't be right,
but he was wary of
relationships with women.
Cary: I just want to be worthy
of asking you to marry me.
Deborah: Oh, Nickie, that's
just about the nicest-
Your voice cracked.
Cary: Well, that's because I-
Deborah: Yes, I know, I know.
That didn't stop him from
loving all his leading ladies.
And by loving, I
mean he was fond.
Announcer: It's the
biggest night of the year
in Hollywood as Oscar steps into
the spotlight for the 29th time.
Narrator: By now, Cary
made a point of avoiding
most public events; but in
1957, he agreed to accept
the Academy Award on
behalf of Ingrid Bergman
for her performance
in Anastasia.
Announcer: Won by
Ingrid Bergman,
accepted on her
behalf by Cary Grant.
Narrator: When most of
Hollywood turned against
Ingrid for leaving
her husband and child
for director Roberto Rossellini,
Cary remained one of
her staunchest friends.
In 1958, Indiscreet
brought these
old friends together again.
Cary: What do you mean?
Ingrid: I mean we
go on as before.
Cary: And not be married?
Ingrid: That's right.
Cary: That's the most
improper thing I ever heard.
Ingrid: WHAT?
Cary: I can hardly
believe my ears.
Ingrid: But what are
you so shocked about?
Cary: I didn't think
you were capable of it.
Ingrid: But what is different?
Cary: We are not married.
Ingrid: We weren't before.
Cary: But you didn't
know I was married.
Ingrid: You knew.
Cary: I knew you didn't know.
What's the matter with you?
How could you ask me
to do such a thing?
Hadn't you been following
what I've been saying?
Oh, I tell you, women are
not the sensitive sex.
That's one of the great
delusions of literature.
Men are the true romanticists.
I-
(Ingrid softly cries)
What are you crying about?
Ingrid: Oh, shut up, Philip.
Cary: Don't cry, Anna.
I love you.
Everything would be all right.
You'll like being married.
You will, you'll see.
Narrator: It was 1958.
For over 25 years,
Cary Grant had been
everybody's favorite
leading man.
Jean: You know the man
that every woman would
like to love and that
every man would like to be.
He played that part
over and over again
and played it beautifully.
Narrator: In many ways,
the best was yet to come.
With the 1959 Hitchcock
classic, North by Northwest,
Cary Grant's career seemed
to have found its jewel.
Cary: I'm an advertising
man, not a red herring.
I've got a job, a secretary,
a mother, two ex-wives,
and several bar tenders
depended upon me,
and I don't intend to
disappoint them all
by getting myself
slightly killed.
Announcer: Cary Grant
running for his life,
searching for a man
who doesn't exist,
and a secret nobody knows,
and finding a blond who
has all the answers.
Eva: Hello there.
Cary: Tell me, why
are you so good to me?
Eva: Shall I climb
up and tell you why?
I was fascinated
by the combination
of Alfred Hitchcock
and Cary Grant because
although they were very
different in the faade,
they were very classy
gentlemen, very classy.
Cary: The moment I meet
an attractive woman,
I have to start pretending
I've no desire to
make love to her.
Eva: What makes you think
you have to conceal it?
Cary: She might find
the idea objectionable.
Eva: Then again, she might not.
Cary: Think how lucky I am
to have been seated here.
Eva: Well, luck has
nothing to do with it.
Cary: Faith?
Eva: I tipped the steward $5
to seat you here if
you should come in.
I just found him to be
a very giving actor.
You just always felt he
was with you every minute,
not only for his close-ups
but for your close-ups.
I had the feeling that he was
very happy I was
working with him
and when he talked with
me I felt at that moment
I was the only woman in
the whole wide world.
When I would be with him,
the rush of the people.
I was almost frightened by it,
because although
people recognize me,
it wasn't that incredible,
adoring feeling that
they had for him.
Richard: He felt imposed
upon sometimes by crowds.
And yet, I never knew
anyone who could behave
as well as he did in a crowd.
Stanley D.: Actually,
if you asked almost any
man in those days who
would he like to be,
you'd often get the
answer Cary Grant,
much more often than
you would get the answer
the President of
the United States.
Eva: By the way, he charged
25 cents per autograph.
Douglas: One of the things
we used to tease him
about was that he was
very careful with money.
Deborah: He was renowned
for never sending flowers
at Christmas or
presents at Christmas.
Richard: I never received a
Christmas present from him.
Eva: He told the people it
went to the Actors Fund.
Richard: But I received
presents from him, gifts,
not because it was
Christmas but because
it was Tuesday or Monday,
or some other day.
Eva: And I was afraid to do
that myself because, well,
I wasn't sure they'd come
up with the 25 cents.
Narrator: In 1959, Cary
had another huge hit,
if not with the critics then
certainly with audiences,
Operation Petticoat.
It would be his highest
grossing picture.
Cary: Women!
Sailor on right: Wow!
Cary: Now, for the next few
days we'll all be living
in fairly close contact
with each other.
Woman in blue: Oh, excuse me.
Cary: Now, with you
being women, and the men-
the crew being men, well
Man in blue: What are you
going to do about it, sir?
Cary: It works, doesn't it?
Man in blue: Yeah,
but I'm here all day.
That thing going up and
down, that's undecent.
Cary: Well, what
I mean to say is
Tallest woman: We know what
you mean to say, Captain.
We're well acquainted
with the facts of life.
Cary: Some of the men may.
I'm simply trying to avoid
any exchange of information.
Blond woman: Oh, good morning.
Cary: Good morning.
Blond woman: Mr. Holden's
been showing me around,
explaining how everything works.
Cary: Now, he's been explaining.
Blond woman: We're
just on our way
to the maneuvering room.
Cary: I'm afraid Mr.
Holden won't be able
to maneuver this morning.
Don't you have a book to read?
Tony: Yes, sir.
I'm on chapter 5, actually,
Care and Operation
of the Bilge Pump.
Cary: All right.
Tony: I can't wait to
see how it turns out.
Cary: Oh, you'll like it.
It turns out happily.
They get each other in the end.
Narrator: Twenty-eight
of Cary's films opened at
New York's largest and
most prestigious theater,
Radio City.
He was again and
again acknowledged as
the movie-house's
top box office draw.
Stanley K.: When he
exhibited himself,
he was Cary Grant: the
handsome leading man,
star incarnate.
Reporter: ...
favorite movie star
and box-office champion.
Stanley K.: Grant never
gave the appearance
of being commercial
and he was probably
as commercial an actor
who's ever lived.
Narrator: Now the
producer of his own films,
Cary knew the
value of publicity.
But when he cooperated,
it was in his own way.
Leslie: He would say, Let
the public and the press
"know nothing but
your public self.
A star is best left mysterious.
Just show your work on film
"and let the publicity
people do the rest.
Narrator: In 1961, Robert
Mitchum, Deborah Kerr
and Jean Simmons
appeared with Cary
in The Grass is Greener.
The film's director
was Stanley Donen.
Stanley D.: He played
the part of a husband
whose wife cheats on him
or wants to cheat on him.
The man understood
that she might have had
some desire for this other man.
Jean: He's not just
another man, darling.
He's a millionaire!
Cary: Darling, have you
seen my bible anywhere?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I thought you were alone.
Deborah: Uh, isn't
it by your bed?
Cary: No, it isn't.
You're from the press, are you?
Robert: No, I'm not.
Cary: Well, you've got a camera.
You just took a photograph.
Deborah: Mr. Delacro
is an American.
Cary: Oh, I see.
I thought you were
from Good Housekeeping
or something.
Stanley D.: And, of
course, in that story,
as perhaps in life it
could happen that way,
when he said to her,
Go ahead and do it,
the thrill was gone.
Cary: So I can only
suggest that we declare
a sort of moratorium.
Deborah: How do you mean?
Cary: An armistice,
an intermission;
call it what you like.
Whatever you do, you do.
If you decide to
go off with him,
I'll just have to wait
here until you get back.
Stanley D.: And he won her back.
Deborah: You mean you'd
be willing to do that?
Stanley D.: That was
a lot of Cary in that.
Narrator: After a
prolonged separation,
Betsy Drake divorced
Cary in 1962.
The marriage had lasted
13 years and they would
remain friends to the
end of Cary's life.
By 1963, Cary had
enacted the role
of leading man
for over 30 years.
Now he was approaching
his sixtieth birthday.
Man in coat: One more
time, where is it?
Cary: Your husband's
mixed up in something.
What was it?
Audrey: Any minute now,
we could be assassinated.
Mr. Bartholemew!
Mr. Bartholemew!
Help me!
Cary: Reggie, stop!
Audrey: Oh, I don't
know who anybody is.
Cary: Reggie, I beg you.
Just trust me once more.
Audrey: Why should I?
Cary: I can't think of a reason
in the world why you should.
Stanley D.: When
we made Charade,
he was concerned that the
age difference between
Audrey Hepburn and Cary,
and himself, was too great.
Cary: Here you are.
Audrey: Where?
Cary: On the street
where you live.
Audrey: How about once
more around the park?
Cary: How about
getting out of here?
Come on, child, out.
Audrey: Won't you
come in for a minute?
Cary: No, I won't.
Audrey: I don't bite you
know, unless it's called for.
Cary: How would you
like a spanking?
Audrey: How would you
like a punch in the nose?
Stop treating me like a child!
Cary: Well, then stop
behaving like one.
Audrey: Do you know
what's wrong with you?
Cary: No; what?
Audrey: Nothing.
Stanley D.: I thought
Cary and Audrey were as
romantic a couple as you
would ever find in a movie.
I still believe that.
I think the picture today,
if you look at it,
one of the joys
is just those two
people in that movie.
Audrey: Hey, you don't
look so bad in this light.
Cary: Well, why do you
think I brought you here?
Audrey: I thought maybe
you wanted me to see
the kind of work the
competition was turning up.
Cary: Pretty good, huh?
Audrey: Uhm.
Cary: I taught them
everything they do.
Audrey: Oh, did they
do that kind of thing
way back in your day?
Cary: Sure.
How do you think I got here?
Audrey: Not allowed
to kiss back, huh?
Cary: Oh, no.
The doctor said it was
bad for my thermostat.
(romantic music)
Well, when you come on,
you come on, don't you?
Audrey: Well, come on!
Leslie: Cary Grant had
this image of a very suave,
sophisticated man,
considered the most brilliant
comedian in Hollywood.
By the time Cary Grant
came to shoot Father Goose,
he wanted to change his image.
Mr. Eckland is a
rude, foul-mouthed,
drunken, filthy beast.
Voice on radio: Well,
be that as it may-
Cary: This is the
filthy beast speaking.
Leslie: If you think I'd
want to get involved with an
undisciplined, self-indulgent
escapist like you-
Cary: Well, that's
better than being
a frustrated spinster!
Leslie: What was she like?
Cary: She who?
Leslie: The lady who
drove you to this.
Cary: Drove me to what?
Leslie: Drink.
Cary: Oh, there was no lady.
Leslie: That was your wife!
(laughs)
I think he was quite
disappointed when the public
didn't want Cary Grant
to be with a beard
and sloppy and say
a few dirty words.
That was upsetting for him,
and he gave up soon
after that and retired.
Cary: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Elsie: There were lots
of children on the film.
He was very interested
in children.
(Cary coughing)
Children: [Unintelligible].
Elsie: Drink something.
Give him something
to drink, quick!
Cary: Yeah, hold it!
Elsie: Jenny!
Cary: Well, how strange!
Sharyl: Why?
Cary: That you
should bring me this!
Sharyl: I've done it before.
Cary: No, you haven't!
Sharyl: Yes, I have.
Cary: Shut up!
Leslie: He was always
asking me about mine
and how I raised them.
He had a very paternal
attitude towards children.
It was rather touching.
As a matter of fact,
he was courting Dyan
Cannon during the film,
and it's soon after the
film that they married
and she gave him a child.
That was the happiest
thing in his life.
Alston: It's also the only
occasion when he departed
from our normal agreement.
We had always promised
that we would never go
to talk to his mother about
anything to do with him.
But suddenly he asked
us, would we take
a wire picture so she could
see her new grandchild.
Narrator: Walk Don't
Run was released
the same year that
Jennifer was born, 1966.
But this time, Cary did
not play the leading man.
He had made 72 films, and
this would be his last.
Alston: He told me, Look,
I've produced Jennifer,
"the most marvelous
girl in the world.
"What could compare with that?
"Certainly no movie.
Narrator: Cary's
marriage to Dyan Cannon
was soon headed for
the divorce courts,
but Cary's devotion to his
daughter was unwavering.
As if recalling the unhappiness
of his own childhood,
Cary was determined his
daughter would never
for a single moment
doubt his love for her.
In 1970, Cary Grant
received an honorary
Academy Award for nearly
35 years of achievement.
At last, the Academy
was paying tribute
to one of Hollywood's
greatest stars.
He no longer appeared on
the screen, but, even as
he aged, the Cary Grant
legend continued to grow.
He joined the board
of major corporations.
He addressed the 1976
Republican convention.
Cary: To introduce to
you and to the nation the
president's first, and all
our first, lady, Betty Ford.
Narrator: He received one
of his adopted country's
highest honors, presented
by an old Hollywood friend.
Ronald: Although at
the time he ran off
to be an acrobat he was
known as Archie Leach.
Some actors had to
change their names
to become successful,
others didn't.
(audience laughs)
Narrator: The eager young
vaudevillian from Bristol
had indeed come a long way.
But always, it was the
public Cary Grant on display.
The private man still
kept himself beyond reach.
Leslie: I think he
was somebody who liked
a very quiet life and
probably liked eating in
the kitchen better
than at Maxim's.
Narrator: In 1981, he
proved that in real life
he was still the leading man
and could still win
the beautiful girl.
At 77, Cary married a
young English woman,
Barbara Harris.
Peter: The extraordinary
thing about Cary
is that he became
nobler-looking in age.
I'm not talking
about handsomeness.
I'm talking about the
thing that's called soul.
With maturity, he got
to know himself better,
probably, as we all do.
Narrator: It seemed that
Cary had at last found
the family he yearned
for, and with it a way
to deal with the old,
unhappy memories.
Alston: Just three
years before his death,
the wheel had
turned full circle.
A lady colleague of mine took
him on a tour of Bristol.
He spoke of the
Saturday mornings
his mother took him shopping.
He pointed out the
cinema where he'd seen
his first Pearl White serials.
And even insisted on being taken
to his favorite
fish and chips shop.
At the end of it
all, he told me,
I wish she'd asked me more.
"I was enjoying it so much."
At that moment, I felt, at last,
Archie Leach had
come happily home.
Narrator: The
Hippodrome Theatre,
where it had all started.
John: A call from Cary
was always an event.
That voice was unmistakable.
Cary said, "John, I'm going
to do kind of a variation
"on that series that you
once wanted me to do.
"I'm just going to do it
around a few little places,
"show a few film clips,
"and then just talk
to the people."
Narrator: It was a
total departure for him.
There was no prepared script.
It was billed simply as
A Conversation with Cary Grant.
It was that.
Not with the image, the
creation, the persona.
The public and the private man,
they were at last
one and the same.
Peter: He died, I'm told,
talking about himself,
answering any of
the questions that
any of the sometimes
impertinent newspaper people
asked him about his private
life, about his loves.
I think it's kind of a
realization that he came to
that he belonged to the public.
Even though he
withdrew from them,
he was still theirs, and
I think he always will be.
Deborah: And from Archie
Leach to Cary Grant,
what a giant step.
And yet he became Cary Grant.
He really became him.
Stanley D.: He sort of said,
I actually have grown into
"the person that
I wanted to be.
(lively music)
Uno, due, tre!
(blows whistle)
(lively music)
Narrator: He was an original.
In the history of
motion pictures, no one,
before or since, has
seemed quite as debonair,
as sophisticated;
and yet, with it all, as human.
For over 30 years,
he was Hollywood's most
sought-after leading man,
acknowledged as one of
its truly great comedians.
He was the star everyone loved.
He was also the star
few really knew.
His name was Cary Grant.
(lively music)
Stanley D.: I
remember him mostly,
and I think most people do,
as a person who
lights up a room.
Garson: Women adored him.
They loved looking at him.
They loved listening to him
and they loved
watching him in action.
Deborah: The most
striking thing about Cary
is how fantastically
good-looking he was.
Stanley K.: He was
such an attractive man
that people presumed, well,
maybe he doesn't
have very much depth.
Douglas: People who knew
him terribly well said
that there were great
storms going on inside.
Richard: He needed
desperately, I think,
not only to be liked;
that was something else,
but for him to be approved of.
Leslie: He had to
make you love him.
That was very important to him.
Narrator: Bristol,
England today.
There still stand the
places he knew as a child:
the street on which he was born;
the school he attended;
and, most important,
the theatre that became his
entranceway to the world.
He was born January 18, 1904,
Archibald Alexander Leach.
Alston: His mother
was over-possessive
in his very young days.
A few years earlier,
she had had another son,
who died shortly before
his first birthday.
It was said that she
never got over that shock.
Narrator: Like many Victorians,
Archie's mother was
class conscious.
Elsie Leach felt she
had married beneath her.
Her husband, Elias, worked hard
as a pants presser,
and was rarely home.
Pampered and
immaculately dressed,
Archie was the center
of Elsie's life.
But that would suddenly end.
He was only 10 years
old when he came home
from school one day to
find his mother gone.
Alston: His father
had her committed
to a local mental hospital,
where she remained
for the next 21 years.
He was told she was
gone for a rest.
She would be back.
But it was all very vague,
and he was then left with
all these self-doubts
as to whether he had
been the cause of it.
Why had his mother
walked out on him?
It was to have, I feel,
a profound effect on him
for most of his life.
Narrator: He rarely
saw his father
and often went to
the Bristol docks
and dreamed of running
off as a cabin boy.
He joined the Boy Scouts
and was later remembered
as a loner who always
looked neglected.
Archie was 14 when
he was expelled for
the childish prank of peeking
into the girls' bathroom.
It marked the end of
his formal education.
Alston: He was hauled in
front of the entire school.
It was cruel, to say the least.
Narrator: But Archie
was a survivor,
and a chance visit backstage to
Bristol's Hippodrome Theatre
would change his life.
Voiceover: Hello, love.
[Lovely].
Please yourself.
(audience laughs)
Do you feel like
a bit of company?
And you?
Narrator: It was like
nothing he believed possible:
the lights, the music.
Archie got a job calling
actors to the stage.
It was magical.
He saw the men and
women who emerged
from these dressing
rooms transformed
before an audience
into performers.
They were cheered,
applauded, adored.
It was an experience
Archie would never forget,
and he was hooked.
Within weeks, Archie
became a member
of Pender's
Knockabout Comedians,
learning the art of prat
falls, stilt walking,
pleasing an audience.
Archie had found
himself a new family.
(ship horn blares)
In two years, the
Pender troupe would be
on its way to perform
in New York City,
and 16 year old Archie
would be with them.
New York was a far cry
from Bristol, England.
The jazz age was being born
and Archie reveled in it.
When the Pender lads
headed for home,
Archie decided he had
nothing to go back to.
His chance for a
future was here,
and he was going to
make the most of it.
When he couldn't
find a job on stage,
he survived by walking
stilts in Coney Island
to advertise the
Steeplechase Amusement Park.
Leslie: He told me
he was very poor
and he used to sell
ties on the sidewalk
on Broadway out of a suitcase,
and he was forever
looking for the police.
If he saw a cop,
he would quickly close
the suitcase and run.
Jean: I had written a skit
for vaudeville and I needed
a very, very handsome man
to carry out the plot.
He came in and my partner said,
"Oh, we saw him already and
he isn't any good for us.
"He has a Cockney accent.
"He has a very peculiar walk
"and no acting
experience whatsoever."
I said, "Well, it doesn't
make any difference to me.
"He's the only really
good-looking man
"who has come in
in the last week.
I just fell madly
in love with him.
Garson: He was a handsome,
imposing young blade
around Broadway.
He'd been on the road for
the Shuberts and
several musicals.
He was always around
looking for work.
Narrator: In 1929,
he managed to get
a screen test from
Paramount Pictures.
He was rejected.
The reason: bowlegs,
and what was described
as a "thick neck."
Archie refused to
accept that verdict.
Vendor girl: [Unintelligible].
Cary: Oh, boy.
What a great day to
have good eyesight.
Narrator: This
short, Singapore Sue,
made in New York
City, was the start of
one of the great screen
careers of all time.
Cary: Hello, [Jeanie]!
Sure, I'll buy a doll.
Sailor for me, and here it is,
and a beautiful
Chinese girl for you.
Now, how about a kiss
for the both of us?
(sailors laugh)
Narrator: It was 1931.
Archie Leach was 27 years old
and determined to succeed.
He drove to Hollywood with
all his possessions crammed
into his first Packard
and soon got
another screen test.
This time Paramount
gave him a contract,
and with it a new name.
Archie Leach would be no more.
He was now Cary Grant.
John: His early films
he made opposite
people like Nancy Carroll
and Marlene Dietrich;
Sylvia Sydney, of course.
He was there to look
tall, dark and handsome.
Gary Cooper or Freddy
March, they were actors.
Cary Grant, he was
kind of a stick.
He was a leading man.
Richard: I'd heard the
usual legendary stories
about how Cary Grant
became Cary Grant.
For instance, I'd heard
that he fashioned himself
after Douglas Fairbanks
and after Noel Coward,
with that elegant style.
I think it started
a different way.
Garson: The first time I
remember him making any
impact was when he was
Mae West's leading man.
Now, Mae West, being
the powerful, powerful
personality that she
was, just obliterated
anyone else who was on
the screen with her.
But, apparently, she liked him.
Mae: Why don't you come
up sometime and see me?
I'm home every evening.
Garson: And he liked her.
Cary: Yeah, but I'm
busy every evening.
Garson: She gave him
a pretty good room
in which to operate.
Cary: [She were]
holding meetings
in Jacobson's Hall
every evening.
Any time you have
a moment to spare,
I'll be glad to
have you drop in.
You're more than welcome.
Mae: I heard you, but
you ain't kidding me any.
Come up, I'll tell your fortune.
Oh, you can be had.
Richard: She needed an opposite.
Not somebody from the
streets, but somebody
with elegance that would
play against her character.
Cary: So, all this is your
famous collection, eh?
Mae: No, it's just
my summer jewelry.
You have to see my winter stuff.
Cary: They always
seem so cold to me.
They have no warmth, no soul.
Mae: Well, I'm sorry
you think more of
my soul than you
do of my diamonds.
Maybe I ain't got no soul.
Cary: Oh, yes you have.
But you keep it
hidden under a mask.
Haven't you ever met a man
that could make you happy?
Mae: Sure, lots of times.
Garson: He had his own
way of talking and it was
so unique that it stamped
him as a personality.
Narrator: After
She Done Him Wrong,
Cary Grant was
acknowledged by Paramount
as being among their more
important leading men.
(girl singing)
But success had its price.
Cary was expected to participate
in every publicity
stunt that came along,
whatever his personal
feelings on the subject.
Cary: Well, I came
up to tell you
how much I enjoyed your song.
Little girl: Oh, but
you're [unintelligible].
Cary: No, no kidding.
All jokes aside, I'm serious.
I really mean it.
Little girl: Why
don't you come up
and I'll put on some
[unintelligible].
Narrator: About this
time, Cary found out that
his mother was still alive
and in a mental hospital.
He would buy her a new home
and would visit her
regularly, but the pain
of her disappearance
would never be forgotten.
Alston: It's difficult
to appreciate
what a stigma attached
to mental instability
in the first 30 years
or so of Cary's life.
So it's not entirely
surprising that Elias Leach
decided not to tell his son
about his mother's illness.
She, of course, had no idea
that by now he was world-famous.
Narrator: Elsie Leach
also had no idea
Cary had fallen in love
and was planning to marry
Virginia Cherrill, an
actress who played opposite
Charlie Chaplin in City Lights,
and opposite Cary
in this PR short.
Cary: Hello, darling.
Have a nice trip?
Virginia: Lovely.
Cary: Hey, where did
you get the flowers?
Virginia: From an admirer.
Cary: Not bad.
Boy: I delivered your flowers
all right, [Mr. Vance].
Virginia: So you sent them.
Narrator: Cary and
Virginia were married
in London in February, 1934.
They appeared to be the
ideal Hollywood couple.
Emcee: He's been a
bridegroom of two months
Narrator: At a
meeting for exhibitors
at the Paramount studio,
Cary affected the casual
good humor that would
become his trademark.
Cary: It's nice to see
who's on the level.
I have to get back to the set.
This tan isn't on the level.
Bye-bye.
Narrator: But the
actor who would show
such ease with women
on screen would have
a more difficult time
in his personal life.
In December, 1934,
Virginia Cherrill
would file for divorce,
accusing Cary of
extreme possessiveness.
For Cary, it would mean a replay
of the old feelings
of being abandoned.
He tried to focus all his
energies on his career,
but again and again he was
cast in uninspiring roles.
In 1936, Paramount
lent him out to RKO
for Sylvia Scarlett,
directed by George Cukor
and co-starring
Katherine Hepburn.
John: The next thing you knew,
Cary was so far away from
anything that he had done
in his Paramount tall,
dark and handsome
leading man days that
it got people thinking,
Hey, this man's a comedian.
Narrator: Suddenly, Cary
knew that his only hope
for better parts lay
outside Paramount.
So, in 1937, he made
a bold decision.
He bought out his contract
and became one of the
few major Hollywood stars
to voluntarily go freelance.
John: Away from Paramount,
secondary studios would
take a chance on someone
who just been a leading man.
And of course, Cary became
a star with a vengeance.
Narrator: In 1937,
Cary signed on for
the Hal Roach comedy,
Topper, and struck gold.
But it was in Columbia
Pictures' The Awful Truth,
released the same year,
that Cary's true brilliance
as a comedian was established.
From day one, it was
a madcap production.
Ralph: Leo McCarey, one of
the greatest directors of
all time, said, Do you
know Home On The Range?
and I said, Yes,
but I can't sing it.
He said, That's great.
"Come on over here.
We went over to a grand piano,
and Irene Dunne had
some sheet music
and she was trying to bang
out Home On The Range.
She said, Leo, I
don't read music.
"I'll never get this.
He said, Do the best you can.
"Ralph, you sing it.
"Belt it out!
(Ralph sings Home on the Range)
At the end of the first
day, Irene was crying.
She didn't know what kind
of a part she was playing.
Cary said, Let me out of this
"and I'll do another
picture for nothing.
From then on, McCarey
came in with sometimes
a piece of brown wrapping
paper in his hand,
and he'd say, You come in here.
"You come in over there,
"and I'll run the
dog through here.
"And then you come
in, or whatever.
And that's the way
we made the picture.
We never had a script.
Irene: He's my
husband, coming along.
Ralph: Cary caught on quickly.
Cary: Well, hello folks!
Ralph: Hello.
Cary: This is Dixie Bell Lee.
This is Mrs. Warriner,
and this is Mr. Leeson,
the gentleman that Mrs.
Warriner is going to marry.
Ralph: It was right
in his groove,
his kind of comedy, of humor.
Cary: Now, are you sure
we're not intruding?
Ralph: Uh, what do you mean?
He could laugh with you
as you were watching him.
He knew you were laughing,
and he was encouraging it.
Cary: So you're going to
live in Oklahoma, eh Lucy?
How I envy you, Oklahoma!
Ralph: We're going to live
right in Oklahoma City.
Cary: Lucy, you lucky girl!
Ralph: New York's all
right for a visit,
but I wouldn't
want to live here.
Irene: I know I'll
enjoy Oklahoma City.
Cary: But of course.
And if it should get dull,
you can always go over
to Tulsa for the weekend.
Garson: He started to
play this more and more
comfortably, more
and more comfortably,
and of course effectively.
(dog barks)
Cary: Check it.
(dog barks)
Garson: By the time
the picture was over,
he had found a persona
that he could cling to
and make more and more his own.
Stanley: And then of
course he developed into
perhaps the brightest
comedian on the horizon.
Narrator: Cary had a field day,
playing once more
opposite Katharine Hepburn
in the zany 1938
Bringing Up Baby.
Cary: I don't believe you, Sue.
Katharine: But you
have to believe me.
Cary: I've been a victim
Cary: of your unbridled
imagination once more.
Cary: I'm going to- AAHHH!
Katharine: No, but if you'll
only wait while I explain,
I just gave you my-
(fabric ripping)
Cary: No, no, no, no.
I'm just trying to tell
you that you told me-
Katharine: Oh, no I didn't.
Why, if you hadn't
been in such a hurry
and waited for my explanation-
Cary: It's not my fault.
Katharine: Your coat would
still be perfectly all right.
Narrator: Wild confusion
was made art in this movie
that would go on to become
a Hollywood classic.
That same year, the
Grant-Hepburn magic
was again at work in Holiday.
Cary was hailed for his
performance as a romantic,
who found himself engaged
to the wrong sister.
Cary: Don't worry, my dear.
If I'm going to get
stuck with a rich girl,
I'll just grit my teeth,
make the best of it.
Doris: Oh, but darling,
you're going to make
millions yourself.
Cary: Oh, but
darling, no I'm not.
Doris: Oh, yes you are.
Cary: Oh, no, no.
Doris: Oh, yes.
Cary: No.
Katharine: Is life
wonderful where you are?
Cary: Well, I don't call
what I've been doing living.
Katharine: And what
do you recommend
for yourself, Doctor?
Cary: A holiday.
Katharine: For how long?
Cary: As long as I need.
Katharine: You
mean just to play?
Cary: I want to know how
I stand, where I fit into
the picture, what it's
all going to mean to me.
I can't find that out
sitting behind some
desk in an office,
so as soon as I get
enough money together,
I'm going to knock
off for a while.
Katharine: Quit?
Cary: Quit.
I want to save part
of my life for myself.
There's a catch to it, though.
It's got to be part
of the young part.
Garson: The more successful
he became as an actor,
the harder he worked.
The bigger a star he became,
the harder he worked.
It wasn't only to get
there but to stay there.
Narrator: With Gunga Din,
Cary extended his range
well beyond the drawing room.
Victor: What do you want?
Soldier: Where's
Sargent Ballantine?
Douglas: Here!
I think one of the
secrets of his success
was that he was such
an unselfish actor.
Soldier: Take your
hands off that man.
Douglas: Cary said that he
was interested in Gunga Din.
I said, Well, which part
did you want me to play?
He said, Well,
we'll toss a coin.
Heads you play this,
and tails I play that.
It was decided in as
simple a fashion as that.
Joan: Darling, please don't go!
Douglas: The trouble
is you don't want
a man for a husband;
you want a coward.
Run out on his friends
when there's danger.
Well, that's not me, and
never was, and never will be.
And that's how it happened
that I won the girl.
Narrator: Gunga Din was
the box office smash
of 1939 and Cary Grant
had become one of
the most exciting male
stars in Hollywood.
The 1940 His Girl Firday,
co-starring Cary Grant
with Rosalind Russell
and Ralph Bellamy,
revealed Screwball
comedy at its best.
Cary: This other fellow,
well I'm sorry I didn't
get a chance to see him.
I'm more or less particular
about who my wife marries.
Where is he?
Rosalind: Oh, he's
right on the job,
waiting for me out there.
Cary: Do you mind if I meet him?
Rosalind: Oh, no Walter.
It wouldn't do any good, really.
Cary: Oh, now you're
not afraid, are you?
Rosalind: Afraid?
Of course not!
Cary: Well, then come on!
Let's see this paragon!
Is he as good as you say?
Rosalind: Better!
Cary: Well then, what
does he want with you?
Rosalind: (laughs)
Now you've got me.
Cary: I'm going to
go out, Mildred.
Voiceover: Okay.
Cary: Oh, I am sorry, Hildy.
I suppose that Bruce-
what's his name?
Rosalind: Baldwin.
Cary: Baldwin?
I suppose he opens
doors for you, huh?
Rosalind: He does.
And when he's with a lady,
he takes his hat off.
Cary, Oh, I am sorry.
Rosalind: And when
he walks with a lady,
he waits for her.
Cary: Oh, well in that case
Rosalind: Allow me.
Cary: Well, I can
see right away,
my wife picked out the
right husband for herself.
How do you do, sir?
Earl: Must be some mistake.
I'm already married.
Cary: Already married?
Ralph: He had wonderful humor,
and it developed into
a style, a comic,
humorous style that
was very appealing.
More than appealing,
it was wonderful.
Cary: Congratulations
again, Mr. Baldwin.
Earl: Oh, no
Ralph: Mr. Burns?
Cary: Oh, excuse me.
What do you want?
Because you just leave
your card with the boy.
What did you say, Mr. Baldwin?
Earl: My name is ...
Ralph: Mr. Burns, Mr. Burns
Cary: Some other time.
I'm busy with Mr.
Bruce Baldwin here.
I didn't hear what you said.
Earl: Pete Davis is my name.
Ralph: Mr. Burns
Cary: Now look,
what is it with you?
Ralph: I'm Bruce Baldwin.
Cary: Oh, you're Bruce Baldwin?
Ralph: Yes.
Cary: Well, who's he?
Who are you?
Earl: My name is Pete Davis.
Cary: Well, Mr. Davis, is
this any concern of yours?
Earl: No.
Cary: Well, from
now on I'd thank you
to keep your nose
out of my affairs.
That doesn't happen
again, that's all.
Mr. Baldwin, I'm terribly
sorry about this mistake.
This is indeed a pleasure.
Narrator: With The
Philadelphia Story,
in which he co-starred
with Katharine Hepburn
and Jimmy Stewart, Cary
Grant established himself
as Hollywood's foremost
light comedian.
But events abroad would change
what brought people into
theaters, and Cary Grant
would have to find a way
of adapting to that change.
(explosions)
The war in Europe
seemed about to consume
the world: a time of
bombings and sacrifice.
Alston: In 1941, when
Bristol was suffering
its greatest from air raids,
hundreds of people
were being killed.
It was that precise moment
that Cary decided to
become an American citizen.
Critics unkindly suggested
it might be to
avoid war service.
The suggestion was very hurtful
because he was
doing a great deal.
Douglas: During the war
he made a whole picture
every year and give
all of his salary to
British war charities
back in his own country.
Stanley D.: He never ever
felt that he wanted to
really remove himself
completely from his origins,
but he loved America
and he loved being
a U.S. citizen.
Narrator: Visiting
U.S. Army camps,
Cary found a ready
welcome for the actor
who had done so much
to cheer millions
during the Depression.
But these were different
times and the appetite for
the zany and the
screwball was gone.
The 1941 Penny Serenade
was a reflection of that change.
Cary: What a grip.
For a girl, I mean.
The first time I saw her,
she looked so
little and helpless.
I didn't know babies
were so little.
When she took hold of my
finger and held on to it,
she just sort of
walked into my heart,
Judge, and she
was there to stay.
I didn't know I
could feel like that.
I'd always been, well,
kind of careless
and irresonsible,
I wanted to be a big shot.
I'm not a big shot now.
I'll do anything.
I'll work for anybody.
I'll beg, I'll borrow.
Please, Judge.
I'll sell anything I've got
until I get going again.
She'll never go hungry
and she'll never
be without clothes,
not as long as I've got
two good hands, so help me!
Narrator: For his
performance, Cary received
his first Academy
Award nomination.
Richard: He was
searching for something,
and I think that's what got
him into the darker period,
so to speak, of his life,
with a picture
such as Suspicion.
But there wouldn't
have been a Suspicion
with Cary Grant unless
he could trust the man
who was making the
movie, Hitchcock.
Joan: There was
something strange
about Johnnie Aysgarth.
I knew it long
before I married him.
It was our first
meeting on a hilltop.
Cary: Now what did you
think I would do, kill you?
Nothing less than
murder can justify
such a violent self defense.
Joan: Even his reassurances
seemed almost sinister.
Cary: I want
nothing but to spend
the rest of my life with you.
If you were to die first, I ...
Peter: Hitchcock
saw in that face
something besides a
handsome leading man.
I think he saw in the
face the potential
to be menacing, to be
equivocal, to be mysterious.
Joan: From that moment on,
my life was filled with fear.
Not of Johnnie.
I loved him too much
to really be afraid.
But the fear of not knowing,
the agony of waiting,
the wondering how
it would happen,
the waking in the
middle of the night
shaking with terror and
finding myself praying
that whatever it was it would be
done quickly and with mercy.
Narrator: Originally,
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Cary
to play the part of a killer,
but Cary feared
enacting a murderer
would damage his image,
and so the ending of
this film was changed.
Deborah: Cary was a devout
believer in keeping to
and following the kind of
image that you have built up.
Garson: That's the
trick of film stardom.
If an actor or an actress
tries to create a
different person,
a different personality
for every single role,
then the audience doesn't
have anything to latch onto
except the creative
talent of that player.
Deborah: He always
kept Cary Grant.
Garson: That's exactly what
a movie-going public wants.
Deborah: He never
became a murderer,
or a killer, or a mean person.
Garson: They do not
want a movie star
to be anything but his
own or her own self
that they have come
to admire and to love.
Narrator: In 1942,
movie-goers were surprised
to learn that Cary Grant,
the former vaudevillian
who had worked since he
was a boy of fourteen,
had married one of the
world's richest women,
Barbara Hutton.
Alston: Critics suggested
he was after her money.
He was known then
as "Cash and Cary",
a phrase which was to
wound him for years.
What had not been realized,
he'd inserted in the
marriage arrangements,
whatever happened
he was in no way
to benefit from her fortune.
Narrator: In 1944, Cary
risked the greatest departure
he would ever make
from his image,
to play a character whose world
could have been that
of Archie Leach's.
The film was None
But the Lonely Heart.
Cary: Anything in the
shop need mending, Ma?
Ethel: No, I don't need
your help, Ernie sweets.
Richard: Cary was a man of
infinite experimentation
with his own character.
Cary: I mean to do my
best by you, Ma love.
Happy couple, aren't we?
Richard: He was
constantly striving,
it seemed to me,
to become better.
Cary: Peace?
That's what us minions want,
without having to snatch
it from the smaller dogs.
Peace to be not a
hound and not a hare,
but peace with pride and
have a decent human life.
Peter: Unfortunately,
the roles that he
ventured out on, such as
None But the Lonely Heart,
were not his most
successful pictures.
I think it made him
step back a little bit
from playing real
character parts.
Narrator: Though critics praised
None But the Lonely
Heart and he received
his second Academy
Award nomination,
Cary measured success
by box office results,
and there the film
was a disappointment.
In his private life,
Cary would also suffer
a sense of failure.
In 1945, after three
years of marriage,
Barbara Hutton sued for divorce.
Rupert: She had a
lot of titled friends
and they would come to
their house for dinner.
Cary would sit
through the dinner,
but she said he
didn't feel at ease
with these titled people.
Immediately after
dinner he would go up
to his room upstairs
and turn on the radio.
But it must have been a
great turmoil inside him
because he manufactured
himself into this great idol
from a man who had a very
difficult background.
Narrator: The following year,
in Hitchcock's Notorious,
Cary played a
disillusioned secret agent
who falls deeply in love,
in spite of himself.
Cary: A man doesn't
tell a woman what to do;
she tells herself.
You almost had me believing in
that little hokey-pokey
miracle of yours,
that a woman like you could
ever change her spots.
Ingrid: Oh, you're rotten.
Cary: That's why I
didn't try to stop you.
The answer had to come from you.
Ingrid: Oh, you never
believed in me anyway,
so what's the difference?
Cary: It wouldn't have been
pretty if I believed in you,
if I'd figured, "She'd
been made over by love."
Ingrid: Devlin
Cary: Listen, you chocked
up another boyfriend,
that's all; no harm done.
Ingrid: I hate you.
Cary: There's no occasion to.
You're doing good work.
Narrator: With Ingrid
Bergman, Cary created a
romantic screen partnership
that became legendary.
Ingrid: Oh, you love me.
Why didn't you tell me before?
Cary: I know,
but I couldn't see
straight or think straight.
I was a fat-headed
guy, full of pain.
It tore me up, not having you.
Ingrid: Oh, you love me.
Peter: I met Cary
working on the RKO lot
after he made Notorious.
He was very genial,
easy to approach.
He told me his great
ambition at the time was to
own a freighter and just kind
of drift around the world.
I said to him, Cary,
why don't you do it?
And he said, Maybe
someday I will.
"Then I'll live the
life I want to.
Narrator: On another
kind of sea voyage,
during one of his
frequent trips to Europe,
Cary met a young aspiring
actress, Betsy Drake.
Woman in hat:
Anabel, do you mean
you're going to deliberately
set out to trap him?
Betsy: Well, I
know it's dreadful,
but this is the kind of
thing men force us to do.
Cary: Why have you
been chasing after me
for the past two weeks?
Betsy: You?
Really, Dr. Brown!
I've heard of
conceit in my time,
but you absolutely
take the cake.
Cary: And you will know
just how many candles go on it.
Narrator: Betsy and Cary
were married the
following year, 1949.
Cary's sense of what
would be right for him
at the box-office had
generally proved correct.
But when some of his films
were less than successful,
Cary thought it might
be time to retire.
Betsy was opening
new worlds to him:
in philosophy and
in self-knowledge.
And at last, he was able
to fulfill his ambition.
Together, they
took tramp steamers
to explore distant ports
and, more than ever,
the private Cary Grant
seemed to resemble
the image he had
created on the screen.
But if he wondered
whether to enter
permanent retirement,
the question was answered
by Alfred Hitchcock.
The film was the 1955
To Catch A Thief.
Cary: Who brought you up here?
Grace: The police.
We would have caught you,
too, if my dress hadn't got
caught all over the steering
wheel and gear shift.
Cary: As I'd done 20 minutes
ago, I'd said goodbye.
Grace: As quickly as you could.
Cary: Didn't I thank you?
Grace: Politely.
Cary: Well, then.
Grace: Oh, John.
You left in such a
hurry, you almost ran!
Cary: I had work to do up here.
Grace: Were you afraid
to admit that you just
can't do everything by yourself?
Leslie: Cary liked his partners
to be distinguished ladies.
He chose always women who
had a certain breeding.
It was very important to him.
I think he was very, very fond
of Ingrid Bergman
and Grace Kelly.
Announcer: Cary
Grant and this year's
Academy Award
winner, Grace Kelly.
Two exciting personalities
who were made for each other.
Leslie: He liked his
partners to be tall, slim,
to wear jewels beautifully.
Grace: Look, John.
Hold them.
Diamonds.
Have you ever had a better
offer in your whole life,
one with everything?
Leslie: With his
leading ladies he had
this wonderful rapport,
courtesy and tenderness,
but with a great deal of
humor, just like on the screen.
It was really very pleasant.
It was like going
out with a gentleman.
Cary: I guess I'm
not the lone wolf
I thought I was, Francie.
Grace: Well, I just wanted
to hear you say that.
Thank you.
Goodbye.
Cary: Goodbye.
Deborah: And women.
Cary: Oh, women?
Deborah: You've known
quite a few of them,
and I suppose they've all
been madly in love with you.
Cary: I doubt it.
Deborah: But you haven't
had much respect for them.
Cary: Oh, on the contrary-
Deborah: Still, you've
always been very fairI
in your judgements.
Cary: Yes; I've
been more than fair.
I idealized them.
Every woman I meet,
I put up there.
Deborah: Even when he was
having fun and laughing
and making jokes, which
he was excellent at,
there was still this remoteness,
there was still this
keeping something a secret.
Oh, winter must be cold
for those with no warm memories.
We've already missed the spring.
Cary: Yes.
This is probably my last chance.
Deborah: Mine, too.
Cary: It's now or never.
Deborah: There was
a most unexpected
vulnerability in Cary.
If I said fear, that
wouldn't be right,
but he was wary of
relationships with women.
Cary: I just want to be worthy
of asking you to marry me.
Deborah: Oh, Nickie, that's
just about the nicest-
Your voice cracked.
Cary: Well, that's because I-
Deborah: Yes, I know, I know.
That didn't stop him from
loving all his leading ladies.
And by loving, I
mean he was fond.
Announcer: It's the
biggest night of the year
in Hollywood as Oscar steps into
the spotlight for the 29th time.
Narrator: By now, Cary
made a point of avoiding
most public events; but in
1957, he agreed to accept
the Academy Award on
behalf of Ingrid Bergman
for her performance
in Anastasia.
Announcer: Won by
Ingrid Bergman,
accepted on her
behalf by Cary Grant.
Narrator: When most of
Hollywood turned against
Ingrid for leaving
her husband and child
for director Roberto Rossellini,
Cary remained one of
her staunchest friends.
In 1958, Indiscreet
brought these
old friends together again.
Cary: What do you mean?
Ingrid: I mean we
go on as before.
Cary: And not be married?
Ingrid: That's right.
Cary: That's the most
improper thing I ever heard.
Ingrid: WHAT?
Cary: I can hardly
believe my ears.
Ingrid: But what are
you so shocked about?
Cary: I didn't think
you were capable of it.
Ingrid: But what is different?
Cary: We are not married.
Ingrid: We weren't before.
Cary: But you didn't
know I was married.
Ingrid: You knew.
Cary: I knew you didn't know.
What's the matter with you?
How could you ask me
to do such a thing?
Hadn't you been following
what I've been saying?
Oh, I tell you, women are
not the sensitive sex.
That's one of the great
delusions of literature.
Men are the true romanticists.
I-
(Ingrid softly cries)
What are you crying about?
Ingrid: Oh, shut up, Philip.
Cary: Don't cry, Anna.
I love you.
Everything would be all right.
You'll like being married.
You will, you'll see.
Narrator: It was 1958.
For over 25 years,
Cary Grant had been
everybody's favorite
leading man.
Jean: You know the man
that every woman would
like to love and that
every man would like to be.
He played that part
over and over again
and played it beautifully.
Narrator: In many ways,
the best was yet to come.
With the 1959 Hitchcock
classic, North by Northwest,
Cary Grant's career seemed
to have found its jewel.
Cary: I'm an advertising
man, not a red herring.
I've got a job, a secretary,
a mother, two ex-wives,
and several bar tenders
depended upon me,
and I don't intend to
disappoint them all
by getting myself
slightly killed.
Announcer: Cary Grant
running for his life,
searching for a man
who doesn't exist,
and a secret nobody knows,
and finding a blond who
has all the answers.
Eva: Hello there.
Cary: Tell me, why
are you so good to me?
Eva: Shall I climb
up and tell you why?
I was fascinated
by the combination
of Alfred Hitchcock
and Cary Grant because
although they were very
different in the faade,
they were very classy
gentlemen, very classy.
Cary: The moment I meet
an attractive woman,
I have to start pretending
I've no desire to
make love to her.
Eva: What makes you think
you have to conceal it?
Cary: She might find
the idea objectionable.
Eva: Then again, she might not.
Cary: Think how lucky I am
to have been seated here.
Eva: Well, luck has
nothing to do with it.
Cary: Faith?
Eva: I tipped the steward $5
to seat you here if
you should come in.
I just found him to be
a very giving actor.
You just always felt he
was with you every minute,
not only for his close-ups
but for your close-ups.
I had the feeling that he was
very happy I was
working with him
and when he talked with
me I felt at that moment
I was the only woman in
the whole wide world.
When I would be with him,
the rush of the people.
I was almost frightened by it,
because although
people recognize me,
it wasn't that incredible,
adoring feeling that
they had for him.
Richard: He felt imposed
upon sometimes by crowds.
And yet, I never knew
anyone who could behave
as well as he did in a crowd.
Stanley D.: Actually,
if you asked almost any
man in those days who
would he like to be,
you'd often get the
answer Cary Grant,
much more often than
you would get the answer
the President of
the United States.
Eva: By the way, he charged
25 cents per autograph.
Douglas: One of the things
we used to tease him
about was that he was
very careful with money.
Deborah: He was renowned
for never sending flowers
at Christmas or
presents at Christmas.
Richard: I never received a
Christmas present from him.
Eva: He told the people it
went to the Actors Fund.
Richard: But I received
presents from him, gifts,
not because it was
Christmas but because
it was Tuesday or Monday,
or some other day.
Eva: And I was afraid to do
that myself because, well,
I wasn't sure they'd come
up with the 25 cents.
Narrator: In 1959, Cary
had another huge hit,
if not with the critics then
certainly with audiences,
Operation Petticoat.
It would be his highest
grossing picture.
Cary: Women!
Sailor on right: Wow!
Cary: Now, for the next few
days we'll all be living
in fairly close contact
with each other.
Woman in blue: Oh, excuse me.
Cary: Now, with you
being women, and the men-
the crew being men, well
Man in blue: What are you
going to do about it, sir?
Cary: It works, doesn't it?
Man in blue: Yeah,
but I'm here all day.
That thing going up and
down, that's undecent.
Cary: Well, what
I mean to say is
Tallest woman: We know what
you mean to say, Captain.
We're well acquainted
with the facts of life.
Cary: Some of the men may.
I'm simply trying to avoid
any exchange of information.
Blond woman: Oh, good morning.
Cary: Good morning.
Blond woman: Mr. Holden's
been showing me around,
explaining how everything works.
Cary: Now, he's been explaining.
Blond woman: We're
just on our way
to the maneuvering room.
Cary: I'm afraid Mr.
Holden won't be able
to maneuver this morning.
Don't you have a book to read?
Tony: Yes, sir.
I'm on chapter 5, actually,
Care and Operation
of the Bilge Pump.
Cary: All right.
Tony: I can't wait to
see how it turns out.
Cary: Oh, you'll like it.
It turns out happily.
They get each other in the end.
Narrator: Twenty-eight
of Cary's films opened at
New York's largest and
most prestigious theater,
Radio City.
He was again and
again acknowledged as
the movie-house's
top box office draw.
Stanley K.: When he
exhibited himself,
he was Cary Grant: the
handsome leading man,
star incarnate.
Reporter: ...
favorite movie star
and box-office champion.
Stanley K.: Grant never
gave the appearance
of being commercial
and he was probably
as commercial an actor
who's ever lived.
Narrator: Now the
producer of his own films,
Cary knew the
value of publicity.
But when he cooperated,
it was in his own way.
Leslie: He would say, Let
the public and the press
"know nothing but
your public self.
A star is best left mysterious.
Just show your work on film
"and let the publicity
people do the rest.
Narrator: In 1961, Robert
Mitchum, Deborah Kerr
and Jean Simmons
appeared with Cary
in The Grass is Greener.
The film's director
was Stanley Donen.
Stanley D.: He played
the part of a husband
whose wife cheats on him
or wants to cheat on him.
The man understood
that she might have had
some desire for this other man.
Jean: He's not just
another man, darling.
He's a millionaire!
Cary: Darling, have you
seen my bible anywhere?
Oh, I'm sorry.
I thought you were alone.
Deborah: Uh, isn't
it by your bed?
Cary: No, it isn't.
You're from the press, are you?
Robert: No, I'm not.
Cary: Well, you've got a camera.
You just took a photograph.
Deborah: Mr. Delacro
is an American.
Cary: Oh, I see.
I thought you were
from Good Housekeeping
or something.
Stanley D.: And, of
course, in that story,
as perhaps in life it
could happen that way,
when he said to her,
Go ahead and do it,
the thrill was gone.
Cary: So I can only
suggest that we declare
a sort of moratorium.
Deborah: How do you mean?
Cary: An armistice,
an intermission;
call it what you like.
Whatever you do, you do.
If you decide to
go off with him,
I'll just have to wait
here until you get back.
Stanley D.: And he won her back.
Deborah: You mean you'd
be willing to do that?
Stanley D.: That was
a lot of Cary in that.
Narrator: After a
prolonged separation,
Betsy Drake divorced
Cary in 1962.
The marriage had lasted
13 years and they would
remain friends to the
end of Cary's life.
By 1963, Cary had
enacted the role
of leading man
for over 30 years.
Now he was approaching
his sixtieth birthday.
Man in coat: One more
time, where is it?
Cary: Your husband's
mixed up in something.
What was it?
Audrey: Any minute now,
we could be assassinated.
Mr. Bartholemew!
Mr. Bartholemew!
Help me!
Cary: Reggie, stop!
Audrey: Oh, I don't
know who anybody is.
Cary: Reggie, I beg you.
Just trust me once more.
Audrey: Why should I?
Cary: I can't think of a reason
in the world why you should.
Stanley D.: When
we made Charade,
he was concerned that the
age difference between
Audrey Hepburn and Cary,
and himself, was too great.
Cary: Here you are.
Audrey: Where?
Cary: On the street
where you live.
Audrey: How about once
more around the park?
Cary: How about
getting out of here?
Come on, child, out.
Audrey: Won't you
come in for a minute?
Cary: No, I won't.
Audrey: I don't bite you
know, unless it's called for.
Cary: How would you
like a spanking?
Audrey: How would you
like a punch in the nose?
Stop treating me like a child!
Cary: Well, then stop
behaving like one.
Audrey: Do you know
what's wrong with you?
Cary: No; what?
Audrey: Nothing.
Stanley D.: I thought
Cary and Audrey were as
romantic a couple as you
would ever find in a movie.
I still believe that.
I think the picture today,
if you look at it,
one of the joys
is just those two
people in that movie.
Audrey: Hey, you don't
look so bad in this light.
Cary: Well, why do you
think I brought you here?
Audrey: I thought maybe
you wanted me to see
the kind of work the
competition was turning up.
Cary: Pretty good, huh?
Audrey: Uhm.
Cary: I taught them
everything they do.
Audrey: Oh, did they
do that kind of thing
way back in your day?
Cary: Sure.
How do you think I got here?
Audrey: Not allowed
to kiss back, huh?
Cary: Oh, no.
The doctor said it was
bad for my thermostat.
(romantic music)
Well, when you come on,
you come on, don't you?
Audrey: Well, come on!
Leslie: Cary Grant had
this image of a very suave,
sophisticated man,
considered the most brilliant
comedian in Hollywood.
By the time Cary Grant
came to shoot Father Goose,
he wanted to change his image.
Mr. Eckland is a
rude, foul-mouthed,
drunken, filthy beast.
Voice on radio: Well,
be that as it may-
Cary: This is the
filthy beast speaking.
Leslie: If you think I'd
want to get involved with an
undisciplined, self-indulgent
escapist like you-
Cary: Well, that's
better than being
a frustrated spinster!
Leslie: What was she like?
Cary: She who?
Leslie: The lady who
drove you to this.
Cary: Drove me to what?
Leslie: Drink.
Cary: Oh, there was no lady.
Leslie: That was your wife!
(laughs)
I think he was quite
disappointed when the public
didn't want Cary Grant
to be with a beard
and sloppy and say
a few dirty words.
That was upsetting for him,
and he gave up soon
after that and retired.
Cary: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Elsie: There were lots
of children on the film.
He was very interested
in children.
(Cary coughing)
Children: [Unintelligible].
Elsie: Drink something.
Give him something
to drink, quick!
Cary: Yeah, hold it!
Elsie: Jenny!
Cary: Well, how strange!
Sharyl: Why?
Cary: That you
should bring me this!
Sharyl: I've done it before.
Cary: No, you haven't!
Sharyl: Yes, I have.
Cary: Shut up!
Leslie: He was always
asking me about mine
and how I raised them.
He had a very paternal
attitude towards children.
It was rather touching.
As a matter of fact,
he was courting Dyan
Cannon during the film,
and it's soon after the
film that they married
and she gave him a child.
That was the happiest
thing in his life.
Alston: It's also the only
occasion when he departed
from our normal agreement.
We had always promised
that we would never go
to talk to his mother about
anything to do with him.
But suddenly he asked
us, would we take
a wire picture so she could
see her new grandchild.
Narrator: Walk Don't
Run was released
the same year that
Jennifer was born, 1966.
But this time, Cary did
not play the leading man.
He had made 72 films, and
this would be his last.
Alston: He told me, Look,
I've produced Jennifer,
"the most marvelous
girl in the world.
"What could compare with that?
"Certainly no movie.
Narrator: Cary's
marriage to Dyan Cannon
was soon headed for
the divorce courts,
but Cary's devotion to his
daughter was unwavering.
As if recalling the unhappiness
of his own childhood,
Cary was determined his
daughter would never
for a single moment
doubt his love for her.
In 1970, Cary Grant
received an honorary
Academy Award for nearly
35 years of achievement.
At last, the Academy
was paying tribute
to one of Hollywood's
greatest stars.
He no longer appeared on
the screen, but, even as
he aged, the Cary Grant
legend continued to grow.
He joined the board
of major corporations.
He addressed the 1976
Republican convention.
Cary: To introduce to
you and to the nation the
president's first, and all
our first, lady, Betty Ford.
Narrator: He received one
of his adopted country's
highest honors, presented
by an old Hollywood friend.
Ronald: Although at
the time he ran off
to be an acrobat he was
known as Archie Leach.
Some actors had to
change their names
to become successful,
others didn't.
(audience laughs)
Narrator: The eager young
vaudevillian from Bristol
had indeed come a long way.
But always, it was the
public Cary Grant on display.
The private man still
kept himself beyond reach.
Leslie: I think he
was somebody who liked
a very quiet life and
probably liked eating in
the kitchen better
than at Maxim's.
Narrator: In 1981, he
proved that in real life
he was still the leading man
and could still win
the beautiful girl.
At 77, Cary married a
young English woman,
Barbara Harris.
Peter: The extraordinary
thing about Cary
is that he became
nobler-looking in age.
I'm not talking
about handsomeness.
I'm talking about the
thing that's called soul.
With maturity, he got
to know himself better,
probably, as we all do.
Narrator: It seemed that
Cary had at last found
the family he yearned
for, and with it a way
to deal with the old,
unhappy memories.
Alston: Just three
years before his death,
the wheel had
turned full circle.
A lady colleague of mine took
him on a tour of Bristol.
He spoke of the
Saturday mornings
his mother took him shopping.
He pointed out the
cinema where he'd seen
his first Pearl White serials.
And even insisted on being taken
to his favorite
fish and chips shop.
At the end of it
all, he told me,
I wish she'd asked me more.
"I was enjoying it so much."
At that moment, I felt, at last,
Archie Leach had
come happily home.
Narrator: The
Hippodrome Theatre,
where it had all started.
John: A call from Cary
was always an event.
That voice was unmistakable.
Cary said, "John, I'm going
to do kind of a variation
"on that series that you
once wanted me to do.
"I'm just going to do it
around a few little places,
"show a few film clips,
"and then just talk
to the people."
Narrator: It was a
total departure for him.
There was no prepared script.
It was billed simply as
A Conversation with Cary Grant.
It was that.
Not with the image, the
creation, the persona.
The public and the private man,
they were at last
one and the same.
Peter: He died, I'm told,
talking about himself,
answering any of
the questions that
any of the sometimes
impertinent newspaper people
asked him about his private
life, about his loves.
I think it's kind of a
realization that he came to
that he belonged to the public.
Even though he
withdrew from them,
he was still theirs, and
I think he always will be.
Deborah: And from Archie
Leach to Cary Grant,
what a giant step.
And yet he became Cary Grant.
He really became him.
Stanley D.: He sort of said,
I actually have grown into
"the person that
I wanted to be.
(lively music)