Cary Grant will forever be known as one of Hollywood’s most seductive and fascinating stars. Even twenty years after his death, Grant still owns the imaginations of film lovers. This week, the Modern Pea Pod celebrates this consummate icon with reviews of five of his classic films, as compiled on Sony’s new DVD box set. Day by day, we’ll show you some of the best and some of the worst of Grant’s canon. So bust out a nicely tailored suit, make yourself a nice drink, and drop some acid. It’s time to remember our man Archie Leach.

Only Angels Have Wings
(Director: Howard Hawks, 1939)

Not too long ago I was doing a bit of work at an archive. During a break, I began to have a long discussion with one of the reference staff members, and, as so often happens, the topic of classic films crept its way into our conversation. Casually, I mentioned that in the course of just a few days, my fellow Pea Pod staff members and I had watched the five Cary Grant films for this piece. I watched as this sweet little librarian’s eyes lit up while she revealed to me that she had, for years, been a huge Cary Grant fan–madly and secretly in love with him as, of course, all of us are. She inquired as to what would be on this fabulous new box set, and when I got to Only Angels Have Wings, she asked what I had thought of it. “Well,” I said, “It doesn’t really have a plot.”

This is a slight exaggeration, of course. In fact, the movie has several plots. The problem is that none of them can be reasonably identified as a main storyline – something we as an audience have typically come to expect from our films. What we have instead is a loose string of stories that would usually be considered subplots, and lots of filler in between. But not a single one of these subplots is capable of carrying the movie on its own; and as a result, you’re left furrowing your brow for two hours while asking your neighbor, “Wait, what is this about?”

The 1939 film takes place in a small coastal village located behind a mountain range in South America. We open with Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) waiting around for her boat back to New York, and exploring the sites of the native people. She then bumps into a couple of American pilots who fly the treacherous and frequent journey over the mountains to deliver freight and mail. They introduce her to their boss, Geoff Carter (Grant), and of course, she immediately falls madly in love with him. And then she vanishes from the film for about a half hour. What follows is a random assortment of conflicts that never quite come together to form a cohesive story. There’s Carter’s inability to love a woman more than he loves the thrill of flight; the pilot who bailed on his plane, allowing his engineer to die, and the dead man’s brother – hungry for revenge; the return of Carter’s old flame, who is now married to the cowardly pilot; and of course, the uncertain future of the freight company’s ability to survive. While some of these are interesting and compelling stories, there’s just far too many of them going on, and nothing is fleshed out enough to really grab the audience’s attention.

To write this film off completely, though, would be a foolish mistake – despite Grant’s incredibly unflattering wardrobe throughout the entire picture. There’s plenty of fantastic one-liners, emotionally-charged scenes, passionate kisses, and, considering the period, pretty amazing plane stunts. And of course, the fact of the matter is that even Cary Grant’s worst film (which this is definitely not) is still ten times better than any movie that doesn’t have Cary Grant. The big problem is that Only Angels Have Wings has no place in a Cary Grant box set. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right that while no collections have thus far included classics like Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, this movie managed to make the grade.

Holiday
(Director: George Cukor, 1938)

The aforementioned neglected movies have one obvious connection…namely, Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn and Grant made several films together in the late 1930s and early 40s, and for good reason: they had fabulous onscreen chemistry. Think of them as a precursor to Bacall and Bogart, except with better accents and a male lead who was actually attractive. Luckily for us, one of the movies by this pair did make it into the collection.

In 1938′s Holiday, Grant stars as Johnny Case, a wise-cracking thirty year-old man who climbed his way up from a tragic youth to become an Ivy League grad with a rising career in business. The movie opens with Case returning from his first-ever vacation to announce to his friends that while on his holiday he met a girl… and that they’re engaged. What he has yet to discover, however, is that his fiancée is really Julia Seton (Doris Nolan). Seton is the youngest daughter in one of New York’s richest families, one so full of drama and dysfunction that it’s worthy of Dynasty. Hepburn plays Julia’s older sister Linda, the family’s resident free spirit and black sheep, who is instantly attracted to the witty and wide-eyed Case’s dream of trying to quit working for a few years while he’s still young and can enjoy life. When the family patriarch, Edward Seton (Henry Kolker), offers Case a cushy job at his bank following the wedding, Johnny is forced to reveal his plan of retiring young. This, of course, instantly enrages the hard-working capitalist Seton, and causes a rift between the young couple.

Holiday‘s chief strength is its fantastic comic relief. Be it Grant’s wacky acrobatics, the back and forth between he and Hepburn, or simply the colorful commentary provided by Ned (Lew Ayres), the perpetually drunk and terrifically lovable Seton brother, the movie maintains a light and humorous tone throughout. At the same time, however, it is able to balance this with the drama and romance of the foolish young lovers, and also portray familial resentment in a way that comes off surprisingly modern. In the face of all this, it’s shocking that until now Holiday has never been released on DVD.

Regardless of the aforementioned inclusion of Only Angels Have Wings, The Cary Grant Box Set does a fantastic job of presenting some of the pre-war works of this fine actor. With any luck, it’ll help to contribute to the collections of his fans, as well as create some new ones. For the fact of the matter is, Cary Grant is really just about bringing people together. He’s the great unifier. Everybody from kindly librarians to snotty zine writers can appreciate the talents of one of the most romantic and charismatic figures of Hollywood’s golden era. So, if there’s one man who deserves to have his work collected and rereleased, it’s him. Thanks Archie… we’ll keep watching.

Sony’s Cary Grant DVD box set is out now.

Reviewed by Aaron Kahn