Kainat just discovered Cary Grant, which makes me So Happy. He is such a delightful screen presence, light and smart and entertaining, more people should enjoy him!
Let’s see, cool things about Cary Grant?
Despite his smooth onscreen persona, had a really horrible childhood (father an alcoholic, mother hidden away in an insane asylum and he was told she was dead), and he escaped from it into hard work at the local theater, eventually running away with a vaudeville troupe.
He lost his remaining family in WWII when a bomb hit his childhood home and killed his aunt, his uncle, his cousin, his cousin’s husband, and their children.
He trained as an acrobat and a clown, which is why he is so good at elegant physical comedy
He started out playing the sexy awkward straight man in Mae West’s comedies
![She Done Him Wrong | film by Sherman [1933] | Britannica](https://cdn.britannica.com/94/175394-050-C408FE31/Cary-Grant-Mae-West-She-Done-Him.jpg)
Speaking of “straight man”, once his Hollywood career began for real, he happily and openly lived with fellow movie star Randolph Scott for 12 years in a shared household. He denied the identity of “gay” until his death and had many happy relationships with women as well.
Grant mixed interesting dramatic roles with light comedy through out his career, gaining success in both arenas, and never seeming to place one as more important than the other.
Grant knew when he wanted to leave. At age 66, he had his first child and retired from acting forever. He didn’t want to play the boring fatherly roles on offer, and he thought being a father in real life was the most important thing he could do.
Grant remained close friends with his co-stars even after retirement, especially Grace Kelly, visiting them regularly and serving on philanthropic boards with them, he just had no more interest in acting himself.
While retiring from film, Grant remained very active in business, sitting on the board of the Fabarge company, the MGM Hotel, and Western Airlines. Grant’s business dealings went all the way back to his early years in film, by the late 30s shrewd investments had already made him a millionaire with no need to work.
Grant lived to be 82, outliving most of his friends and co-stars while regularly attending their funerals. He finally died in Davenport, Iowa when he suffered a stroke while preparing for a public appearance.
Okay, after reading all of that, he’s very Shahrukh-y isn’t he? Difficult childhood, escaped into the stage and the audience, live performance physical training which comes through in his film roles, brilliant business mind, good friend, and dedicated father.
With that in mind, TWO QUESTIONS!
What is your favorite Cary Grant movie?
Oh, this is HARD! But I think I will go with His Girl Friday. Fast talking, naughty, fun, excellent!
What Cary Grant movie do you most want Shahrukh to remake?
Oh man, almost ANYTHING!!!! But I suppose with the age SRK is now, Walk Don’t Run. the smooth older man who helps the young people (played by Ranveer and Dips) get together.
dontcallitbollywood 
My favourite Cary Grant movie…either The Philadelphia Story (though that is Katherine’s movie all the way), Charade or An Affair to Remember. It’s so hard to choose.
But The Philadelphia Story might just be a good SRK movie. Quick, witty dialogue, and a good strong story.
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Charade is SO FUN!!!!
Okay, if it’s Philadelphia Story, who plays the other 2 leads? Who can do Katherine Hepburn? I’m thinking MAYBE Anushka or Dips or Rani, but none of them feel absolutely perfect.
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Here are my ideas:
Katherine Hepburn = Swara Bhaskar
James Stewart = Abhishek Banerjee
Ruth Hussey = Shraddha Kapoor
John Howard = Shahid Kapoor
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Or an alternative for the Jimmy Stweart role, the always good everyman, Rajkummar Rao.
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HA! John Howard as Shahid makes me giggle! Except Shahid might have too much charisma, unless we write in a subplot where John Howard gets a different girl. Maybe an epilogue where we see the kid sister all grown up meeting him again? Oh OH! It could be a cameo from his REAL LIFE WIFE!!!!
On Sun, May 30, 2021 at 11:10 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Absolutely Philadelphia Story.
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For both questions?
And, as I just asked Kirre, in that case who would you cast as his Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart?
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Yes, Philadelphia Story is my favorite (one of the few movies I own) and I would love to see SRK in the lead role. It would still work if you aged everyone to match. After all, it’s a second marriage! As for the Katherine role, it has to be someone who can do both feisty and aristocratic. Maybe Kareena Kapoor Khan? And Jimmy has to be credible as someone who might have an almost fling with Katherine. (And vice versa) also able to do a creíble drunk. I wish Jackie Schroff was the right age.
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Oh man, Jackie Shroff would be just right! What about Rajkummar? He would feel younger than KAreena, but that could be a good thing.
On Mon, May 31, 2021 at 7:43 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes Kareena is a good fit! And while she may not be liked here, my top choice is Aishwarya – haughty, prickly, ice-princess is one of her defining characteristics to me (in a good way!). She is very effective when directed right. Works well with SRK (that sequence from ADHM will fit right into this), and cast Ranveer as Jimmy, they’ll match well too.
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Aishwarya would be perfect for all the reasons you mentioned! Aishwarya needs a good director who doesn’t get so mesmerized by her looks that he forgets to actually direct (which IMO happens a lot with her!)
Kareena would obviously be great too.
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Sippy to direct? Reunite him with his Kuch Na Kaho heroine?
On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 3:04 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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YES!!!!! I would LOVE that!
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He definitely knows how to wrangle her! Aish gave one of her best performances in KNK
On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 3:22 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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100% in agreement. You know I ADORE that movie. The day it comes out with English subtitles, I will let you know so that everyone in the DCIB community can see the movie!
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Appreciate this! Thanks for the recommendations in the other post, it seems I’ll be having a movie-marathon now. I’ve started His Girl Friday, and it’s FAST! Even the closed captions are missing some lines (could be a glitch in Prime).
Right now, I’m firmly set on SRK-Juhi in Bringing Up Baby. I’ll have to come back to Philadelphia Story later as I didn’t much like it as of now.
Question – It seems he played the romantic leading man till his 50s, opposite much younger women? Is it like the Khans now, where he’s supposed to be younger than his actual age or are they May-December situations? I don’t know how I feel about either, but I should probably see his younger stuff first to appreciate the older roles.
P.S. – How is it that Aamir has done at least two Cary Grant roles while SRK has none!
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Oh oh! SRK HAS done a Cary Grant role! Sort of! In the Chopra book on him, she talks about how Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani was loosely inspired by His Girl Friday. Amoral reporters who find morality, fast talking romance of equals.
Yes, Cary Grant played the leading man straight through his career. He played his own age and it was usually acknowledged in the script. It’s surprisingly simple to write realistic roles for 50-something men if you just relax and do it. He plays the commander of a submarine, a divorced father of 3, a businessman who never married preferring to just have girlfriends, and so on. His last movie, Walk Don’t Run, he plays a long married man mentoring a nice young couple. And then he retired, seeing that he was too old to play anything besides fathers and good father roles are few and far between.
Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, loads of other golden age stars played romantic leads well into their 50s. Of course, they had heroines who were their equals. Mature successful women with powers of their own, or occasionally sassy modern young women who snuck between their defenses. Very different to have Cary Grant as a grumpy lonely boat captain falling in love with spunky French school teacher Leslie Caron who wrecks up on his island with a boatload of teenage girls, than to have Salman Khan with shallow sexy Disha’s character in Radhe.
On Sun, May 30, 2021 at 12:37 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I can’t believe I missed this post! Cary Grant movies are SO fun! Here are some of my favorites besides the ones that others have already mentioned, like Charade and The Philadelphia Story.
1. To Catch a Thief: I love this movie! Cary Grant is a retired cat burglar. He is trying to find the new cat burglar that is impersonating him. His main suspect is Grace Kelly. Obviously, they have instant chemistry. It’s great. I highly recommend it.
2. Thirty Day Princess: A little bit like Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. A commoner is hired to pretend to be a princess, because the actual princess becomes sick. The commoner has to convince Cary Grant to support a loan for the actual princess’ country. They fall in love.
3. A Touch of Mink: Doris Day (one of my absolutely favorite actresses!) is a small town, single girl without a job. She meets roughish millionaire Cary Grant who wines and dines her and flies her to exotic places. He wants romance without a commitment, she wants marriage.
Margaret – to answer your question, since everyone has already picked Philadelphia Story, I think I would want to cast Shah Rukh in Thirty Day Princess. Cynical newspaper publisher who calls in love with a pretend princess, I would watch that!
In terms of the other movies, I think I would have to cast Hrithik in To Catch Thief. Don’t you think? We know from Bang Bang and Dhoom 2 that he would make a great burglar!!! With this movie, it would be the perfect trifecta!
I don’t know who I would cast in A Touch of Mink. Thoughts? This is such a tough role because the wrong actor could easily come across as super creepy!!! I love that when this movie was released Cary Grant was 58 and Doris Day was 40. While that is a big age difference, neither were very young.
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1. Obviously this is the 3rd best Grant-Hitchcock combo, but it is still really really good! I think in Grant, Hitchcock may have found his all time best leading man. So charming we can accept all the crazy coincidences and suspense around him. And PERFECT Hrithik-Kat movie
2. I haven’t seen this! It sounds really really good. Must track down. And the pretend princess should be either Dips or Anushka.
3. You missed the best part of this movie (for me)! Doris Day decides to go ahead and be a mistress because Cary Grant is so charming and nice and all, but her small town conscience won’t let her, so she keeps breaking out in hives and similar therefore delaying their first night together. I fall in love with Grant because he is so disappointed but sweet about all her strange bodily issues. Obviously it has to be a super SUPER charming older man so we can see why the heroine would agree with no real pressure put on her. I say Rani for the heroine, strong moral code although also independent woman living alone in the city for years. And the hero maybe has to be Shahrukh? Unless we convince Aamir to pull out that old Dil Chahta Hai/Mann/Lagaan fiendish charm streak.
On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 3:00 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Doris Day’s bodily reactions to having sex before marriage is hilarious! Just thinking about it is making me laugh! And Grant’s reaction is very endearing. I like the thought of Rani because the heroine has to be someone with excellent comic timing and show vulnerability while still being strong and independent. Another hard role. Oh, another option could be Juhi.
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So I realized you didn’t recommend any of his Hitchcock movies, how do you feel about them? Because I just watched Notorious, and have so many feelings, but I’ll just say this – it might be one of the sexiest movies I’ve ever seen! *fans self*
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There is SO MUCH GOOD!!! It was just too much to remember. I was thinking of Bringing Up Baby, so I hit the rom-coms. And even so I forgot Holiday, which you should definitely watch for more Hepburn-Grant goodness.
Notorious is a definite “fans self” movie. Famous legend that Hitchcock got around the code rules on how long a kiss could be by having Grant and Bergman do multiple small short kisses as they walked through the apartment. If I am ranking Grant’s Hitchcock movies, I would go North By Northwest, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, Suspicion. But really, they are all good!
On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 3:20 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was just typing that I am sure Margaret has LOTS of thought on Grant and Hitchcock, when I saw her comment. I just mentioned To Catch a Thief in one of my recommendations. You are right. Notorious is so so sexy!!! I second watching North by Northwest also. I am so so on Suspicion.
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Yeah, what Ive heard about Suspicion is that Hitchcock hadn’t decided how it would end until the last minute. Which must have made it soooooo hard for Grant to know how to play his character.
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That makes sense to me! It has a bit of an Aamne Saamne feel to it where we knew they would never make Shashi out to be a bad guy but at times his dialogue and acting was a bit confusing.
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So sexy! Grant and Bergman are so good, their chemistry is off the charts!
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Oh! You need to watch Indiscreet! I think it’s their only other movie together
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I figured! I watched Holiday and Awful Truth and enjoyed them both.
Yeah and that made the kiss much more effective IMO. I mean their desire for each other jump out of the screen whenever they are together throughout the whole movie! Combined with all the sexual politics, I’m shocked how this got past the Code. Not that I fully understand what the Code regulated.
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The code was stupid! It was two parts. One part was a series of set rules everyone knew, like kisses could only be a certain length and stuff. And the other part was more of a judgement by the Hayes office as to what they would and wouldn’t allow. In Notorious, they manage to convey without details that Ingrid Bergman was sexually active, and had slept with Claude Rains and Cary Grant, without anything explicit.
On Tue, Jun 1, 2021 at 5:36 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s funny that the morally messy theme of a woman having to use her body to spy on behalf of a country is okay to show, but you can’t kiss longer than 3 seconds! And in my first viewing, I couldn’t figure why all the men kept slut-shaming her, then I understood that we just have to take their word for it that she was a ‘loose’ woman. Though on the positive side, in the case of this film, having these restrictions meant almost every interaction was charged with underlying meaning or innuendo or barb, and really heightened the movie. My favorite moments were some of the throwaway bits. In the beginning when Cary asks Ingrid whether she needs a coat and she says ‘You’ll do’ – so forward and suggestive! Or on the plane to Rio, she leans across him to look out the window, he glances and then just stares at her – it’s only a couple of seconds but it captivated me.
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