Our film this week is an unusual love story -- part romance, part whodunit, part screwball comedy, and also a gentle but serious meditation on the law.
We love this movie! And I agree with Amy above, my first introduction to Cary Grant was the debonair lady’s man version. But I have learned to appreciate his comic genius, and much prefer those roles. My son loves to imitate him, especially some of his hilarious lines in His Girl Friday—indignantly-“We’re you (pointing) talking to me (points to his chest)?” An hilarious scene!! (And Jean Arthur is also great! We loved the combination of comedy, romance, and serious philosophical discussion in this movie. Great choice for this week’s word!
It is "validating" to read again that you praise Cary Grant as a great comedian. It is only recently that I came to that conclusion, and I doubted my conclusion! Hence my need for "validation" from Word & Song! One might smile, but it's kind of true.
Cary Grant had been mostly the suave, debonair lady's man in my experience. The first time I saw him as a great actor was in the first 20 minutes or so of "His Gal Friday" after which I was hooked. He would raise an eyebrow and I'd find it hilarious. He'd deliver a bunch of clever one-liners and then fall suddenly silent, and I'd think, "he's sad, this is serious."
Thanks for mentioning this movie, Talk of the Town, which I will eagerly re-watch.
Yes, everybody thought of Cary Grant as the man with the funny accent and speech, and whatever he did, which he made look easy, they assumed was not real acting. But he is America's most versatile and brilliant comic actor -- think of the sheer madness he is surrounded with in Arsenic and Old Lace, and ask, "Which actor of that generation or any generation would be more fun to put in that quaint old house of horrors?"
Speaking of Ford, great Jean Arthur double bill with this one, a very similar title so I always confuse them, is The Whole Town’s Talking - with Edward G Robinson having a blast in a double role as a very mild mannered clerk mistaken for a tough talking killer.
Hmmmm---I don't know how I missed this one as I'm a big Cary Grant fan (The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic & Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby especially...............a favorite comic scene is when he first encounters Baby and lets out a hilarious scream.
One of the wonderful things about such screwball comedies is how clearly they point out the sheer laziness of all the so-called comedies which rely on profanity, or blatant sex and so on--leaving aside any moral considerations, these things simply evince an incapacity for genuine comedy.
My go-to example of what I mean is an old Bill Cosby routine about his wife giving birth to their first child...these days, the line would simply be "my wife said, 'you ba****d'"..........Cosby, however says, "my wife stood up in the stirrups and told everyone in that delivery room that my parents were never married"...brilliant.
Though I've read Twains' short stories and Dickens' Pickwick Papers many times, and know what is coming throughout---the comdey still makes me laugh out loud because it's not crass or sophomoric, but witty & clever with an underlying innocence........."You think a cat can swear. Well, a cat can; but you give a bluejay a subject that calls for his reserve powers, and where is your cat!"
That's right. Obscenity and vulgarity are cheap and easy. Intelligence and surprise are not -- not to mention the goodness of heart that motivates the very greatest of comedians, hiding behind personas that are laughably ridiculous or even "bad" in some pretended way: Don Rickles, Jonathan Winters, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason ...
We love this movie! And I agree with Amy above, my first introduction to Cary Grant was the debonair lady’s man version. But I have learned to appreciate his comic genius, and much prefer those roles. My son loves to imitate him, especially some of his hilarious lines in His Girl Friday—indignantly-“We’re you (pointing) talking to me (points to his chest)?” An hilarious scene!! (And Jean Arthur is also great! We loved the combination of comedy, romance, and serious philosophical discussion in this movie. Great choice for this week’s word!
It is "validating" to read again that you praise Cary Grant as a great comedian. It is only recently that I came to that conclusion, and I doubted my conclusion! Hence my need for "validation" from Word & Song! One might smile, but it's kind of true.
Cary Grant had been mostly the suave, debonair lady's man in my experience. The first time I saw him as a great actor was in the first 20 minutes or so of "His Gal Friday" after which I was hooked. He would raise an eyebrow and I'd find it hilarious. He'd deliver a bunch of clever one-liners and then fall suddenly silent, and I'd think, "he's sad, this is serious."
Thanks for mentioning this movie, Talk of the Town, which I will eagerly re-watch.
Yes, everybody thought of Cary Grant as the man with the funny accent and speech, and whatever he did, which he made look easy, they assumed was not real acting. But he is America's most versatile and brilliant comic actor -- think of the sheer madness he is surrounded with in Arsenic and Old Lace, and ask, "Which actor of that generation or any generation would be more fun to put in that quaint old house of horrors?"
Correction--film title is His Girl Friday. Sorry.
Speaking of Ford, great Jean Arthur double bill with this one, a very similar title so I always confuse them, is The Whole Town’s Talking - with Edward G Robinson having a blast in a double role as a very mild mannered clerk mistaken for a tough talking killer.
Hmmmm---I don't know how I missed this one as I'm a big Cary Grant fan (The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic & Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby especially...............a favorite comic scene is when he first encounters Baby and lets out a hilarious scream.
One of the wonderful things about such screwball comedies is how clearly they point out the sheer laziness of all the so-called comedies which rely on profanity, or blatant sex and so on--leaving aside any moral considerations, these things simply evince an incapacity for genuine comedy.
My go-to example of what I mean is an old Bill Cosby routine about his wife giving birth to their first child...these days, the line would simply be "my wife said, 'you ba****d'"..........Cosby, however says, "my wife stood up in the stirrups and told everyone in that delivery room that my parents were never married"...brilliant.
Though I've read Twains' short stories and Dickens' Pickwick Papers many times, and know what is coming throughout---the comdey still makes me laugh out loud because it's not crass or sophomoric, but witty & clever with an underlying innocence........."You think a cat can swear. Well, a cat can; but you give a bluejay a subject that calls for his reserve powers, and where is your cat!"
That's right. Obscenity and vulgarity are cheap and easy. Intelligence and surprise are not -- not to mention the goodness of heart that motivates the very greatest of comedians, hiding behind personas that are laughably ridiculous or even "bad" in some pretended way: Don Rickles, Jonathan Winters, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason ...