The Criterion Collection is a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films on home video.
I'm really getting into old 40s films. Especially the comedies. What's everyones favorite Cary Grant films?
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The Awful Truth
I adore this movie
Arsenic and Old Lace
North By Northwest
Dayndruff.
Comedy: Holiday
Drama: Only Angels Have Wings
Bringing up Baby (1938) and Notorious (1946).
Bringing Up Baby
Came here to say this
Second this
Definitely this.
Definitely this for me. I respect and admire him as an actor but for me I feel like many of his roles have him playing characters with varying degrees of smugness that grate on me slightly after a while. He does it very well but his character in Bringing Up Baby is so different from those which I found to be an absolute joy. His timing is impeccable as always in it. Great film.
I'm always torn between His Girl Friday and Charade
This is the homie, right here.
Is there a Mrs. Sevenblisters?
His Girl Friday
This is the right answer ^
So exhausting in a bad way. Hawks needed a tranquilizer or something.
I can’t imagine how anyone whose first language isn’t English would keep up with it, or for that matter how it was subtitled to even make it halfway comprehensible.
Lol my first language isn’t English and I had some trouble with it even though my English is quite good.
It was paced so exhaustingly fast and that combined with it not being very funny made me lose interest about halfway through and I was just waiting for it to be over. I've yet to see a great Hawks film honestly.
Charade for me. Humor holds up so well
I love the scene where they're passing an orange around with just their necks. I had never seen anything like that and thought it was hilarious.
Arsenic and old lace and notorious
The Philadelphia Story
North by Northwest.
His Girl Friday and Philadelphia Story are my two favorites. A lot of people also like Bringing Up Baby.
North by Northwest
I think Suspicion is really underrated and Grant is incredibly good in it, twisting his usual charming persona into something sinister
Suspicion is a really great example of what makes Cary Grant's persona still so unique. Not simply that hw was an A-level star who could pull off comedy & drama but he could be so convincingly sinister & charming at the same time.
A brilliant movie except for the jarring studio enforced cop-out ending . . .
Yeah, the ending is a bummer, but the rest is so good it almost doesn’t matter. Hitchcock really has fun exposing Grant’s dark side in this one (and Notorious too)
My Favorite Wife
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
The Awful Truth
Charade is magnificent. The movie is paced really well, the leads (Cary and Audrey Hepburn) have so much chemistry, the secondary characters are really well played, and the visuals are stunning
I thought Charade was okay, but Cary seemed a bit tired, and their chemistry together didn't seem as smooth as it could be.
Notorious (which is also the best black and white Hitchcock)
Rebecca has entered the ring
The Lady Vanishes has entered the chat
Strangers on a Train COMING IN HOT WITH THE TENNIS RACKET
But for real it’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. Incredible film, and so much better than the remake he did it’s ridiculous.
Great film, I agree, that’s definitely a contender for me. Shadow of a Doubt didn’t really hit for me (good not great) but I know many many people would say that as well.
Lots of other options being thrown out in the replies but I'm here to tell you you are 100% correct.
Shadow of a Doubt comin down the ramp to suplex you
I mean, Psycho makes a prrrrrrretty strong argument
:glass shatters: The Wrong Man! The Wrong Man! The Rattlesnake is here!
Spellbound has entered the chat (tbh it’s only good cause the leads are hot)
Lmaooo I love these wrestling references
Arsenic and Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby and The Awful Truth. To be fair almost all the Grant Comedies in the collection are absolute masterpieces.
A couple of Howard Hawks masterpieces:
Only Angels Have Wings is a wonderful romantic adventure drama in an exotic locale that inhabits the same genre as Casablanca.
And Bringing Up Baby is the top of the screwball game with the classic pairing of Grant and Katherine Hepburn.
Also, it took me way too long to catch up with The Awful Truth, so goofy and adult at the same time. Holiday offers more of the Hepburn-Grant magic. And don't sleep on Gunga Din, a real rollicking adventure comedy. It may have outdated depictions, but it's a high point of its genre.
Seconding Holiday! My favorite Grant film. He is so cute and goofy in it.
"Don't anybody move."
*Katharine
North by Northwest. Exceptional movie, also my favourite Hitchcock film.
I can’t believe nobody else here is a fan of Monkey Business?! I know it’s heretical to say so but I find if funnier than Bringing Up Baby
North By Northwest and Arsenic & Old Lace
Cary Grant is one of my favourite actors back in the day! I like Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn as well as The Philadelphia Story — both were wonderful in it. Also, Hitchcock films such as North By Northwest, To Catch a Thief, and Notorious. Also, Charade is quite fun. I also enjoyed The Awful Truth and Arsenic and Old Lace. Also, Indiscreet and An Affair To Remember are wonderful too.
Everyone has covered the classics, but I’ll add some lighthearted ones I love: Indiscreet and Grass is Greener.
They are all great but I think my favorite is Only Angels Have Wings and you also get Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth. #806
Bringing Up Baby has the best set pieces and gags but I might give Philadelphia Story the edge on it these days.
And, Holiday is so wonderful.
Arsenic and old lace
The funniest black and white film ever imo
Charade and His Girl Friday
Notorious, North by Northwest, Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth. Only the last two are comedies.
Notirious
Talk of The Town
Holiday
The Talk of the Town is best!! Such a fun movie to sit through.
The Talk of the Town! (I’m biased)
You were great in that movie.
If I might stray from the 1940s, my favorite Cary Grant film is Father Goose (1964). It's his penultimate role and a hell of a great romantic comedy and one I never tire of watching. This is not suave Cary Grant but instead crusty, cantakerous and scruffy Cary Grant. I love this version of one of my favorite actors.
Is it his best film? I don't think so. That would probably be North by Northwest (which I also love). But my dad absolutely loved this film and I loved watching it with him. So it will always be my favorite.
Arsenic and Old Lace is probably my favorite but I love Father Goose. It was always playing when I was getting ready for church so it reminds me of Sunday mornings.
Comedies:The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, My Favorite Wife
Hitchcock: Notorious, North by Northwest
Other films: Gunga Din, In Name Only, Only Angels Have Wings
But if you can only pick two: Bringing Up Baby and North by Northwest
Just came here to show Father Goose and Operation: Petticoat some love
CHARADE is incredibly underrated, and HIS GIRL FRIDAY is a masterwork of dialogue
Arsenic and Old Lace or His Girl Friday.
North by Northwest
It isn't from the 40's but Charade is my fav Grant film.
I really like Suspicion by Hitchcock and the Grass is Greener with Robert Mitchum is super underrated.
His Girl Friday & Notorious with Bringing Up Baby a very close runner-up.
Sentimental favorite: Charade (I get it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love it) . . .
1940 was a great year for him - His Girl Friday, My Favorite Wife and The Philadelphia Story. These are all good comedies.
I like his comedies in the late 40s with Myrna Loy - The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer and Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House.
Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic and mixes styles and genres.
Most of his other comedies during this period are decent but not super memorable. I am just not a fan of I was a male war bride although that is a better known comedy. Every girl should be married is with his wife/future wife so that is always interesting.
If you move to thrillers then he has Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Notorious.
Notorious
Charade.
His Girl Friday or Charade. But I love all the ones I’ve seen
People Will Talk. Criminally underrated.
Too many but here's my list off the top of my head.
His Girl Friday
Bringing Up Baby
North by Northwest (though 50s)
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Awful Truth
Notorious
I really enjoy Cary Grant's work as an actor.
Top 5
An Affair to Remember
The Bishop’s Wife
The Awful Truth
The Philadelphia Story
My Favorite Wife
Arsenic, Notorious and Suspicion
Charade, North by Northwest, the Philadelphia Story, Notorious
Have you seen “talk of the town”?
Charade, but also To Catch a Thief
Cary Grant is fantastic in anything, he's especially funny in Arsenic and Old Lace
North By Northwest
Cary Grant is one of my favorites and Arsenic and Old Lace is my favorite comedy
My favorite is probably North by Northwest.
Favorite of the comedies of his is His Girl Friday.
In the collection:
comedy: The Philadelphia Story
non-comedy: Notorious
Out of the collection:
comedy: My Favorite Wife
non-comedy: The Eagle and the Hawk
North by Northwest is one of my most watched films by far.
I also love Grant in Charade, Suspicion and The Philadelphia Story.
There was recently a biographical series about him, starring Jason Isaacs. It's not a bad show and Isaacs is superb in the role.
None But The Lonely Heart. It's one of the few roles where Cary Grant gets to use a British accent and plays a sinister bad guy. Written and directed by Clifford Odets, it has a stellar cast. Also starring Ethel Barrymore, and Barry Fitzgerald.
Great, pick! He got nominated for an Oscar for this and it was apparently his favorite role too
Notorious, Holiday, Arsenic & Old Lace, Philadelphia Story. In that order.
"North by Northwest" by a considerable margin, and it's my favorite Hitchcock. It plays to the strengths of Grant so well, as if the movie was designed very specifically for him.
North by Northwest is my favorite Cary Grant film, but I have a soft spot for Father Goose among his comedic performances and want to flag it as it is not often mentioned.
Bringing Up Baby with Arsenic & Old Lace in a close second
Charade, North by Northwest
Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
Comedies: Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby, Holiday
Also great: Only Angels Have Wings, Notorious, North by Northwest
Didn't totally land for me but worth checking out: The Awful Truth, Charade, To Catch a Thief
Arsenic and Old Lace is underrated!
North by Northwest is the only film he's in that I've given a 5/5 so I'd go with that.
Bringing Up Baby followed by Only Angels Have Wings and then Notorious and North by Northwest
My Favorite Wife
Notorious.
No, The Philadelphia Story.
No, My Favorite Wife.
Wait… definitely The Awful Truth
No, I got it, unquestionably Arsenic and Old Lace.
Or Mr Blqndings Builds His Dream House…
Stop asking such hard questions!
(And it’s really His Girl Friday)