Cary Grant and Comedy

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, they were both left handed too, the kind of info only a left hander remembers. There are glaring similarities, their upbringing, their mother's health, running away to join a troup. Who can estimate how much the loss of his mother at an early age, being told she was dead only to find her years later. I read an interesting account by Virginia Cherrill who was his wife at a time to know that it had health implications for him. How do you square it for the rest of your life, that your father was so self centred that he made up that deception? My heart ached for Cary when I first found out about that.

Both of these men with their troubled childhoods became veryadept comedians.

[RedRiver]

I think Steve Martin wrote a book called COMEDY IS NOT PRETTY. The line between funny and sad is a fine one.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've got Dear Cary My Life with Cary Grant by Dyan Cannon out from the library, unfortunately they don't cary Jennifer's book which is the one I really wanted to read. I'm not kidding though, this is just about her life with Cary Grant, I'm up to the part where they're about to get wed, more than half way through, at the moment he's a real good guy in my eyes but I know things are going to take a turn once they get married. Of course I really shouldn't read this kind of book but after the paper serialised this book using the worse material I just had to read it. Watch this space, I somehow don't think I'll turn into a Cary hater.

[JackFavell]

I usually get a far worse view of the author when I read these books than the actor.

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, this may the case here, although so far she's come off OK but her relationship hasn't gone off track yet. I only know her from Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice and from things that she's said about Cary before, I think all his other wives and girlfriends had maintained a dignified silence about him which makes me wonder why I want to read this book. I do love romances and so far it is a romance, I'm a bit surprised because I picked this up just wanting to read the bits about Cary, thinking it would be a bio but the whole book is about him.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Once Upon A Time yesterday, I don't know if anyone else knows it but I started it's own thread here

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5589&p=98093#p98093

I was so enchanted by it and it has to be another of my favourite Cary Grant roles so far.

[charliechaplinfan]

I finished reading Dear Cary by Dyan Cannon, I read it only because I was curious and was under no illusion that she would have forgiven but I've read some of the stuff she said about him in the past and I enjoyed the great majority of this book.

Cary had seen Dyan on the TV but he took time convincing and then courting her, there was no pressure for a sexual relationship and they dated for a couple of years before marrying. Cary of course didn't want to marry again, he felt he pushed all his wives away from him and reading what Dyan says about Cary's mother and how she was with him, she wasn't the mother of his youth, she had spent twenty years in an awful mental institution that had torn her spirit away. The visits as Dyan tell's them were absolute torture for him and the removal of his mother from his childhood was something he could never square with himself, he felt a great guilt for deserting her, even though it was hardly his fault. After I read this I could forgive him all of his behaviour towards Dyan, which is told only from one side, he married her because she insisted on it, he was torn but didn't want to lose her, he was captivated by Jennifer. Once married though their relationship fell apart, Cary didn't like going out and didn't like the way Dyan dressed, which with an age gap of 33 years it's not surprising. He was convinced that LSD held the answers to inner harmony and of course had doctors who validated this for hm. There's not doubt that it helped him and I think Betsy Drake had also indulged, he believed in it and felt it held the answers for him and Dyan but she could not tolerate it. That's about as bad as it gets, apart from the breakdown she had caused by LSD and then the alcohol and marijuna she took after her and Cary split. She doesn't come across as a fit mother for the young Jennifer and if anything she comes off far worse from her own words than Cary.

I'd love to read Jennifer's book. She sure was the most absolute love of his life.

[charliechaplinfan]

I mentioned some of this on the Once Upon a Time thread but it seems to me it's just as relevant here as it's based on my observations after watching three Cary Grant movies in a row. There's no better tonic for ailments.

Watching Once Upon A Time so soon after Mr Lucky then today I watched Crisis has made me realise even more just how good an actor Cary Grant was, both in serious roles like Crisis when he can carry an authorative role but especially in comedy, no one uses their body quite like him to express themselves, his acting is so much more than the words and how he says them, it's the other things that he does that convey the character, the use of his hands always doing some other piece of business or his whole body reacting to circumstance, no one does it quite like Cary, it's this that makes it seem like he's almost playing rather than acting. Perhaps some people thought he didn't take it seriously and hence the lack of an Oscar for his performances. For me his lack of an Oscar for one of his roles is one of life's great travesties.

[RedRiver]

I've never done acid, and don't plan to. But I seriously doubt that it's good for the mental health. We all know pot enhances creativity. "It was a dark and stormy...Dude, do we have any brownies?"

[CineMaven]

I'm sorry...did someone mention brownies?

[charliechaplinfan]

It's one of the things he's famous for is the LSD and he wasn't alone, I think it shows how much he needed to soul search or find contentment, I think he found it that way but I bet the 995 of other people had a really bad time. It's sounds so kooky today and not a remedy I'd ever take to find peace of mind.