... well, not really, and Grant never turns in a cartoonish performance, but still this guy is a layabout with a chip on his shoulder and yet the women are crazy about him.
In NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART, you can definitely hear the Common Man expounding upon the human condition in a way that the Coens foud ripe for satire. Cary Grant delivers some speeches in this film. Though this was one of only two films for which Grant ever got an Oscar nomination (they were both, ironically, for heavy dramas - Grant criminally never got nominated for the light comedy at which he was so masterful), I found him to be a bit of an odd fit in this film. IMDB says he considered himself to be way too old for the part. I'm not sure how old the character was in the original novel. There is a line of dialogue in the film where Grant says he's pushing 35 to establish the character as somewhere close to his real age of 40 at the time. But 35 seems quite old to be filled with wanderlust and an aversion to responsibility and domesticity, especially in those days, when 35 was already middle aged.
I went into it having no idea where the story was going. I found it very slow moving at first (okay, he's established he's leaving town, but like Hamlet, he just keeps hanging around, not really doing anything but giving a lot of speeches). Then in the second half, it gets very noirish. I wasn't expecting that at all. June Duprez was new to me. She delivers one unforgettable line of dialogue when Grant asks her what the weather's supposed to be like on the day he intends to marry her: "A chance of rain, followed by suicide in bed". Oh my God, that's dark! I also liked the other potential love interest played by the lovely Jane Wyatt, whom I would like to learn more about. Her pining for Grant is presented in a refreshingly low-key, dignified sort of way. And star of the night Ethel Barrymore is terrific, of course. The genuine but largely sentiment-free love she and Grant have for one another is also a refreshing change from the more maudlin sort of mother-son thing we see in, oh I don't know, say Jimmy Stewart movies for example.
Glad I finally saw it. It has more to recommend than not, but I still can't figure out why a woman would want to marry a man who amounts to Andy Capp
In NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART, you can definitely hear the Common Man expounding upon the human condition in a way that the Coens foud ripe for satire. Cary Grant delivers some speeches in this film. Though this was one of only two films for which Grant ever got an Oscar nomination (they were both, ironically, for heavy dramas - Grant criminally never got nominated for the light comedy at which he was so masterful), I found him to be a bit of an odd fit in this film. IMDB says he considered himself to be way too old for the part. I'm not sure how old the character was in the original novel. There is a line of dialogue in the film where Grant says he's pushing 35 to establish the character as somewhere close to his real age of 40 at the time. But 35 seems quite old to be filled with wanderlust and an aversion to responsibility and domesticity, especially in those days, when 35 was already middle aged.
I went into it having no idea where the story was going. I found it very slow moving at first (okay, he's established he's leaving town, but like Hamlet, he just keeps hanging around, not really doing anything but giving a lot of speeches). Then in the second half, it gets very noirish. I wasn't expecting that at all. June Duprez was new to me. She delivers one unforgettable line of dialogue when Grant asks her what the weather's supposed to be like on the day he intends to marry her: "A chance of rain, followed by suicide in bed". Oh my God, that's dark! I also liked the other potential love interest played by the lovely Jane Wyatt, whom I would like to learn more about. Her pining for Grant is presented in a refreshingly low-key, dignified sort of way. And star of the night Ethel Barrymore is terrific, of course. The genuine but largely sentiment-free love she and Grant have for one another is also a refreshing change from the more maudlin sort of mother-son thing we see in, oh I don't know, say Jimmy Stewart movies for example.
Glad I finally saw it. It has more to recommend than not, but I still can't figure out why a woman would want to marry a man who amounts to Andy Capp