Cary Grant in Walk Don't Run (1966)

In this mod remake of the 1943 classic The More the Merrier with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn we meet Sir William Rutland (Grant), a business man in Tokyo at the time of the summer olympics. He's arrived two days early and is confronted with the housing shortage and no place to stay. On the board at the British embassy he sees a notice for an apartment to share which brings him to the small home of Christine Easton (Samantha Eggar) who, preferring a female roommate, reluctantly agrees to let him the room. He, in turn, lets half of his half to Steve Davis (Jim Hutton) who is there to compete in the olympics. This, of course, is less than acceptable to Christine, however she has spent Rutland's rent money, so is in no position to put them out.

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This film is notable as Grant's last. He was going through something of a career crisis, feeling uncomfortable playing romantic leads to much younger women. This film gave him the chance to step out of that role. It wasn't a remarkably successful film and Grant never made another one, choosing to rely on his real estate investments instead.

This film is available on DVD and can be watched online at Netflix It has very little presence in online video other than that, however. All I could find, aside from a scene dubbed in Spanish with ear-searingly high volume, was this delightful piece from the Quincy Jones soundtrack, uploaded by mod13jazz.

Obscurity factor: 7 (on DVD & Netflix, known as Grant's last film, not well known otherwise)

Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum & Jean Simmons in The Grass is Greener (1960)

Yesterday's film (Dream Wife, 1953) paired Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr and reminded me of this one, which also featured the pair. The Earl of Rhyall (Grant) and his wife the Countess (Kerr) are having trouble keeping up the family estate, so they begin offering tours of it for a fee. Charles Delacro (Mitchum) an American millionaire is one who takes the tour and finds more than just history in the house when he becomes smitten with the Countess. The Earl, in danger of losing his wife, invites Delacro down to the estate to stay with them, and also invites Hattie Durant (Simmons), a quirky American heiress of their acquaintance to join them in hopes of making his wife jealous. It's all very civilized, even when it comes to pistols at dawn.

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This film was based on a successful play by Hugo Williams and Margaret Vyner and fared well in England but bombed in the US. It's got a certain sophisticated charm to it and farcical elements that are fun to watch.

It's available on DVD and can be occasionally seen on TV. It's also available to watch in full on YouTube. The scene above, uploaded by oakjackson is a brilliant piece of choreography and kind of sums up the circumstance.

Obscurity factor: 4 (available on DVD, in the public consciousness because of occasional TV screenings)

Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr in Dream Wife (1953)

Obscurity factor: 6

TCM has programmed a series of films this month on the portrayal of people from the nations of the middle-east, and last night they featured this film. It's certainly interesting in its skewed portrayal of middle-eastern royalty, but that's not what I found fascinating about it. Unlike many films of its kind it features a very strong career woman, Pricilla Effington (Kerr) who works for the state department. She's in a relationship with ad man Clem Reade (Grant) who objects to her career taking her away from her future duties as a wife. After a big blow-up they break off their engagement and, on the rebound, Clem proposes marriage to Tarji, a beautiful young middle-eastern princess of his acquaintance who "has been trained with 5000 years of tradition" to serve her man's every whim.

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Of course the expected culture clash ensues, but what's remarkable about the film is how Kerr's character fares by comparison. In other films of the era she would have "discovered" that sublimating her own desires and ambitions to her husband's wishes was the most fulfilling path she could pursue. Not so in this film. Effie's skills as a diplomat actually save the day and she triumphs at the end, not having to compromise that part of herself for a relationship. It's not a brilliant film (the reception of it convinced  Cary Grant to retire from films for two years), but it is uncharacteristic of the era and a nice foreshadowing of the woman's movement to come. Look for Walter Pidgeon as an official that works with Kerr at the State Department.

This film is available on DVD, and though obscure has been screened on TV, thanks to TCM. The trailer for it is above, uploaded to YouTube by skipjacktuner.

Obscurity factor: 6 (not well known, available on DVD)

Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman in Indiscreet (1958)

Obscurity factor: 4

My friend Russell reminded me of this film last night. It's charming, and one of the lesser known comedies of both stars. When actress Anna Kalman (Bergman) meets economist Phillip Adams (Grant) it's love at first sight. They begin a whirlwind romance and everything is rosy until an awful truth is revealed - Phillip is a bachelor. In order to protect himself from matrimonially minded females, he has concocted a fictitious wife from whom he is estranged, but cannot be divorced. Anna cannot bear the thought of having been deceived, so she plots her revenge!

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This charming film has elements of both a romance and a screw-ball comedy, though with a polished, sophisticated luster to it. The dialog is snappy and smart and the production values are lush with beautiful sets and costumes to enchant the eye.

Though it's not one of the films that first comes to mind when you think of the two stars, it is still a film that has a place in the public consciousness. It's available on DVD and can be found on YouTube in full, though the uploader has disabled embedding. Click this link to see it: http://youtu.be/fftrNmf21Jo. The clip above features the first meeting of Anna and Phillip and was uploaded by hitchclassic.

Obscurity factor: 4 (known, but not iconic, available on DVD and YouTube)