LOGAN – A festival of Cary Grant movies is slated to begin at the Utah Theatre in downtown Logan on Monday, July 8.
An English-American actor, Grant was well-known for his mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting and his sense of comic timing. Those qualities made him one of Hollywood’s definitive leading men in its Golden Age in the 1940s and 1950s.
Of the more than 40 films in which Grant starred, the Utah Theatre has selected nine of his best to be screened during the month of July, alternating with live performances of Little Shop of Horrors, presented by the Utah Festival Opera & Music Theatre.
The film festival will lead off with “My Favorite Wife” on Monday, July 8. It’s a 1940 screwball comedy starring Grant and Irene Dunne. The plot focuses on a woman who, after bring shipwrecked on a tropical island and declared dead, returns to her husband and children.
Gail Patrick co-stars as the woman Grant has married in the interim and matinee-idol Randolph Scott appears as the man with which Ms. Dunne was marooned.
The Grant fest continues on Tuesday, July 9 with a nail-biter by renowned director Alfred Hitchcock, “North by Northwest.”
It’s a classic tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man (Grant) pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious spy ring. The 1959 film co-stars Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.
“North by Northwest” is not only considered one of Hitchcock’s best films, but also one of the greatest movies of all time.
“North by Northwest” will be shown again on Wednesday, July 10 at the Utah Theatre.
The festival will shift gears to comedy once again on Thursday, July 11 with the much beloved “The Philadelphia Story.”
It’s a romantic comedy about a socialite, winningly played by Katharine Hepburn, whose wedding plans are complicated by the arrival of her ex-husband (Grant) and a tabloid journalist (James Stewart).
The 1940 film won a best-actor Oscar for Stewart and also redeemed Hepburn’s reputation, which had previously been one of “box-office poison.”
“The Philadelphia Story” will also be screened at the Utah Theatre on Friday, July 12.
Grant was paired with another of Hollywood’s legendary leading ladies, Ingrid Bergman, in “Notorious,” also a film by Alfred Hitchcock.
The 1946 movie mixes spy and film noir genres with Ms. Bergman as the bait in an American plot to ensnare a German war criminal (Claude Rains) hiding in South America.
“Notorious” will be shown at the Utah Theatre on Monday, July 15.
Next up is Grant at his manic best in the 1944 over-the-top black comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace,” where he plays a film critic who discovers that his two maiden aunts are serial killers.
The Frank Capra classic, co-starring Raymond Massey and Peter Lorre, will be screened as a rare 1 p.m. matinee and again in the evening at the Utah Theatre on Friday, July 19.
Grant was also paired with Katharine Hepburn in the 1938 screwball comedy “Bringing Up Baby.”
Directed by Howard Hawks, the normally dapper Grant plays against type as a scientist who becomes involved with a scatterbrained heiress and her pet leopard named Baby.
Although the film flopped at the box office in the late 1930s, “Bringing Up Baby” has since gained acclaim from both critics and audiences for its zany antics, pratfalls, absurd situations, misunderstandings and hare-brained misadventures.
“Bringing Up Baby” will be shown at the Utah Theatre on Tuesday, July 23 and Wednesday, July 24.
For a change of pace, the Cary Grant film festival will continue with “Charade,” a 1963 comedic mystery starring Grant and Audrey Hepburn.
Masterfully directed by Stanley Donen, “Charade” has been called “the best Alfred Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made.”
Among the film’s rogue’s gallery of villains are Walter Matthau, James Coburn and George Kennedy.
“Charade” will be screened at the Utah Theatre on Friday, July 26 and Saturday, July 27. A matinee of the film will also be presented on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The film festival will resume on Tuesday, July 30 with “Suspicion,” another Hitchcock psychological thriller starring Grant and Joan Fontaine.
The 1941 film focuses on an heiress who marries a charming playboy, then suspects that he is planning to kill her.
Finally, the Grant film festival will conclude with “Gunga Din” on Wednesday, July 31.
Based on the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling, the 1939 film stars Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbank Jr. as British soldiers and a young Sam Jaffe in the title role.
Unless otherwise noted, all screening times for the film festival will be 7 p.m.
The Utah Theatre is located at 18 West Center Street in downtown Logan.