Over the last year, I’ve gotten into the habit of watching a lot more movies—a lot of times, I even squeeze one in before work if I get up early enough?—and this week, thanks to a collection currently streaming on Criterion, I’ve been all about the Cary Grant comedies.

And, based on what I watched this week (and other ones I’ve watched in the past), I’ve come to the conclusion that part of his ridiculous appeal (maybe just for me, I dunno) is that he gets bossed around by the ladies a LOT. It’s not just that he gets bossed around—and this is why it works—it’s that he doesn’t play these roles as “hen-pecked” (<—gross) or put-upon or threatened by their strength or strong opinions at ALL.

No, his characters pretty much always LIKE IT.

He looks at Katharine Hepburn or Myrna Loy or whoever and is like YES, YES BOSS ME.

And I mean, who among us wouldn’t?

Like, *I* want Katharine Hepburn to boss me around (and I know for a fact that Josh would love it if Myrna Loy bossed him around, he said earlier this week that he’d walk into traffic for her).

In other words, what I’m finding is this: In most of these, sure, he’s a dreamboat… but a big part of my enjoyment comes from the feeling that if he was sitting there on the couch with me, he’d be nudging me with his elbow and saying “ISN’T SHE SO GREAT? ISN’T SHE???”

Movie poster: My Favorite Wife (1940) — Movie poster: *My Favorite Wife* (1940)

Anyway, here’s what I watched:

Holiday (1938, watched on Criterion): Cary Grant meets and gets engaged to Julia, the lady of his dreams… before meeting her family. Turns out that they’re absurdly wealthy, and turns out—much to his dismay—that his fiancée, like the majority of her family, believes that making money is the greatest, most important thing that a person can do.

Which isn’t his jam: His plan is to make his million, quit working, and live life and be happy, and he’s right on the edge of being able to do so. Turns out, though, that she has a black sheep older sister…

I have watched this movie approximately one million times and over the course of my life I will probably watch it one million more. I don’t even have the words for how happy it makes me to watch Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn—who, of course, plays the older sister—play off each other; the third sibling, Ned, is a wonderful and tragic figure (he was an aspiring musician, but bowed to Family Pressure and went into finance, so he’s just drunk ALL THE TIME) and I love him; Cary Grant’s friends are people you’d want to be friends with, too; it’s funny, funny, funny, with some really pointed and biting jokes; and it features some Surprise Acrobatics.

Also! It’s appropriate watching for this time of year because the majority of it takes place on New Year’s.

Movie poster: Indiscreet (1958) — Movie poster: *Indiscreet* (1958)

My Favorite Wife (1940, watched on Criterion): OMG. Okay, in this one, Cary Grant’s wife sails off on a scientific expedition, her boat sinks, and she is presumed dead. Seven years later, she is declared officially deceased and Cary Grant remarries. Then, THAT VERY SAME DAY, his first wife shows up again! Cue the hijinks.

This one really, really, really showed me that I give Cary Grant waaaaay more leeway than I do with pretty much any other actor? Because I cannot imagine another actor pulling the nonsense that he does in this one without wanting to throw him into the sea. Like, his New Wife is a bad fit for him, and he’s not really in love with her, but she’s not a horrible person à la Vicky from The Parent Trap or something. Literally her only crime is marrying a dude who doesn’t love her more than he still loves his (presumed) dead wife.

And yet, ole Cary Grant somehow makes it mostly charming. Yikes. These are the moments that make me feel like I should turn in my Feminist Card™.

Oh! Also, Randolph Scott is in this one: He and Cary (unsurprisingly) have wonderful chemistry, and there are some moments that really, REALLY feel like the film is lampshading The Rumors.

Also also, and sadly less pleasant: While Irene Dunne is largely delightful in this (at points she really reminded me of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, or I guess I should say that now JL-D reminds me of her?), there’s a bit where Irene Dunne recites “a poem” for her kids in an excruciatingly racist dialect caricature, and oof. I know different times and all that, but it doesn’t make it any less gross (or easy to watch).

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947, watched on Criterion): YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS!! TEEN SHIRLEY TEMPLE IS AMAZING!! I CAN’T HANDLE IT, I WENT INTO THIS FOR CARY AND MYRNA BUT NOW ONLY HAVE GOOGLY EYES FOR SHIRLEY!!!

So, Myrna Loy is a judge! Cary Grant is an artist! Shirley Temple is Myrna Loy’s little sister and ward!

Myrna Loy is not impressed AT ALL with Cary Grant, who is late to his court date about a bar brawl!

Then Cary Grant gives a Lecture About Art at Shirley Temple’s high school, and Shirley Temple gets the googly eyes for Cary Grant!

So Myrna Loy decides—with some advice from her psychiatrist uncle, who has Matchmaker Tendencies—to BLACKMAIL CARY GRANT INTO PRETEND-DATING SHIRLEY TEMPLE???

The whole thing is bananas. BANANAS.

It’s somewhat uneven—there are some olde timey dated bits that are more embarrassing than funny—but OMG the funny bits really make it, and some really really surprisingly hilarious lines from some of the secondary characters that made us laugh so loud that we’d miss the next line & have to rewind.

Movie poster: She Done Him Wrong (1933) — Movie poster: *She Done Him Wrong* (1933)

Indiscreet (1958, watched on Criterion): And here it is, the movie that showed me that there *IS* a point at which I will say, “Okay, Cary, you can’t charm your way out of this, you’re being a legit cad.” What ultimately does it, I think, is that he is a heel to INGRID BERGMAN. Which, let’s face it, should be illegal. (Do I love Notorious? OF COURSE I DO. Does it make me want to kick Cary Grant in the shins? OF COURSE IT DOES.)

Ingrid Bergman is a famous stage actress, Cary Grant is a diplomat. Cary Grant is married and separated, but unable to get a divorce. They get involved anyway, and everything is quite romantical and steamy and they have all of the googly eyes for each other.

…and then it turns out that CARY GRANT IS A LYING LIAR WHO LIES, BECAUSE HE IS NOT ACTUALLY MARRIED!!!

Which leads to Queen Ingrid delivering the line “HOW DARE HE MAKE LOVE TO ME… AND NOT BE A MARRIED MAN??”

Anyway, so the first two-thirds of the movie is basically a warm romantic drama, and then the last third is more straight-up farce, but hoo boy, once the reveal happened I just wanted to yeet Cary Grant into the sun, which is a new one for me (except, again, for in Notorious).

(Did I use ‘yeet’ right? I’m so old.)

I just mentioned that I was writing about this one to Josh and he was like THAT ONE WAS SO WEIRD, CARY WAS SUCH A JERK. So, you know, there are at least two of us who think so.

So, mixed feelings, but there’s still enough there—Ingrid’s sister & brother-in-law & servants are all awesome, there is enough sexy tension to fill some sort of large receptacle, Angry Ingrid is terrifying and wonderful and gorgeous and hilarious—that it was totally worth watching.

She Done Him Wrong (1933, watched on Criterion): One of Cary Grant’s earliest roles, playing opposite a purring Mae West! He’s the leader of the local mission, she’s a diamond-collecting singer with a string of past conquests… and she’s got her eye on him as a Future Conquest.

It’s mostly worth watching to get a load of Mae West—it’s so impressive how she could make literally anything she said sound overtly sexual, which I know was Her Brand, but WOWZERS—but as a movie-movie, the plot is somehow both thin AND incomprehensible (how???) and the characterization is thinner than the plot. And, again, while I’m well aware that Things Were Different in 1933, the racial and ethnic stereotypes are A Lot.

A few laugh-out-loud lines, though, and Mae West’s dresses were rad.

AND NOW TO START SOME WEEKEND WATCHING!!!

Oh, wait, I have to go to work first.

DAMMIT.

Weekday Watching: Cary Grant edition.