Fans know him as a brilliant but bald, short, and stout director. His tall, dark, and handsome protégé was a sophisticate who melted the hearts of moviegoers, young and old. DirectorAlfred Hitchcockand actor Cary Grant couldn’t have been more physically antithetical, and Hitchcock loved it. Grant had several film relationships with directors, but he and Hitchcock created four films and some of their best work.
From plane chases to having audiences see their beloved Grant as a murderer for the first time, this master duo electrified scripts, maximizing Grant’s charisma through the distinguished Hitchcock lens as only a director/actor twosome could do.
Related:Here’s What Made Cary Grant Such a Perfect Leading Man
The Beginning of a Hitchcock and Grant Partnership inSuspicion
Grant’s birth name, Archibald Leach, was more befitting of Hitchcock’s physicality than Grant’s. The director’s silhouette in the intro of his anthology series,Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and later,The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, outlined his famous portly anatomy and protruding belly. But Hitchcock and Grant became film partners long before his television success. The 1941 thriller,Suspicion, co-starring Joan Fontaine is about a dowdy spinster and a “Johnnie” (Grant)-come-lately looker. He’s allergic to hard work (or any other kind) and sweeps Lina (Fontaine) off her feet and into marriage and a mansion for which he believes his new wife’s allowance from her parents will adequately support. After many suspicions,anxiety builds around Johnnie possibly attempting to murder his wife.
Thefilmmaker uses Grant’s sense of humor to endear the audienceand his dark, deer-like eyes for the intense look of a killer. Hitchcock desperately wanted Grant marked as the murderous husband, but the studios ditched the idea of their debonair idol seen as a villain. As viewers watch Johnnie slowly and lovingly throw his arms around Lina in the finale while driving out of viewers' sight, they mull over, “Did he, or didn’t he?” The Hitchcock-Grant union was born.
Hitchcock Makes Grant a Bona-Fide Recurring Actor inNotorious
TheBritish actor said about his native-kin director, “I have only happy [memories]. They’re all vivid because they’re all interesting. It was a great joy to work with Hitch. He was an extraordinary man.” And this extraordinary man directed three more films with Grant that would solidify their work relationship as one of the illustrious cinematic partnerships in Hollywood history.
In the 1946 spy film,Notorious, co-starring Ingrid Bergman (Alicia), is a beautiful but promiscuous party girl. She’s tailed by government agent Devlin (Grant), who falls in love with her despite the scathing reputation. When Alicia acquires a task to put on an act of love for another man (a plan that will bring the government into the culprit’s home and life), Devlin wants her to reject the scheme, but he wishes for Alicia to decide on her own. Despite a lackluster theater reaction in London, critics and moviegoers believe Grant and Hitchcock are magical together and want more of them.
Alfred Hitchcock Talks Cary Grant Out of Retiring forTo Catch a Thief
Putting one of the most alluring women, Grace Kelly, alongside Grant inTo Catch a Thiefmade it a visually stunning film. The 1955 flick had mysticism, beauty, and elegance because of GrantandKelly. Both were Hitchcock’s favorites, but the master of suspense said, “Knowing Cary is the greatest association I’ve had with any film actor. Cary is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life.” Grant was on the verge of retirement but couldn’t pass up filming on the French Riviera and having Kelly as a co-star. Hitchcock envisioned only Grant as the male lead and was able to grease the actor’s palm into playing, once again, a shifty character with a shady past. The pair would have one more film in their arsenal before ending their collaboration.
The End of the Hitchcock and Grant Collaboration in North by Northwest
When images of Grant chased by a plane flash across the small screen or unfold in a magazine, movie lovers instantly know it’s Hitchcock and Grant inNorth by Northwest.It is the stuff big coffee table cinema books are made of, forthe scene is more than iconic. It’s a phenomenal piece of excellenceHitch and Grant wrapped in a rip-roaring 9-minute and 45-second-long package, passing it down to generations of film devotees. The story is like a classicThree’s Companyepisodic misunderstanding on steroids — Someone frames Roger Thornhill (Grant) for murder, and time isn’t friendly.
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With Hitchcock’s eye for composition and the pair’s grand sense of humor, “InNorth by Northwestduring the scene on Mount Rushmore, I wanted Cary Grant to hide in Lincoln’s nostril and then have a fit of sneezing,” said Hitchcock. The film earned the director his first Oscar nomination.
The Academy never granted the director an Oscar, but there was immense admiration and respect between Hitch and Grant. Hitchcock changed the way directors made movies with his ahead-of-his-time style — Grant walking up the stairs with an illuminating bulb inside a glass of milk inSuspicion— and achieved this through working with some of the most dynamic leading men and women in film. But Hitch saw Grant as incomparable.
The relationship between Hitchcock and Grant was an anomaly because both were aberrations. Some critics claim it was unmatched until the era of the Scorsese/DeNiro andSpike/Washington duos. Many actors possess attributes directors long, but the differences in physical and characterizations between these fascinating director-actor marriages are tremendous. If fans occasionally need an escape through film, Hitch may have secretly hungered for himself the Cary Grant essentials — a little swagger and good looks. Conceivably, this makes movies great — the directors want what they don’t own and put it in their films. Some directors are known for their egos and see actors merely as “necessary evils,” as Hitchcock described them. But, like moviegoers, maybe Grant wasHitchcock’sultimate and necessary escape.
