Category: Remake

My Favourite Wife (1940)

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Marilyn Monroe took the role in ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ to extreme heights before bidding a farewell to everyone from this world. Doris Day, similarly in ‘Move over Darling’ was charming and did justice to her role.

While one movie had to be abandoned, the other was seen as a good remake of this 1940 movie.

My Favourite Wife is the one in the discussion that gave the source to the movies mentioned above while being inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “Enoch Arden.”

This movie had a pre-cursor, plot-wise in the silent era, most notably D W Griffith’s epic ‘Enoch Arden’ in two parts made in 1911. Ellen Arden (Irene Dunne) is supposedly killed in a shipwreck seven years ago. Her husband, Nick Arden (Cary Grant), after having hoped all these years to see his wife come back, decides to have her issued dead in the court. This would ensure he could move on and marry Bianca (Gail Patrick) legally. Nick has two kids from Ellen.

Nick and Bianca get married and are on their way to their honeymoon.

Twist in the tale as Ellen appears after having been rescued by a ship from a distant island. She comes home and gets to know about Nick’s wedding and feels sad about him moving on with life. She decides to surprise him and goes to the hotel where the newlywed couples have booked their honeymoon suite.

The expression on the face of Nick upon seeing Ellen is a treat for audiences. He feels guilty about the fact that he cannot embrace his long-lost wife with the same compassion. At the same time, he cannot think about his newlywed status with Bianca.

Hesitation to come out with Bianca’s truth, he escapes from confrontation, and the scenes have been shot well, portraying Nick’s denial to face the truth. Nick is jealous that Ellen had spent the last seven years with a guy on that island. He was curious to know who that guy was. Ellen tries to camouflage this fact by introducing a dumb guy so that Nick doesn’t have an issue to get back at her. Incidentally, Nick, driven by jealousy, decides to find who that guy was. It turns out to be quite a handsome guy.

Unable to bear this, he expresses his irritation to Ellen. In the meantime, Bianca is confused as to why she isn’t able to live with Nick and keeps wondering what’s going on in Nick’s mind. He tends to avoid her whenever she tries to get close to him or when she is in a mood to make love.

Out of two wives, Nick has to make a choice. He chooses his favourite wife, and that being Ellen. One can sympathise with Bianca as I feel she has been wronged here. But, since this being a movie on the lines of screwball comedy, one can imagine having characters like Bianca.

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant match their previous success on a husband-wife theme, The Awful Truth. In particular, Irene Dunne looks fresh, and one cannot believe she was older than Cary Grant in real life. The scenes involving the hotel manager and the judge are mind blowing-ly funny. Randolph Scott plays the role of Steve Burkett, who accompanied Ellen on the deserted island.

Directed by Garson Kanin, this movie was initially slated to be directed by Leo McCarey. A freak accident prevented him from executing and hired Garson Kanin to do the honours.

The movie was a success and managed to receive three Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Music – Original Score, and Best Writing – Original Story (looks like by altering story and some of its elements from another play are considered original).

Holiday (1938)

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We live in a world where numbers form a majority. How much ever an individual tries to be different, he or she often encounters the majority, be it in the form of opinions, values, or the way things need to be handled, and the best of all is, the way to lead one’s life.

Wish it was as simple as following a book of code written by one individual. The point is not to berate or deride the opinions made by the person who shared his views on leading life; the mistake is to believe that is the only way to lead a life.

Holiday epitomises such kind of mood through various protagonists who dare to question the status quo. Johnny Case (Cary Grant) a charming young businessman who goes by his inner voice. One can see how he goes about his life and the view he holds for his life.

He is in love with Julia Seton (Doris Nolan) and proposes to her to marry him. She agrees. How often we marry the person we love and say we share each other’s vision for life?

Are we complacent that we can persuade the other partner to make them come to terms with our expectations?

Well, to make love, it isn’t. To marry, it becomes the talking point. The free spirit that often embodies the lovers is narrowed when the talk of marriage does the rounds.

What is it that marriage continues to hold a different view?

Marriage involves society to a more considerable extent, and this has continued through ages and will continue. One can fall in love, and that’s acceptable, but can we marry the same in all situations? Often society comes to the picture, and in immense interest, I believe it’s a form of excuse unless it considers the individual.

Johnny is surprised to know the wealthy status of Julia. He meets Linda (Katherine Hepburn), Julia’s free-spirited sister, and Ned (Lew Ayres), who feel bottled up under their father’s authoritarian behaviour.

The movie has a kid’s playroom analogous and quite a contrast to the outer world, which calls for increased sophistication and hypocrisy. Linda is in love with Johnny as she finds him to be the right guy who would respect and complement her free-spiritedness.

Although Johnny is in love with Julia, he can’t deny that he is intellectually connected to Linda.

Irrespective of her being rich, he is keen on holding on to his dreams. On the other hand, Julia is convinced about Johnny accepting her dad’s proposal of working and earning money. While asking Julia’s hand, Johnny speaks his heart to her dad, which surprises Julia.

The idea of Johnny working for few years and then taking a holiday to discover his life doesn’t fit the bill of pragmatism as per Julia and her dad. Although he couldn’t convince Julia, Johnny convinced Linda with his Vivre de Joie without convincing her.

The movie isn’t a serious one; it has well-written dialogues and is more of a romantic comedy-drama.

The child playroom is often seen as a metaphor to allow the kid within us to be playful even while growing each day.

Directed by George Cukor, this movie brings out the best of Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and the chemistry they share on-screen is something that’s been talked about by many over the years. The storyline isn’t out of the box but a simple reflection on the society we live in.

The playroom scenes of tricycles, puppets, and other horse saddling remind us that each individual has a fearless child inside us who loves to enjoy irrespective of what others think in its fashion. This certainly is one of my favourite Cary Grant movies.

Released in 1938, Holiday is a remake of the 1930 movie of the same title. Holiday managed to get a Oscar nomination under the category of Best Art direction with the affluent sets being used.

The Amazing Adventure (1936)

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It can be tedious when there are no challenges to earn one’s bread. This is Ernest Bliss’s (Cary Grant) story, who plays a rich man unable to find happiness with all the wealth he has at his disposal.

Depression as a result of boredom being the reason, he consults Sir James Alroyd (Peter Gawthorne), who happens to be more than just a doctor, a philanthropist of sorts. He is aware of Ernest’s depression and suggests getting out of his comfort zone to earn a living for a year on his own.

He also challenges not using the ancestral money and condemns him not being able to live a year on his own. Ernest gets a dose of realism and accepts the challenge, and places a bet of £50,000 for the same.

On the high road to win the challenge, Bliss soon discovers it isn’t easy as he thought it would be. He starts off being a stove salesman and realises the difficulty of being a part of the working class. He understands the big-hearted working masses who give affection and learn a bit about humanity by staying with them. He frequently changes jobs and finally settles in as a chauffeur.

In this amazing quest, he encounters Frances Clayton (Mary Blain), his love interest. He leads a life in which he camouflages his true identity to her. During this adventurous journey, Ernest uses his wealth to help the people in need. Although the challenge involved him not using his wealth, I guess to help people in need, but you are acceptable.

In the end, he does manage to win the challenge and, along the way, wins quite a lot of things that would make him get rid of boredom. A life turning moment indeed.

This movie is based on a theme which standard working class would identity with. Although it is shot with poor technical standards, one can appreciate the acting of Cary Grant. It remains one of the last low budget movies he would be ever part of and also the only film he appeared for a home studio in London.

Owing to many problems, the movie I saw is about 61 minutes, although the DVD suggests the official time to be 80 minutes.

One of the observations was the low production quality, and I was curious to know why.

I read an article that stated UK studios took a lot more time, and they were a step behind in acquiring the technical acumen compared with Hollywood when this movie was shot.

Directed by Alfred Zeisler, The Amazing Adventure was inspired by the novel written by E. Philipps Oppenheim and was released in the US under the name Romance and Riches.

A serial from 1920, The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss is a silent precursor to this 1936 movie. Henry Edwards acts as Ernest Bliss while Henry Vibrant and Chrissie White play the physician’s role and Ernest’s love interest.

In my childhood, I happened to watch a Dev Anand starrer movie Asli-Naqli directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. This Bollywood entertainer resembles the plot successfully adapted to suit the Indian culture and audiences in 1962.

Walk Dont Run (1966)

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The year of Olympics 1964, Sir William Rutland, played by Cary Grant, arrives in Tokyo a week before the Olympics. As a result of this, he finds himself in an awkward situation of the housing crisis.

He finally manages to find himself an Apartment occupied by Christine Easton, played by Samantha Eggar. Although she was looking for a woman, she finally agreed to let Sir William share the apartment.

Sir William meets American Olympian Steve Davies, who is also looking for a house to stay. He is offered to share with Sir William, much to the dismay of Christine. Steve Davies finds her very attractive and falls in love with her.

Hesitant in the beginning, but even Christine becomes closer to Steve. She is confused as she is engaged to the British diplomat Julius P Haversack, who also happens to be very dry and out of life, in short boring.

Sir William notices the closeness among these two and plays the role of cupid and brings them together. Cary Grant has some of the well written witty lines to offer in many scenes. This movie also marked the end of Cary Grant’s long movie career that spanned 34 years.

Quite strange to most Cary Grant movies in his entire career, this movie didn’t involve him romantically with a girl.

Directed by Charles Walters, released in 1966, Walk Don’t Run more vividly remembered as Cary Grant’s last movie and as a remake of 1943 classic ‘The More the Merrier’ starring Jean Arthur.

An Affair To Remember (1957)

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What happens when a handsome playboy meets the gorgeous night club singer on a cruise. The first part of this Leo McCarey’s classic ‘An Affair to Remember’ showcases the above scenario. Cary Grant as Nickie Ferrante plays the playboy, and Deborah Kerr plays the dashing Terry Mckay.

Despite both being engaged, they couldn’t help themselves falling in love with each other on the ship and make a promise to meet after six months at The Empire State Building.

With engagements being on hold, both wait for six months to see each other on the building’s 102nd floor. A perfect story in progress until Debroah Kerr meets with an accident right on the day of the visit. Cary Grant striding to and fro on the 102nd floor, can only console himself. He waits the entire day and wonders why till the end of the movie.

Whether they would get married would remain unanswered, and accident becomes the reason that prevents the reunion of the couple.

The story was quite a drama back then, not the same as when it was made in Hindi in 1999. One can copy the theme, not the entire storyline and scene settings. ‘Mann’ starring Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala, failed because it couldn’t connect to the so-called “modern-time” and not compelling content. Times change, hence individual perceptions on love change. Unfortunately, Mann wasn’t able to accommodate this change.

The highlights are the scenes shot in a garden mansion where Cary Grant takes Deborah Kerr to meet her grandmother. Their love blossomed at the very place. The last scene is a memorable one when Cary Grants holds Deborah Kerr.

This movie is a remake of the 1939 film ‘Love Affair’ starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. Leo McCarey directed both.

An Affair to Remember was nominated for four Oscars in the Best Music, Best Costume, Best Song, and Best Cinematography categories.