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Cary Grant forgets his heart problems at
the heart of New York and Chicago.
The main characteristic of Cary Grant, his
secret, is to be a happy man. He practices his life in the
same way as he practices his career: like an art. He was married 3
times: to Virginia Cherrill, to Barbara Hutton and then to
Betsy Drake. His two first unions did not last long: one year and
three years respectively, but his third marriage seemed to be much
more stable: he lives with Betsy Drake from 1949. It seemed that
they get along together perfectly: when Cary was filming abroad
Betsy visited him; and besides, he was 54 , the age that may be
widely considered as reasonable : he himself mentioned recently
that until 35 years the men are idiots but after they overcome
this barrier they begin to become serious. That's why the
announcement that he has divorced from Betsy made an effect of
exploded bomb.
What happened?
Actually, though this marriage continued nine
years, Cary spent his life just as he spent it during his previous
marriages. For him the life is never anything else but one of
these light-hearted comedies like those that he performs so
excellently on the screen. He does not take it tragically. When
his existence is menacing to turn into a drama, he changes it.
Besides, his life with Betsy has begun as a light-hearted comedy.
They met during the filming of "Every Girl Should Be
Married", a joyful movie in which Betsy puts her arm on him
and brings him into the entrapment of marriage. Being an elegant
bachelor in real life he proceeded with the humor of the situation
until sooner repeating this scenario in reality, and knowing Cary
Grant and vivacity of his mind one may be sure that an irony of
this parallel between fiction and reality certainly had not
escaped from him. Their common existence went on like a light
comedy also. Betsy was intelligent enough for realizing the light
climate in which her husband must live. They lived pleasantly in
their place and when they had a wish of changing an air, they
would take their car and left to Mexico or Canada. Their best
travel moments where those when the people would say to Cary:
"You resemble Cary Grant terribly". These situations
never missed and Cary was never in a lack of response: "This
is curious, they have already told me before", a joke which
always made Betsy to giggle. Their common life was
equally terminated like a comedy: there was no drama, no loud
cries, no big sorrows confessed to journalists. Betsy was at the
height of the situation and revealed herself as worthy of her
husband for whom the most essential thing in life is to behave
with elegance, with this elegance that makes him every year one of
the ten best dressed men in the world. They simply made it known
that they had separated. That's all. And they both started to work
again every one in his field. Betsy returned to the television.
They said that she was going to make a long voyage to Europe in
order to try to forget. There is nothing right in these rumors.
She works, as if her marriage was only an interlude: a happy
interlude, a long and beautiful sequence from a light-hearted
comedy, from the movie where all worries and everything tragic
should be forbidden. Her husband can be proud of her.
Returning to him, he also works. He stares in
Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest” together with
Eva-Marie Saint. This is a thriller which promises to contain a
lot of humor: because if Cary Grant and Hitchcock are somewhere
there will always be a humor: these two Englishmen universalized
by their adoption in America, preserved the best qualities of
their nation eliminating the failings of insularity. In order
to realize this let us remember for example a thriller which have
already resulted from their collaboration : "To Catch a
Thieve" with Grace Kelly. Many important scenes of
"North by Northwest" take place at the heart of the two
greatest American cities: Chicago and New York. At the first of
these cities Cary Grant and Eva-Marie Saint were filmed at the
impressive frame of Michigan Boulevard, at the Midway airport, at
the La Salle Street station, on the sidewalk of the famous
Ambassador East Hotel. In New York the stars were filmed at the
famous Grand Central railway station, at the Madison Avenue, which
is the largest parallel way to the Fifth Avenue, on the Long
Island, on the sidewalk in front of Plaza Hotel. Everywhere the
crowds gathered. It was certainly because of Cary Grant. Here the
people not only thought that he "resembles Cary Grant",
they knew that he is Cary Grant.
I've even succeeded to exchange a couple of words with him.
I've asked him about the project that he is supposed to
participate in, filming of "Lolita", the movie that
shows a man of an advanced age falling in love with a twelve year
old girl and seducing her. The novel which describes this strange
affair is a subject of scandal in the Anglo-Saxon countries at the
moment.
- The producers indeed contacted me,
responded me Cary Grant, but I refused to their offer. I don't
want to play in that sort of films. The plots like this may exist
in the literature but not on the screen. Besides I would not be
able to get into the skin of that character. Anyway there are some
limits that an actor can not get over.
Really, the maniac "Lolita" tells
about is certainly a creature who sees life in a tragic way. What
character could be stranger to Cary Grant?
Subscriptions to the pictures in the order of
appearance.
Cary Grant (marked with an arrow) stares at
Madison Avenue in New York, which extraordinary perspective, at
the left, between the buildings, provides a precious frame to this
film sequence.
Betsy Drake, at the meantime, works for
television. Here repeating with George Fenneman.
Alfred Hitchcock directs Cary Grant, more
elegant than ever, at the Grand Central railway station in New
York.
And this is another railway station, La Salle
Street Station in Chicago, where he directs Eva-Marie Saint.
Eva-Marie Saint is filmed in front of the
Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago,
At Long Island, Cary Grant poses for three
little who asked to take a picture of him. He feels indignant
about the idea that in a movie he may be demanded to seduce a girl
of this age.
In the impressive surroundings of the Michigan
Boulevard, in Chicago, Cary Grant comes out of the taxi in the
sequence from "North by Northwest" which takes place
here. The curious crowd is blocked on the sidewalk. The
people that continue to walk are the characters of the movie.
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