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James Stewart and Cary Grant In Hitchcock: Interesting Rhymes and Contrasts

posted 5 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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Once Hitchcock passed away in 1980 and his extensive 53-movie career was over, one thing was pretty clear: his two most important leading men were Cary Grant and James Stewart.

Things "matched up" between the two actors in their Hitchcock careers, almost "rhyming":

Each actor made four Hitchcock movies apiece. The highest number for any Hitchcock actor; by comparison, Joseph Cotten, Bob Cummings, and Farley Granger each made two -- and they were not nearly as big as stars as Grant and Stewart. Gregory Peck made two Hitchcocks, but he was too young in both of them, not really a big star yet, and only one(Spellbound) was a true hit. By further comparison, some other major male movie stars -- Montgomery Clift, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman...only made ONE Hitchcock movie. Sean Connery , too -- and he made "Marnie" before he was really a major star.

Each actor had "two of the greatest Hitchcock movies ever made" on their resumes:

For Grant: Notorious and North by Northwest.
For Stewart: Rear Window and Vertigo

And yet, the OTHER two movies made by each actor certainly rank with Hitchcock's best:

For Grant: Suspicion and To Catch a Thief.
For Stewart: Rope and The Man Who Knew Too Much '56.

Each actor(arguably) had his best Hitchcock movie(and his best Hitchcock role) as his LAST Hitchcock movie, and his last Hitchcock role:

For Grant: North by Northwest (virtually a "tour of the Cary Grant persona": suave, action hero, ladies' man, verbal comedian, physical comedian.)

For Stewart: Vertigo (not quite the classic and certainly not the hit that Rear Window was but...Stewart's deepest plunge into his dark side.)

Stewart's final Hitchcock role(Vertigo) was in 1958. Grant's final Hitchcock role(North by Northwest) was in 1959. Back-to-back finishes for the two men in Hitchcock. And they ended the 50's for Hitchcock.

(Even as Stewart and Grant looked older in the 60's -- especially Stewart -- Hitchcock was still thinking about them for roles, but he never used them again. He seems to have known that the two men had hit their peaks as stars and in age in the 50's.)

More random thoughts:

Hitchcock's biggest decade for hits and classics was "the 50's" and Stewart and Grant together had the leads in 5 of Hitchcocks movies in that decade. The only other truly top tier leading men in Hitchcock's 50's movies were Montgomery Clift(I Confess) and Henry Fonda(The Wrong Man)...too grim, serious films. Ray Milland was a Best Actor Oscar winner, but "on the fade" when he played the villain in "Dial M for Murder"(in a role Cary Grant thought about doing - the VILLAIN.) "Minor" leading men like Michael Wilding, Farley Granger, and John Forsythe filled out the decade. Stewart did 3 Hitchcock films in the 50's, Grant did 2. In short: "Hitchcocks main stars in the 50's WERE Grant and Stewart.")

Interesting to me: though Stewart and Grant made an equal 4 films for Hitchcock...Grant was actually ASKED to be in far more Hitchcock films than Stewart, and earlier in his career: Foreign Correspondent, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Spellbound, Rope(Stewart took the role after Grant declined it, at lower pay)...plus Grant was evidently asked to do Marnie and Torn Curtain in the 60's.

Interesting to me: Stewart committed to two Hitchcock films that were never made: "Flamingo Feather" in the 50's(an anti-Commie piece set in Africa, from a novel); and The Blind Man in the 60's(an original story with a planned chase through Disneyland; Walt Disney nixed that after seeing "that horrible movie Psycho.")

Interesting to me: Stewart wanted the lead in North by Northwest. He seems all wrong for the role to me; had Grant said "no" the role might better have been played by William Holden(whom Hitchcock kept trying to get but couldn't, for other movies) or Rock Hudson(yes, Rock Hudson.) Or maybe Gregory Peck(who was wanted by MGM brass). But Thornhill is too much the playboy for Stewart to have played him in 1959. Indeed, scenarist Ernest Lehman first saw Frank Sinatra as Thornhill -- but Hitchcock wouldn't work with the tempermental star.

One final note: when Hitchcock was honored in 1979 with an "AFI Life Acheivement Award", two white-haired men were placed on either side of him: Grant and Stewart. It was very, very fitting indeed.

PS. To "match" Grant and Stewart as Hitchcock's two favorite male stars with four films apiece, we have Ingrid Bergman(who hosted the AFI tribute) and Grace Kelly (who didn't attend the AFI tribute) with 3 apiece. Kelly set her own record: 3 Hitchcock films in a row...and he pursued her for many a movie right before, and AFTER, she became Princess Grace. The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much , North by Northwest and...the one she actually agreed to do before pulling out: Marnie.

[–] Otter (24464) 5 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Back when I was first starting to take film seriously, I read a critic's comment that went something like this:

"Stewart represented Hitchcock's 'everyman', he was the actor who represented Hitchcock's true self, while Grand represented the man Hitchcock wished he was."

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That feels right...Francois Truffaut, during his interview with Hitchcock for their book was less insightful, but interesting in a quick-sketch way: "With Grant your films were more humorous, with Stewart...more emotional."

I guess that's true but I like the more "grand" idea of who Hitch was versus who Hitch wanted to be.

I've read a lot of books and gleaned a lot of "quotes' over the years on Hitchcock and his actors. True or not, I don't know," but I have read that Grant told someone on "To Catch A Thief," "you know, Hitch wishes he could be me."

Screenwriter Ernest Lehman(North by Northwest) thought that Grant and Hitch rather envied elements of each other. For instance, Grant knew that when he appeared in a Hitchcock movie...he was kind of losing control of its being a "Cary Grant movie." Hitchcock's technique and vision made it as much a Hitchcock movie as a Grant movie.

---

And that everyone else wished they were. Who doesn't want to be Cary Grant?

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Nobody. As Cary Grant himself said, "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant....including ME. I wish I really were Cary Grant."

Ha.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Lucky Hitchcock to be able to put (Grant) in his films!

--

He really was. Cary Grant was a "hard catch." Billy Wilder always wanted Grant in a film, but never got him(tries were made on Sabrina and Love in the Afternoon.) But Hitch got Grant four times. Reversibly: Hitchcock always wanted William Holden in a film -- tries were made on Strangers on a Train and The Trouble With Harry. But Hitch never got Holden. WILDER got Holden, lots of times. Ironic, eh?

It seems to me that while Cary Grant said "no" to Hitchcock many more times than he said "yes" -- James Stewart said "yes" to Hitchcock ANY TIME he was asked, eagerly so. Stewart knew Hitchcock movies had great shots at being in hits and classics, and he wanted to be in those. Stewart even said "yes" to a Hitchcock movie that was never made: Flamingo Feather, in the late fifties, with Princess Grace yet again sought to leave retirement.

And somewhat embarrassingly, Stewart campaigned for the Roger Thornhill role in North by Northwest when -- it seems clear now -- he could no longer play a ladies man/playboy like Cary Grant could. Or Rock Hudson(with HIS ironies.) Or William Holden.

THAT said, in the Patrick McGilligan bio of Hitchcock, McGiligan finds this quote from James Mason, the villain in NXNW: "In the fifties, James Stewart in a Hitchcock movie brought in one million more at the box office than Cary Grant in a Hitchcock movie, because Stewart brought in middle America." Hmm..maybe so...but Grant just seems like a more "rare diamond" in Hitchcock than Stewart to me. And as McGilligan says right after the James Mason quote, "...but Stewart couldn't deliver Middle America to Vertigo." Hey, who could? Its a downbeat tragedy with a mad hero.

And just maybe..James Mason was a little JEALOUS of Cary Grant? They were rather the same type, and Grant got paid about ten times more than Mason on "North by Northwest."

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

There is also this to consider:

By the very nature of the type of film Hitchcock often wanted to make -- the "regular guy"(whether earnest Stewart or suave Grant) -- thrown into an adventure("the ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances"), Hitchcock was ruled out of working with such macho tough guy stars of his era(s) as Clark Gable, James Cagney, Burt Lancaster(whom Hitch wanted for the Cotton part in Under Capricorn), Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne(THAT one's impossible)...Hitch's heroes had to seem like "glamourized versions of the man in the audience," not tough guys.

The American Film Institute chose Bogart, Grant, and Stewart(in that order) as the top three male movies stars of the Golden Era; it looks like Hitch managed to hire two of them. Perhaps Bogie was also too much the "tough guy" to work for Hitchcock, but its too bad they didn't work together. I can see Bogie's cynical needling being put to use in Rope or Rear Window, perhaps. And I suppose Bogie could have done "Notorious" like he did "Casablanca." Not much else. And Bogart -- born in 1899 along with Hitchcock -- died in 1957, well before some great Hitchcock films were made.

That said, yet another reason Stewart and Grant got to make so many Hitchcock movies is that some OTHER big stars that Hitchcock DID want to work with -- and who would have fit his films -- said "no."

I found an interview with Hitchcock from the 30's, when he was "the famous British director." He said that if he came to Hollywood, "the ideal Hitchcock hero would be"(wait for it)...Gary Cooper. Not Grant. Not Stewart. But Cooper turned Foreign Correspondent and Saboteur down. Irony: years later, in 1959, Cooper signed on for an MGM movie called "Wreck of the Mary Deare" -- a project Hitchcock had started, and bailed on. They might have finally worked together. But Hitch made North by Northwest instead. Better.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

In the fifties, it was William Holden whom Hitchcock wanted. But he offered him the wrong movies: Strangers on a Train, and The Trouble With Harry. Seems to me that to have gotten Holden, Hitchcock would have had to forego Grant(Holden could have done To Catch a Thief or North by Northwest) or Stewart(Holden could have done The Man Who Knew Too Much -- though likely not the weak, ornery men in Rear Window and Vertigo.)

Thanks to NXNW and Psycho, Hitchcock entered the sixties strong enough to hire two of the biggest male stars of the decade -- Paul Newman and Sean Connery(a little before he became a star beyond Bond.) The only one Hitch missed was Steve McQueen(who at least did a Hitchcock TV episode-- not directed by Hitch -- and took publicity pictures with Perkins and Leigh on the Psycho set.)

Paul Newman was the last big male star Hitchcock got to be in a movie. The failure of Torn Curtain -- and Hitchcock's dissing of Newman and Andrews as overpriced and miscast(especially Andrews) -- seemed to inspire other stars to start saying "no" to Hitchcock on the three movies he made after Torn Curtain.

For Topaz, he couldn't get: Yves Montand(perfect for the lead as no one else could be); Simone Signouret(Montand's wife), Catherine Denueve, and..Sean Connery(with a French accent?)

For Frenzy, Hitchcock couldn't get Michael Caine(for the psycho Rusk) or Richard Burton(for the anti-hero Blaney) or Richard Harris(ditto) or Glenda Jackson(for murder victim Brenda Blaney.)

For Familiy Plot, Hitchcock couldn't get Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, or Robert Redford(for the hero George Lumley), or Burt Reynolds or Roy Scheider(for the villain Arthur Adamson, and maybe Redford was considered for THAT) or Faye Dunaway(for the villain's girlfriend and partner in crime.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

Put it all together, and you have Hitchcock being turned down by as many male movie stars -- maybe more - than those who said yes to him, and it seems that Cary Grant and James Stewart were his "comfort stars" - stars who always(Stewart) or sometimes (Grant) said "yes" to a role, men he liked and could work with. (Brando and Sinatra -- impossible -- though Universal put Brando on the list for Marnie.)

And he seemed to get hits with Stewart and Grant that he couldn't get with Clift, Fonda, or Newman....