Everybody Wants to Be Cary Grant (Video Essay)

Cary Grant was one of Hollywood's leading men, but his portrayal of masculinity differs from the other actors of the time. Here's how he set the precedent for future leading men.
My video essay dissertation created for QMU.
For educational purposes only.
Music featured:
Herman's Habits - Justin Hurwitz
One Mint Julep - Ray Charles
Rockhouse (Pts. 1 & 2) - Ray Charles
The Entertainer - Jon Batiste
Jub Jub - Justin Hurwitz
Credits - Justin Hurwitz
Life's Incredible Again - Michael Giacchino

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

Grants most redeeming quality is that he's incredibly good looking and charming but comes off as the boy next door who doesn't know how charming and good looking he really is.

[@adhyashetty5667]

Which makes him so much more charming and endearing

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

@@adhyashetty5667 Exactly. Had he been Paris Hilton level of "I know I'm hot stuff" he would've been totally unbearable....

[@user-pp9bl5gr1n]

Being abandon as a child would do that too you

[@paulakpacente]

Absolutely terrific! There was and always will be ONLY ONE Cary Grant.

[@johnsononey]

Not when we have George Clooney , Hollywood trickery DNA. Just like Susan Sarandon and James Spader , or Tony Curtis & Robert Downey jr . Related .

[@andrewdunn8778]

I think Jon Hamm is the perfect example this. He is essentially a goofy comedy actor who happens to have become famous because of the drama Mad Men. Watch him in 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

[@user-bp7ls8cq5p]

Well-done! I have often thought of Clooney as being a modern-day Cary Grant. I was happy to see you make the case so well.

[@cherylcouch-thomas8250]

George Clooney is oh-so-close, but not just there as a modern-day Cary Grant.

[@marysmith8638]

These other actors mentioned don't come close to Cary's elegance, class & impeccable good looks.

[@juliocesarpereira4325]

I was surprised to see that Cary Grant had a perfect humoristic timing on 'Bringing Up Baby', which I only recently watched. I have already watched it a second time and I predict I will be rewatching it many times in the future and have a good laugh. This movie, along with 'It Happened One Night' are in my all time favorites. I cannot forget the chemistry between Grant and Katherine Hepburn and also the that special glow she has, almost hipnotic.

[@cherylcouch-thomas8250]

No one will ever be on the level of Cary Grant. Charming, handsome, winsome and down-right funny.

[@cooperwesley1536]

The title says it all... and you proved it. Good job. The cool thing about CG is that he's so much more timeless than his many contemporaries. Men like Gable, Stewart, Astaire, and Cooper are stuck in a certain period of film history... but Grant seems to have transcended his era in a way that is unique only to him, which is why I admire him so much. (On a side note... I'd also throw in Rock Hudson as an obvious and important "descendant" of the CG mold.)

[@clementdedadelsen4065]

Fantastic essay. The best hommage to the great Cary Grant.

[@maxmarkus6202]

This is an extremely well made video essay. Thank you.

[@sakaridis]

One of the greats! There was no one like him!

[@adrienneturner8197]

Great stuff, proud aunty and nanny here❤ xxx

[@kpape888]

Excellent video. Fresh well reasoned take on a familiar character actor. As a superfan of Cary Grant, i knew most of the details of his career but your take brings it into a new better focus. Well done.

[@greypilgrim26]

Great video with some really astute observations. Excited to see what you make next.

[@nhmooytis7058]

My very favorite actor!

[@johnbarrile2095]

This is a fantastic essay on Grant!

[@MoxieMcMurder]

I love this video. Cary is an ICON.

[@zarinaa1135]

On my god! He could've been an AMAZING Superman and a SPECTACULAR Clark Kent!

[@christiantava442]

And a GREAT 007

[@ZestySea]

@@christiantava442Ian Fleming used Cary Grant to model the character of James Bond. Cary Grant was offered the part of 00 - but he turned it down, thinking he was too old for a four movie contract.

[@adversitycartoons4050]

Really good video with clips backing up what you’re saying. Almost on par with Every Frame a Painting, you’ll definitely surpass him one day if you keep this up. Great observations, thankful to KZbin for recommending me this

[@cristinabumbac151]

I love Arsenic and Old Lace...it's a movie that only Cary Grant could make!

[@harshnaini]

I love that movie

[@stephenward7856]

Great job, man! Two thumbs up!

[@steveoshow4832]

Excellent presentation. Amazing to hear clips of him talking about his art, assume must be from his one man show that he toured with in the last year of his life as CG never once gave an interview (print yes) on film which in itself is quite a remarkable achievement considering his fame. In 1962 he was offered James Bond, but was committed to film Charade, and didn’t like the idea of a 3 picture deal. And yet if you watch Charade with the thought of Bond imo CG would have been fantastic as the first Bond on his last mission just before he retires his 007. Subsequent Bonds could have seen him take up as M. However I believe he did the right thing and retired at the top leaving us all with a body of work that still resonates to this day 😎👌

[@nhmooytis7058]

Great vid, thanks!😊

[@aryadevghosh5522]

Most needed video ever

[@Richard_Broom_Photography]

A great video. Thank you.

[@rmacfarlane]

Love it!

[@ojacobsen3727]

Thanks! This was so much more astute than almost all other video essays I've seen on this platform. Really good connections drawn to contemporary actors too. Famously Lucas and Spielberg talk of Bogart and the Treasure of the Sierra Madre as influences for Raiders, but it's really true that Ford's performance is a good deal more Grant. Never thought of that. Did Grant really invent this character? I can't think of a precedent, Chaplin and Keaton's personas were not really romantic leads. But like them we sympathize with Grant because he isn't really taken seriously in his world. I suspect that's also part of what makes North by North West so compelling as a thriller, this guy seems so out of his depth, more so than James Stewart, who wanted the part, would have been. But he's also too funny to be really believed. You understand why the cops won't believe him when they return to the house in the first act. Clooney has been compared to Grant a lot of course, but could you imagine him in North by Northwest? I'm not sure he could play the pain.

[@mindconcept]

Superb.

[@kindnessfirst9670]

Everybody- including Cary himself.

[@Skullkan6]

Commenting for exposure for you

[@javierrodrigueztorca7875]

El mismo Cary grant queria ser cary grant!no se puede explicar con palabras el magnetismo infinito que poseia…

[@mikaxms]

Thanks for mentioning which movie a certain clip is from using the subtitles!

[@romanclay1913]

Archie Leach: "Even I want to be Cary Grant."

[@bethelle9099]

Grant, the most debonair on screen comedian that there ever was!!!!!!!

[@myperspectiveisimnotblind]

Immediately recognized Hurwitz' score for La La Land

[@emmanuelmondesir]

Grant would have made a great Superman.

[@andreanatali7334]

Grandissimo attore bravo ed elegante un icona indimenticabile semplicemente inimitabile favoloso❤❤

[@geraldstiling3735]

Oh that famous quote. "Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. But I need to be to be Cary Grant".📜 I live in Bristol England his bronze statue is life size and is frequently moved🙄 around .

[@dinobuick]

Clooney doesn:t even make a pimple on Gary Grant's rear end.

[@jean-francoisbouzereau6258]

Grant was unique in that he was both funny and handsome. Comic actors (Lewis, Lemmon) were physically ordinary, and good looking ones (Peck, Newman) were awfully serious.

[@klyanadkmorr]

My ode to Cary Grant, Cary Grant - Eternal Kisses tribute - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXOwmJeMoLqod6s - I was a fan girl in my teens catching as many showings weekend latenight or afternoon oldies shown on cable then I now have about all his movies on my computer media drives, only 2 I just cannot ever rewatch not because of him.

[@thesaintst1851]

Definitely NOT Hugh Grant … Clooney?.. absolutely

[@woodyobi]

Grant da man..

[@Nic-tg2ei]

You seem o miss ou pronouncing he le er 't'. Where did it go?

[@Naqvioski]

This is what Supreman needs to be.

[@stevoglez]

You should put subtitles, some things are incomprehensible

[@fredricclack7137]

⭐ Lord... 🤔

[@steroq6699]

Everybody wants to be Jimmy Stewart 🤞

[@bettymohr2784]

No way is George Clooney like Cary Grant! Did Clooney persuade you to add him to this film on Cary Grant?

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Comparing Hugh Grant with Cary Grant ?!?!? Seriously ?!

[@George_M_]

Clooney doesn't do Mid-Atlantic accent and honestly without affectations like that I can't see a parallel to Clooney. Also, Clooney plays exactly one one character.

[@zarinaa1135]

So you're saying his masculinity is the best because it's non-toxic? I can grant you that

[@AchtungEnglander]

Please do not quote Pauline Kael in anything. That critic did not understand the medium she purported to be an expert in but got so much wrong, its embarrassing.

[@andreadaleyutronebel5894]

hoity toity aren't you?

[@bradtorville5526]

Yeah. No. As a straight male, I enjoyed his work and have watched nearly all of his films over the years but no, never wanted to BE him. There were plenty of rumors back then about him and Randolph Scott and I really could care less if he had been a closeted homosexual or even a bisexual. That was his business and no one else's. He did have an unhappy number of failed marriages but whether that was due to his sexuality or just living in Hollywood with all of the madness that surrounds that sort of thing, I never looked at him or say someone like John Wayne as ideal men that I aspired to be more like. Nope, not at all.

[@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457]

The 'Nope at all' is suspicious.

[@carltornell]

Ridiculous. Nobody gets close to him.

[@cmcc3721]

I'm a red blooded male but George Clooney is a stretch. Hugh Grants just laughable.

[@robertwheatley9153]

"Everybody Wants to Be Cary Grant (Video Essay)" -Really? When it was revealed what he was secretly did they still want to be Cary Grant...........

[@mauricioduron3193]

I did. From first acquaintance with his onscreen persona. Still do, as a matter of fact.

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

What the hell is wrong with you?

[@do9138]

Wrong. Not everyone wants to be a man. Why would we want one of those funny looking little appendages that only functions half the time?

[@nhmooytis7058]

Or a hole that smells like Friskies tuna 😂

[@therealgodessisis]

I doubt if everyone wants to be a closeted homosexual.

[@nhmooytis7058]

Or a YT troll with the IQ of a flip flop 😂

[@gordonhaire9206]

Grant over acted. He never really graduated from Vaudeville. I wanted to be David Niven or Errol Flynn. Cloony is so much better than Grant.

[@drkimy]

Not me! He was gay!!!!!

[@mauricioduron3193]

For argument's sake: Archibald Leach was the living person's name to whom you attribute said sexual orientation. The clip tells us that "Cary Grant" was the make-believe persona onscreen. It would therefore be understood (to those of us who played the clip in it's entirety), that it's the fictional heterosexual onscreen Cary Grant that "everybody" would want to be. Few should object to that.

[@akrenwinkle]

@@mauricioduron3193 Like many screen stars of the Golden Age of film, Mr. Leach used a stage name that became his own personal name and how the world knew him. I assure you, nobody called him Archie, except possibly former lover Orry-Kelly who lived with Archie before pre-stardom. I assure you that he did not sign checks and contracts Archibald Leach. Archibald Leach became Cary Grant in every way. I also assure you that no matter what hetero activity Cary Grant was involved with on the big screen, his gay status came through to those who have been around the block. To the many who HAVEN'T been around the block, yes, Cary Grant was the epitome of hetero attractiveness. drkimy, maybe untactful, has the right to say that, despite the absurd title of the video, that no, he didn't want to be Cary Grant, and why.

[@mauricioduron3193]

@@akrenwinkle The title deals precisely with the perception that audiences at the time held about the movie persona. From the 1930s through the early 1970s, other than among industry insiders, perhaps, nothing untoward was said about Cary Grant. Which is why everybody wanted "to be" him. Do remind us of quotes of any such doubts from publications at the time, when featured alongside Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Grace Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn and others. I recall no hint of scandal even regarding Rock Hudson or Troy Donahue before the early or mid- 1960s, which were quickly suppressed.

[@akrenwinkle]

@@mauricioduron3193 Your age, please? You don't know Troy Donahue from Tab Hunter.

[@mauricioduron3193]

@@akrenwinkle Is that the best that you can do to respond to my comment on the Cary Grant issue? Honestly. How disappointing. You seen to have learned how to avoid straightforward answers from dishonest politicians. Tell you what: leave out the Troy Donahue reference and, instead, address the core message from me about Mr. Grant. Do so, please. I'll be expecting no further distraccións.

[@gaetaneguitard7011]

Bad actor, his hair never mouve. But nice looking.

[@nhmooytis7058]

Your opinion, went full Tard 😂😂😂