Cary Grant's acrobatics
Is he really doing them? If so, how come he doesn't show this off in other movies?
shareSometimes an actor's best talents don't get a chance to shine as much as they should.
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MovieChat Forums > Holiday (1938) Discussion > Cary Grant's acrobatics
Is he really doing them?
you betcha... Grant was a circus acrobat. The company was British but it toured the US... which was what brought Grant to NYC where he tried his hand at acting...
If so, how come he doesn't show this off in other movies?
Well,just as Audrey Hepburn's dance training shows in the fluid quality of her movement and her posture in every scene, not just on the relatively rare occasions in which she actually dances on film, so Grant's whole presence on screen is of a guy who's completely at home in his body, which flows directly from his acrobatics training. He's normally playing sophisticates, but there's a real sense of coiled energy with him, so that he's never *just* a rich guy. Consider how it works in something like The Philadelphia Story: the idle rich have never looked/felt less idle than when Grant's playing them.
Beyond that, in lots of films there's at least a joke or two built around Grant doing a double-take of some sort. It often happens quite quickly and is very funny... and it suddenly dawns on you that not everyone *could* physically do such a thing (e.g., there's a funny moment in an elevator in _My Favorite Wife_ where Grant suddenly slides sideways as the door closes). One suddenly becomes aware that Grant's got all this physical comedy talent, maybe not quite up there with Chaplin and Keaton (Grant's coming out of the golden age of physical comedy), but he'd give Peter Sellars, Jim Carrey and Dick van Dyke runs for their money I'd say.
And, of course, famously, at the end of _Bringing Up Baby_ that *is* Grant doing all the acrobatic, swinging around the collapsing dinosaur skeleton (Kate Hepburn used a double, but Kate H. was famously braver around the leopards than Grant was! They're quite a team, those two.).
Lastly go here:
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/009269.html
for a brilliant frame by frame analysis of the final backflip in Holiday by another circus performer, who finds it technically very impressive. share
Thanks, swanstep, for a great analysis! : )
shareHe also does great a great pratfalls, especially in "The Awful Truth". So the talent is there in many of his movies, just not always so obviously.
"You may very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment."
Watching 'Holiday' right now - so much fun.
Thank you for the comments - it makes me appreciate the movie (and Cary Grant) even more.
And what about that scene where Hepburn jumps from Grant's shoulders to the floor? I guess that's not her, but a stunt double.
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He actually does show off his acrobatics in other films (although not as clearly as in Holiday, where he's doing somersaults and backflips). Bringing Up Baby has multiple pratfalls, and Sylvia Scarlett also shows his physical prowess in pantomime and acrobatics. Another film that shows his ridiculously funny physicality is The Awful Truth - which has, to my mind, one of the funniest long extended falls in cinematic history - it just keeps going and going and going - this is all Grant's invention.
shareIn To Catch A Thief, we see Cary in action on the roof of a villa, though of course it was filmed when he was older (50 I think, playing younger). His character tells the insurance man that his skills as a cat burglar came from his early training as a circus performer, so it was at least mentioned if not demonstrated. Had it been made in his younger days we might have seen more athletic moves. But his physical presence makes it believable that he was able to scale walls and scamper over rooftops with the grace of a cat.
The one at the end of the movie looks like a stunt man to me.
shareI agree with you. Whoever originally answered this question provided an excellent analysis and commentary, but the flip in final scene definitely appeared to be a stunt man. They made sure his face wasn't visible and Grant's hair was neatly combed back in place when he rose. Great movie though.
shareI did not see anyone mention "Arsenic and Old Lace". He jumped around quite a bit in that movie, one of my favorites.
shareIf you replay those acrobat scenes you will noticed an edit...then it cuts to the acrobat action with no one facing the camera..as the action ends you will notice the person facing AWAY from the camera...then there is another edit and we see Cary Grant. A typical stuntman substitution.
shareI think Grant did some acrobatics in "Monkey Business" after taking that youth inducing potion.
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