Product Description
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Cary Grant remains one of the most popular and admired leading
men of Hollywood's silver screen. Five rare classic films from
his early career are captured forever in the Cary Grant: Screen
Legend Collection. Featuring co-stars Myrna Loy, Sylvia Sidney,
Joan Bennett and Walter Pidgeon, these films showcase the career
of a talented, witty and debonair actor who will be remembered
forever as a true screen legend. Thirty Day Princess In this
rags-to-riches tale, a newspaper publisher (Cary Grant) finds
himself falling for a foreign princess (Sylvia Sidney), only to
suspect that there is some other power behind the throne. Kiss
and Make Up Beauty really is only skin deep when a famed
beautician (Cary Grant) marries a former client and discovers
that her shallow behavior makes his faithful secretary much more
attractive. Wings in the Dark When an inventor (Cary Grant) is
tragically blinded, his courage inspires his aviatrix wife (Myrna
Loy) to take on an increasingly dangerous mission in this tale of
undying love and devotion. Big Brown Eyes A precocious newspaper
reporter (Joan Bennett) and an unusually motivated detective
(Cary Grant) take on a case of insurance fraud, hidden identities
and murder! Wedding Present Two star reporters (Cary Grant and
Joan Bennett) find their playful newsroom relationship running
out of ink when she becomes engaged to a writer and he is
promoted to editor.
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Cary Grant was on the cusp of stardom when he made the five
Para films included in this nicely priced Screen Legend
Collection. You won't find any classics here, but this
entertaining collection makes it clear that Grant's beloved
screen persona was developing quickly. Para executive B.P.
Schulberg had signed 28-year-old Grant to a five-year contract in
1932, and the British-born actor had already appeared in 15 films
by the time he appeared in 1934's Thirty Day Princess, the first
and arguably best feature in this three-disc set. Cowritten by
Preston Sturges ( /b?node=462570 ) and bearing familiar
trademarks of Sturges's later screwball classics, the plot finds
newspaper publisher Grant falling for a visiting princess (Sylvia
Sidney), only to discover that his affections are wrapped up in a
breezy case of mistaken identity. Sidney plays two roles with
seamless elegance (including impressive split-screen scenes in
which she appears with herself), and Grant's suave demeanor is
employed to good effect. The little-known gem Kiss and Make-Up
was released barely two months later in 1934, with Grant in Paris
as a Max Factor-like cosmetics mogul who marries a glamorous
former client (Genevieve Tobin) but finds true love with his
faithful secretary (Helen Mack) when he comes to his senses. The
great character actor Edward Everett Horton costars as Mack's
would-be suitor, giving this overlooked comedy an additional
boost of amusement.
1935's Wings in the Dark will interest film historians because
it was cowritten by pioneering female writer-director Nell
Shipman, whose Howard Hawks-ian sense of adventure is on full
display in an otherwise creaky melodrama in which inventor and
aviator Grant is blinded by a explosion, and emerges from
self-pity to stage a daring air rescue of his aviatrix wife
(Myrna Loy). After being loaned out to RKO for his breakthrough
role in 1935's Sylvia lett site Katharine Hepburn, Grant
returned to Para for Big Brown Eyes (released in April
1936), playing a crime-beat reporter paired with Joan Bennett in
a lightweight mystery that benefits greatly from director Raoul
Walsh's facility with streetwise plots and gritty handling of a
baby-killer subplot involving jewel thieves Walter Pigeon and
Lloyd Nolan. Wedding Present followed six months later (October
'36), reuniting Grant and Bennett as competitive reporters whose
relationship is strained when Grant is promoted to editor. Like
all five films in this Screen Legend Collection, it's a light and
thoroughly enjoyable vehicle for Para players including
William Demarest, who went on to character-role stardom in the
comedies of Preston Sturges. Cary Grant is in fine form here, and
his music-hall experience is put to good use in several
lightweight musical numbers. All in all, you can't go wrong with
a five-film set for this price, especially since Grant was
already showing a canny awareness of his own soon-to-be-iconic
image. --Jeff Shannon