My Jon Bon has competition for my affections!
I have become obsessed, and totally in love with Archibald Alec Leach...CARY GRANT! Ok, so he'd be over a hundred years old, but hey it's my fantasy :)~
I have been checking out movies from the library for quite a while now. A bit ago I decided to start watching the classics. There are so many I have never seen and I intended to start with Casablanca. Of course it was already checked out, so I decided that Breakfast at Tiffany's was the next best choice. I adored the movie and began getting Audrey Hepburn movies. I also had to read about her and finally watched the Jennifer Love Hewitt movie of Audrey's life. For some reason I always pictured Ms. Hepburn's life to have been one of priviledge. Boy, was I wrong. She had a very hard childhood. And she was very self depricating. One thing that struck me about the movies I watched was that she is obviously a young lady and her love interests were OLDER men! Seems very "forward" for the era of her movies. So far, with many cinematic choices still to go, my favorites are Breakfast at Tiffany's and Roman Holiday.
Then I took out Funny Girl and Funny Lady. I thirsted for information on Fanny Brice. I laboriously read her biography for hours on end. I wish I could find some video of her roles. She was a comic genius who portrayed herself as a poor child, when she really had many years of a comfortable childhood. She completely recreated herself to suit the needs of the time and her career. She was quite the business woman. And hopelessly in love with Nicky Arnstein who unlike the sauve gambler he was portrayed as in Funny Girl he was a suave criminal! He virtually abandoned Fanny and their two children. I guess it is true that the hardest of times can create the funniest of times...
One day, I found a 5 movie boxed set of Cary Grant movies...Ohhh la la! My lucky day! The first movie was Holiday. LOVED IT! And so began my infatuation with the oh so handsome, funny and charming Cary Grant. I love a light-hearted romantic comedy from any era, but these movies ("screwball comedies" as they were then dubbed)have captured my heart. And so did Mr. Grant (NOT Ed Asner! tee hee hee!) I watched Holiday 3 times. Then I watched The Awful Truth...repeatedly! His Girl Friday was interesting to me. His character was every bit as suave, but not so debonnaire. He was rather mean, but the eyes and the voice with his own special accent and the CLEFT CHIN...oh my gawd...that chin! Needless to say I swooned! I was not as thrilled with Only Angels Have Wings, but still a good vehicle for my man! This movie was attributed to the supposed line...JUDY, JUDY, JUDY, but he really only said JUDY one time! I replayed the scene a number of times just to be sure (and see my guy some more!) I think that my favorite, so far is An Affair To Remember. Nobody dons a tux like Cary (see, I am now on a first name basis with him!) And even though he is a wolf in sheeps clothing, he is charming and quick witted, loves his grandma! I cried as he stood, in the rain, at the Empire State Buiding while being stood up by his one true love, I have a thing for men's hands and he has strong hands that I want to hold me! And when he wiped the tears from Deborah Kerr's cheek...I was smitten. Me thinks I need to watch it AGAIN before it goes back!
So now I am reading a Bio of him. If what is written is true, he was not the nicest man. He was a diva. He drank a LOT. He was cheap. He worked for J. Edgar Hoover as a spy, watching and reporting on his then wife, Barbara Hutton (heiress to the Woolworth fortune) and like so many of the hearthrobs of that era was homosexual. He was in a long-term relationship with Randolf Scott...longer then any of his marriages. It seems even while he was married (as was Scott). He had 5 marriages and 1 daughter by Dyan Cannon. And spent years tripping on LSD.
But I don't care, because remember this is MY fantasy! If he were alive today and 50 years younger we would be together! He would flash that smile at me, caress me with those strong hands and swallow me up in that cleft chin of his. We would sit together on the love seat and watch each of the 72 movies he made while sipping champagne. He would make me laugh and then he would say...maureen, maureen, maureen.
Until next time...
