Which movies do you prefer overall
Grant:
Suspicion
Notorious
To Catch A Thief
North By Northwest
Stewart:
Rope
Rear Window
Vertigo
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Stewart
shareI like Grant's.
Its interesting.
The two men were so well matched for Hitchcock:
Four films each.
Two ultra-classics(Notorious, North by Northwest; Rear Window, Vertigo)
Two "good ones" (Suspicion, To Catch a Thief; Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much.)
But Grant was much harder to get for movies than Stewart. Grant turned down Foreign Correspondent, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Spellbound, Rope(which Stewart took for lower pay and lesser financial backing for the movie.)
I just think Grant was more of the Compleat Movie Star. Suave, handsome, well built for shirtless scenes(Stewart far less so -- check out his torso for his rubdown in Rear Window.) They both had great voices, but Grant's was more virile.
And North by Northwest is a rollicking lollapalooza of a romantic spy chase adventure thriller...all the way to Mount Rushmore for the climax.
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Both.
shareBoth.
shareStewart
shareYet another vote for both.
shareI return to note that I think James Stewart - a very major star in the 30's , 40s, and 50s -- just doesn't seem to have successfully travelled to modern day(for watching) as Cary Grant did.
Its pretty simple really. Cary Grant was a "manly glamour star." He could take his shirt off in movies when Stewart simply could not. And in the fifties and early 60's, Grant maintained his handsome looks even as James Stewart started to look simply too old to be the romantic target of Grace Kelly or Kim Novak.
Stewart, like Grant, had a great VOICE , and that really carried him on in his career.
I think what is also interesting is to see James Stewart as perhaps "perfect" for the fifties America that he served -- more middle-class, more small town, more religious, and yes, more white. He was the epitome of the "regular guy" in the 50's even as he often played characters who were mean(his cowboys) , craven(Rear Window), or a little bit crazy (Vertigo.) From what I've read, American audiences much preferred Jimmy Stewart to the rather "aloof and too perfect" Cary Grant.
Anyway, I still vote for Cary Grant as the more long lasting of Hitchcock's two major male leads, but..James Stewart clearly ruled his time in the 40's and 50's(less some WW2 service.)
It is pretty simple, Hitchcock used Stewart for "everyman" roles, and Cary Grant for the kind of glamour roles where the audience wishes they could be like that character.
If I'm the only one who still appreciates Jimmy Stewart, I mean nobody's topped Grant for being the "Men want to be him, women want him" guy, it's because our idea of the Everyman has changed. Today's average Dad doesn't have that kind of aw-shucks mannerisms, fashions in behavior change, and today's everyman is more insecure and tries harder to be cool, he's more Matt Damon or Chris Rock. If Stewart seems like a relic from the early 20th century it's because he seemed to embody his times, as well as being a damn good actor.
But well. Everyone still wants to be Cary Grant.
It is pretty simple, Hitchcock used Stewart for "everyman" roles, and Cary Grant for the kind of glamour roles where the audience wishes they could be like that character.
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Yes. Truffaut talked it through a little too quickly in his interview book with Hitchcock: "They would at first seem to be interchangeable, but they are not. Stewart is more emotional. Grant is more humorous."
Hey, it was great that Truffaut got that classic interview but he also seems to have gotten things a bit wrong from time to time(or the translation wasn't good.)
Stewart emotional -- yes. That man COULD make his face and voice contort in deep emotion and that made him perfect for some of the more agonizing moments of suspense in Hitchcock...and the failed obsession in Vertigo.
Grant humorous? Oh somewhat, sure. To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest are full of one liners for Grant to coolly toss around. But Grant could also play (for Hitchcock) to a dark, mysterious and unknowable side(Suspicion, Notorious) and the seriousness of his battle to save the woman and beat the bad guys in North by Northwest.
CONT
Stewart got one Hitchcock role that Grant backed out of: the somewhat villainous(egotistical) school professor in Rope. Stewart cost less in the role than Grant would have -- a reality of Hollywood.
I can see Grant as the "family man" played by Stewart in The Man Who Knew Too Much. But I can't see Stewart as the suave ex-jewel thief(sometimes shirtless in swim trunks) in To Catch a Thief. And though I know that Stewart wanted the lead in North by Northwest, he was too old and folksy for it by then. Had Grant not done NXNW, I can see it with William Holden or Rock Hudson but not with James Stewart. (MGM wanted Gregory Peck.)
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If I'm the only one who still appreciates Jimmy Stewart,
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Oh, I think Stewart's primacy in film history is assured -- but a younger generation (check these boards) just finds him too old looking for romances with Grace Kelly and Kim Novak.
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I mean nobody's topped Grant for being the "Men want to be him, women want him" guy, it's because our idea of the Everyman has changed.
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Interesting. James Stewart made a similar comparison of his screen persona to JOHN WAYNE. Stewart said "John Wayne is who every man wants to be, I'm who they really ARE." (And watch a laid back, masculine Wayne just push the over-emotional Stewart off the screen in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance -- Stewart was good in that film, but almost sacrificial to Wayne's magnetic screen force.)
CONT
--- Today's average Dad doesn't have that kind of aw-shucks mannerisms, fashions in behavior change, and today's everyman is more insecure and tries harder to be cool, he's more Matt Damon or Chris Rock. If Stewart seems like a relic from the early 20th century it's because he seemed to embody his times, as well as being a damn good actor.
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I agree with all of that. And this: in movies like Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much, Stewart IS handsome -- just not Cary Grant handsome. Like many males (movie star or not), Stewart actually got more handsome as he aged -- for awhile. Then he just started looking old and had to depend on his famous voice and manner to get him through. After 1958 with TWO movies opposite Kim Novak where he looked too old for her...Stewart shifted his career to playing loners(his cowboys, yes, but also the lawyer in Anatomy of a Murder), dads(usually in comedies) and men of chaste romance (with Vera Miles in The FBI Story and Liberty Valance.)
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But well. Everyone still wants to be Cary Grant.
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Yep. Cary Grant said HE wanted to be Cary Grant.
Yes, everyone still wants to be Cary Grant. Even though suavity has totally gone out of style, men who complain that they can't wear board shorts to work still envy his suaveness! Hitchcock did give Grant a few bits of humor to work with, but mainly, he was hired to be sexy, and to appeal to the audience in every possible way.
And don't get me started on Jimmy Stewart in "Vertigo" again, I think the relationship in "Vertigo" is strangely believable, they are two people drawn together because of mutual damage and loneliness, and eventually bound by a web of guilt and madness, and age and looks don't matter in that kind of fucked-up relationship. Sorry, dude, gotta go and can't go on in detail.