CARY GRANT A Class Apart (VHS) [2004]

Cary Grant: A Class Apart (2004) (TV)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388815/

Co-narrated by Helen Mirren and Jeremy Northam, "Cary Grant: A Class Apart" (1:27:05) is a feature-length 2004 PBS/TCM documentary on North by Northwest's star. With interviews from colleagues, two ex-wives, and an assortment of admirers (authors, historians, critics) along with readings of excerpts from his autobiography, this detailed profile spans Grant's life and career. It begins with his tough childhood and moves to his slow rise to Hollywood leading man, proceeding to sample nearly every major film he made.

It's not merely a celebration, for the piece turns critical in discussing the actor's period of complacency (in which he turned down films like Roman Holiday) and his financial-driven decisions. Besides discussing his cinematic hits and misses and the suave persona he could neither live up to nor shake, the documentary addresses the rumors of homosexuality that dogged him and housemate Randolph Scott, his marriage breakdowns and affairs, and his experimentation with then-legal LSD. It's an excellent and thorough biography that will reveal new things to all but the most devoted Cary Grant fans