Cary Grant famously said, Everyone wants to be Cary Grant--even I want to be Cary Grant. His development of the movie-star image required serious work, but he also played a variety of characters that demanded many different performing talents. He was equally skilled in screwball farces such
as
The Awful Truth, dark suspense films like
Notorious, romantic love stories such as
An Affair to Remember, domestic comedies similar to
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and social dramas including
None but the Lonely Heart.
Some Versions of Cary Grant is focused on the art of one of the most
admired actors in Hollywood history. In a lively style accompanied by many illustrations, author James Naremore analyses Grant's performances in a gallery of his best films, demonstrating exceptional skill and a greater range than that with which he is usually credited.
Discussing his most famous and forgotten films alike, Naremore's book shows how Grant adjusted his technique to the different styles and working methods of Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Leo McCarey, and George Cukor, and why he was as important to classic Hollywood as any of its major directors,
writers, or photographers. The result is a close study of an individual actor over the course of his career, and a model for the appreciation of screen acting in general.
