Chapter 13

Abstract

Abstract In 1937, Cary Grant’s career as a freelance star began with three screwball comedies that established him as the master of this genre. Topper (1937), made by the independent producer Hal Roach, initiated this sharp upturn in his career. This stylish screwball comedy brought out a new playful, wry, ironic dimension in Grant’s performance style. Improvisation on the set was key to his new screen persona, and he was given even greater reign to improvise in his first Columbia film, Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937). Legend has it that he was uncomfortable working with McCarey, but McCarey helped him to mould the Cary Grant star persona, unique for combining debonair and slapstick qualities. He signed a contract with Columbia Pictures that gave him the power to choose which films he made, and control over both his publicity and his wardrobe, but it was a non-exclusive contract, allowing him to make his next film at RKO Pictures. In Bringing Up Baby (1938), director Howard Hawks encouraged a frenzied edge to his performance. This is perfectly exemplified in the famous scene in which Grant leaps in the air, shouting “I just went gay all of the sudden”—a line he improvised on the set and one that demonstrates the liberated, unconventional mores of screwball comedy. Bringing Up Baby had a mixed reception on first release in 1938, but in later years, through repeated revivals and screenings on television, it became one of his best known and most admired films.