People have an unusual relationship with celebrities, especially actors. We know their every expression and vocalization but we don’t really know them. This false sense of intimacy helps some actors become more than just performers. They become movie stars. The limited series Archie relays the facts about one of those iconic stars, Cary Grant, but his essence remains elusive despite remarkable acting turns.
Out of all of Classic Hollywood, the good looks and plummy voice of Cary Grant are instantly recognizable. Archibald Leach was born in 1904 in Bristol, England. He would parlay a career with a troupe of comedians and acrobats into acting and take the screen name of Cary Grant. For over thirty years, he would star in dozens of films. Many of them are award-winning classics. They range from early comedies like She Done Him Wrong to 1950s Hitchcock films like North By Northwest. Outside of his professional life, Grant would marry five times and leave behind one daughter.
This series stays away from Grant’s on-set experiences for the most part and focuses on his personal life. Archie aims to give the viewer the reality behind a matinee idol facade but there are no surprising revelations. There is, however, an interesting life brought to the screen by talented actors.
“I made him up to survive.”
In 1961, Grant (Jason Isaacs) is separated from his third wife and gets his first glimpse of his Dyan Cannon (Laura Aikman, in an appealing performance) on television. She is much younger than him but he is relentless in his pursuit of her. The bulk of this series focuses on their romance. Cannon was the most famous of Grant’s wives and the mother of his only child, Jennifer. It makes sense that their relationship is given so much screen time because Dyan and Jennifer serve as executive producers of this series.
Cannon’s memoir “Dear Cary: My Life With Cary Grant” also serves as part of the source material here. That explains why the content that’s most unfavorable toward Grant comes out of their interaction. He is not physically abusive but it is the typical domineering behavior of an older man toward his much-younger paramour. Cary cares about Dyan but is not emotionally equipped to be an equal romantic partner. The worst is when he gets rid of Dyan’s dog when they bring baby Jennifer home, claiming it is too dangerous for the infant. (Come on, Cary, the dog was tiny!)
Fatherhood began the final act of Cary’s life. He didn’t act again after his daughter was born. He did tour the U.S. in the last years of his life with a show called “A Conversation With Cary Grant” which serves as a framing device for this series. It’s a bit clumsily handled. The events between Cary and Dyan in the ’60s are treated as a separate storyline, and Cary’s early life is presented in flashbacks in the ’80s tour scenes. That should’ve been more cohesive.
“If you’re not careful, the past becomes a trap.”
Those flashbacks of Cary’s early life provide the most dramatic and emotionally resonant part of his story. After the death of his older brother when he was a kid, Cary’s mother experienced unimaginable grief. Cary’s useless father used this grief to have her committed to an asylum and told Cary she was dead. Then he left Cary to be raised by his mother. When he was in his late 20s, Cary learned the truth and took care of his mother for the rest of her life. It’s like a melodrama Cary could’ve starred in.
However, that youthful experience helps explain why Cary would struggle to be successful at romantic relationships. And why he was so good at creating an alternate on-screen persona. Some critics may like to claim that Cary Grant always played himself but they neglect to mention that it often worked. And Jason Isaacs’ performance here works too. He doesn’t waste effort on trying to create the debonair and suave idea we have of Grant. Isaacs just tries to be a real person. He manages to mimic Cary’s famous voice fairly well too.
Though the beginning of Grant’s acting career is briefly dramatized, the viewer is left wondering if a stronger sense of who he was could be found in that part of his life rather than when Dyan knew him. The sweetness of his connection with his daughter feels like the strongest insight into his personality. A biographical series like this should amount to more than that. It’s wonderful to spend time with a legend of Old Hollywood and add to our knowledge of him. But at the end of Archie, Cary Grant still feels like a mostly remote figure. We recognize the movie star and not Archie Leach.
Archie is streaming on Britbox starting December 7.
