The Quick Report

The Top 10 Cary Grant Films

Cary Grant was a bonafide superstar from the 30s to the 60s. He was such a great actor that audiences wanted more and more of him! Here are the top 10 Cary Grant films you should check out!

The Awful Truth (1937)

The Awful Truth
Photo by Columbia Pictures

The Awful Truth is about a married couple who decides to go their separate ways. However, leaving each other might not be as easy as they thought! Cary Grant does some great slapstick comedy throughout this movie, so you get to see his comedic chops at work.

Holiday (1938)

Holiday
Photo by Columbia Pictures

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn had great chemistry in Holiday. Grant plays a man in love with a rich woman whose family is not fond of his idea of a holiday while he is young. Hepburn’s character loves his idea though and wishes he would do what he wants and not what the family wants him to do. Grant then realizes his true destiny!

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story
Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The Philadelphia Story is about a woman (Katherine Hepburn) who is about to be remarried. However, her ex-husband and a tabloid writer come into her life on the eve of her new marriage and she goes down a path of self-discovery. Grant plays her ex-husband along with Jimmy Stewart as the tabloid writer, and when the two characters are around Hepburn’s character, a lot of whacky things seem to happen.

Penny Serenade (1941)

Penny Serenade
Photo by Columbia Pictures

Get ready to cry while watching Penny Serenade. This film will break your heart, but Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are so good that it is worth the heartbreak. The film follows the story of a husband and wife who try to have children and eventually try adoption. The adoption process is not as smooth as they would hope and they go through a lot of trials. Watch this film with a box of tissues nearby.

The Talk of the Town (1942)

Talk of the Town
Photo by Columbia Pictures

In The Talk of the Town, Cary Grant plays an escaped prisoner who is accused of arson and murder. Jean Arthur’s character finds him in the cottage that she is renting to Ronald Coleman’s law professor. Comedy gold ensues when Arthur tries to hide Grant, but Grant just won’t stay hidden.

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Arsenic and Old Lace
Photo by Warner Bros.

Arsenic and Old Lace is an extremely wild film. Grant plays a bachelor who, despite publicly stating that he thought marriage is old fashioned, is now getting married. And then you have a couple of serial murderers tossed into the mix. They aren’t exactly what you would think they would be — they are Grant’s character’s two aunts who seek out lonely old men and kill them with arsenic in their wine. Add in a killer who got plastic surgery to look like Boris Karloff and you have a bizarre time on your hands. Bizarre yet wonderful!

The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

The Bishop's Wife
Photo by Samuel Goldwyn Productions

The Bishop’s Wife stars Cary Grant as an angel who is sent down to earth to help David Niven’s bishop. The whole being an angel thing doesn’t stop a love triangle from forming between the two men and Loretta Young’s character. If you want a whimsical holiday film to watch, then The Bishop’s Wife is perfect for you!

An Affair to Remember (1957)

An Affair to Remember
Photo by Jerry Wald Productions

An Affair to Remember is another one of Cary Grant’s movies that you really need tissues nearby for. Two people meet while aboard a ship from Europe to the United States. They are both romantically involved with someone else and so they begin a friendship. Their friendship then deepens into romance and they tell each other that if they are free from their romantic partners in six months, then they should meet at the Empire State Building. What happens next is what will make you cry!

North by Northwest (1959)

North by Northwest
Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

North by Northwest is a Hitchcock film that follows Grant’s character through a case of mistaken identity. He is being chased by people who believe he is trying to stop them from illegal activities. The whole time you are wondering if he will get away or be caught!

Read More: The 10 Best Classic Film Onscreen Couples

Charade (1963)

Charade
Photo by Stanley Donen Films

Charade is a story about a widowed woman who finds out her husband hid a lot of money from a group of men who fought with him in World War II. These men then try to pursue her to get what they think is rightfully theirs. You never really know Cary Grant’s real identity (he has quite a few different names) or whose side he is actually on.

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