The Cary Grant Signature Collection (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House / Destination Tokyo / The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer / My Favorite Wife / Night and Day)

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Greatest movie star ever? How can you argue against Cary Grant, the graceful clown, the ironic romantic? Equally at home in an Alfred Hitchcock suspense piece or a Howard Hawks screwball comedy, the superb Mr. Grant (born Archie Leach) could handle just about anything. And it's a testament to his appeal that this boxed set, which contains not a single great movie, is nevertheless an entertaining catalog of Grant's splendid run during the 1940s.

The earliest picture, and a sheer delight, is 1940's My Favorite Wife, one of Grant's blissful pairings with the wonderful Irene Dunne. He's about to remarry when his first wife washes up again after having been lost on a desert island (with he-man Randolph Scott) for seven years. Destination Tokyo is a WWII submarine picture, with Grant as the stalwart skipper--slightly odd casting, but he brings it off with admirable professionalism. (The film's propagandistic jabs at demonizing the Japanese enemy have not aged well.)

Night and Day is one of those composer biographies that veers rather radically from reality, with Grant playing Cole Porter. A ton of great songs and the canny casting of Cary as the champagne-sophisticate Porter make it passably de-lovely, despite the whitewash of the composer's real-life story. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer puts Grant in deliciously antic mode, mooned over by teenager Shirley Temple but preferring the company of her older sister, Myrna Loy. He re-teams with Loy in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, an artless but regularly hilarious tale of Manhattanites whose Connecticut fixer-upper becomes a money pit. --Robert Horton

Description

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House The Bachelor and The Bobby-Soxer My Favorite Wife Destination Tokyo Night and Day

Customer Reviews:

Why can't they provide REgion free DVDs.......2007-06-23

I am one Cary Grant fan and it is distressing that I cannot view these products. Grant has fans worldwide!!!!

Nice little set.......2007-06-14

I like the other Cary Grant box set better but this one is nice to have

Entertaining .......2007-02-22

Thoroughly recommended. For lovers of old classics & Cary Grant these are a must to have in your library. I particularly enjoyed watching a much older Shirley Temple in The Batchelor & the Bobby Soxer.

Poor quality.......2007-01-19

Item arrived in timely manner, but item appeared used, DVD cases were chipped and broken only one DVD had plastic wrapping.

Excellent Buy.......2007-01-04

This was a high quality packaged item suitable for saving and showing off. The movies are also terrific and will be watched again and again. I was impressed with the quality of the packaging for the price of this set. I expeceted the interior cases to be minimal, but they are first rate.

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Destination to a great movie....
Destination Tokyo
Had To Return
We can win if we can take it.
Cary Grant? The skipper of an American sub? No way.

Destination Tokyo
Starring: Cary Grant , John Garfield , Alan Hale , John Ridgely , and Dane Clark
Director: Delmer Daves
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0001WTWWE
Release Date: 2004-06-01

Amazon.com

The offbeat casting of Cary Grant as a submarine captain pays off in this tense WWII underwater picture; he ably trades in his sophistication for the sweaty close quarters of an action movie. The mission? Infiltrate the mined harbor of Tokyo itself, a feat bookended by a brief confrontation in the Aleutians and a depth-charge chase through the open sea. Skipper Grant is supported by the usual stock crew of Navy melting-pot types, with John Garfield drawing duty as the resident dame-crazy fantasist. (Somebody forgot to put the saltpeter in his chow, apparently.) The solid action alternates with dialogue that tends toward the schmaltzy or jingoistic (the movie's become somewhat notorious for its unusually nasty propagandistic jabs at the Japanese enemy). Destination Tokyo was the directing debut of Delmer Daves, who would later excel in smart Westerns such as 3:10 to Yuma. --Robert Horton

Description

World War II submarine the U.S.S. Copperfin must complete a secret mission in Japanese waters. Film is as much about the relationship between the naval men as it is about their heroic mission. John Forsythe's film debut.

DVD Features:
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

Destination to a great movie...........2007-08-12

Early World War II movie with Cary Grant playing the captain of a submarine that must sneak into Tokyo Harbor and retrieve information that will be vital to the up-coming Doolitle raid. Surrounded by a thoughtful screenplay and well cast actors, this movie is a must have.

Destination Tokyo.......2007-06-21

Notwithstanding some explicit anti-Japanese sentiment, crew rough-housing and longings for home that feel a touch sappy in today's unsentimental world, "Destination" stands as a first-rate propaganda picture, released at a time when we needed it most. Grant is fabulous playing against his usual well-tailored image in a modern war movie, one of his few. His Cassidy is steady but human--a born leader. His crew is also tops, with young star-to-be John Garfield a stand-out as a female-crazed sailor aptly dubbed "Wolf." And the movie only improves the closer we get to Japan, and to the outcome of the sub's delicate and dangerous assignment.

Had To Return.......2007-03-19

I was rather disappointed because this DVD would not play on my DVD player. The way it was recorded could not be read. I am searching for this movie recorded by another source.

We can win if we can take it........2007-01-31

Unless you were around and aware of things in 1943 - I wasn't - watching DESTINATION: TOKYO is going to be a bit like taking a trip to a foreign country. It's a war flick made at the mid-point of America's involvement in World War Two. Like a lot of in-war (1941-1945) Hollywood war movies it takes place in the Pacific theater. America is planning a bombing raid on the Japanese mainland, and they need to land a meteorologist on the outskirts of Tokyo - into the heart of Enemyland, in other words - to take weather readings, gather information on shore installations, etc. The submarine USS Copperfin, commanded by Cary Grant, is ordered to transport the meteorologist to Tokyo and, hopefully, bring him back alive.

Hollywood movies made while the war was raging, and still in doubt, provided information, inspiration, and a more or less accurate reflection of the national spirit. If not complete feel-good movies - the war wasn't going that good for the Allieds in 1943 - they generally reflected a gritty determination to get the job done and, all too often, depicted heroism in defeat. There's a reason these movies are packed with clichéd characters - the fast-talking kid from the big city, the slow-talking kid from the small town in Iowa, or Wisconsin, or Montana, the wise old vet who just wanted to get home to his wife and kids and easy chair. Those were the men who were Over There, the sons and uncles, brothers and fathers of the audience. John Garfield plays the fast-talker in DESTINATION: TOKYO, appropriately named Wolf, who has a swell dish in every port and a long, elaborate, and filmable story about each (plenty of flashback action in this one.) Alan Hale plays `Cookie,' the gruff mess cook who has a soft side he shows when it's most needed. William Prince is the agnostic pharmacy attendant named `Pills' who finds his doubts about the existence of a higher being evaporating when a higher power is most needed. Unlike later war movies, the characters can be abrasive at times, but none are pushed to the margins.

So, if a movie like DESTINATION: TOKYO wants to fill its roster with generally likeable characters and spend a slightly mawkish Christmas with them - the Copperfin sets sail on December 24th, and most of the first act is spent trailing on-board carolers and partaking in a makeshift Christmas party - more power to it. It slows down the action, but it gives the major players a chance to introduce themselves, and it's so sentimentally treated it probably boosted the morale of the stateside audience. The weirdest aspect of this picture is listening to the men discuss the `Japanese character.' It'd take a couple of decades for Americans to become enamored with the Way of the Warrior. As best I can make it out, we were in that war because the 8-year-old Japanese child was dis- and re-assembling machine guns blindfolded while the 8-year-old American child was getting a pair of roller skates on their birthday. If you can wade through the shallow social science and the casual racism in these explanatory scenes there's a message of real value, which can be distilled down to "The enemy isn't inherently bad, but their culture is." Yeah, I know, that kind of talk can lead to bad results, but in 1943 it was progressive (the enemy weren't subhuman animals after all) and oddly optimistic (let's talk about peaceful co-existence with the up-to-now invincible enemy we're destined to beat the stuffing out of.)

Don't get me wrong, though. DESTINATION: TOKYO is a still-exciting action movie with minimal philosophizing - the social science stuff caught my ear because I watch too many of these kind of movies. Cary Grant is now-to-earth and sincere as the ship captain, and the underwater scenes hold up well. Strong recommendation.

Cary Grant? The skipper of an American sub? No way........2006-07-15

Way. Unlike a lot of pretty movie stars, Grant had talent & could play anything believeably. Proof here. He is Capt. Cassidy of the USS Copperfin. It can be forgiven its jingoistic, propaganda tone (hey, there's a war going on!) because it is a very good movie. It was done in the Warner Bros. trademark style: efficient with no wasted effort. It has the added virtue of being done mid-war, 1943, like its competiton from Century Fox, Crash Dive. It is slightly better without that silly Tyrone Power romance nonsense. It has the stock character actors most notably Alan Hale as Cookie. I love that guy! Also just like a Warner Bros. film, it was shot in glorious black & white which is the way I prefered it, thank-you. Great war-time stuff.

World War II 3-Pack (Destination Tokyo / Objective Burma / They Were Expendable)

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World War II 3-Pack (Destination Tokyo / Objective Burma / They Were Expendable)
Starring: Warner 3pak
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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