Spellbound by Beauty by Donald Spoto

Author:Donald Spoto
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307449979
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2008-10-28T04:00:00+00:00

Notorious, which Selznick sold as a package to RKO when he became obsessed with his production of Duel in the Sun, reestablished Cary Grant as a serious actor with hitherto unexplored depths.*7 His career was foundering when he was chosen for the part, a man almost pathologically afraid of women—a man who can kiss but not commit, who very nearly sends the heroine to her death. Unlike his experience with Joan Fontaine, Cary worked harmoniously with Ingrid, and they formed a lifelong friendship; wild rumors to the contrary, there was no romance or affair.

In his quiet, proprietary manner, Hitchcock gave Ingrid and Grant the impression that he virtually owned them—or at least had rented them for the time of his production. As with Fontaine, one way of establishing his primacy was (as Leonard Leff wrote) by “dominating.” One day at RKO, Hitchcock saw his secretary Carol Stevens chatting with several studio employees. Later he told her, “You think everyone likes you—well, Cary Grant hates you!” Stevens was astonished, and privately she approached Grant. “Good heavens!” he replied. “You ought to know how possessive Hitch is!”

Hitchcock took special, whimsical pleasure in writing the three-minute balcony kissing scene in which Grant and Ingrid nibble at each other’s lips, ears and neck while talking about their plans to cook a chicken dinner. (When Ben Hecht saw the pages of dialogue, he said, “I don’t get all this talk about a chicken.”) Devised by Hitchcock in an attempt to circumvent the Hollywood restrictions against prolonged kissing, the scene, he said, gave the public

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