The controversial X-rated movie Cary Grant hated with a passion: “It did seem crude to me”
He may not have been an everyman like James Stewart, but Cary Grant was nonetheless regarded as one of ‘Golden Age’ Hollywood’s most relatable and aspirational stars, curating a persona that epitomised the glitz and glamour of the period.
After all, this is a guy born in Bristol called Archie who emerged from a fractious childhood dominated by an alcoholic father and a mother who was institutionalised in secret, emigrated to the United States, rebranded himself and became one of the industry’s highest-paid and most in-demand leading men.
To accomplish those goals, Grant played to his strengths. He was tall, handsome, charming, and debonair and constantly carried himself like he was the coolest guy in the room, which he regularly was. He evolved into a romantic lead, screwball savant, and A-list superstar while maintaining a relatively squeaky-clean image, discounting his rampant promiscuity and dalliances with LSD, of course.
Even when he sought to upend expectations by playing more complex and morally complicated characters, particularly in his classic collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, he was still Gary Grant. He was only willing to explore his dark side so far, making it completely understandable that a controversial X-rated flick wasn’t up his street.
It might have been one of the highest-grossing releases at the domestic box office in 1973, but there was no shortage of shock, indignation, and negative publicity following Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. The film was slapped with the strictest possible rating by the Motion Picture Association of America and was banned outright in countries including Spain, Chile, Brazil, South Korea, Argentina, and Singapore.
That begs the question of why he bothered to watch it in the first place when he was aware it wouldn’t be his type of movie. As tends to be the case in Hollywood, the answer was that he was asked to attend a swanky premiere where he’d rub shoulders with his peers.
Grant had no issues with sex or nudity as natural parts of the human experience, but he wasn’t necessarily sold on watching them onscreen. “It does seem to me that if a man wants to see a film that reveals everything, it should be up to him,” he told Guy Flatley. “I myself have never seen a pornographic movie, except for Last Tango in Paris.”
“They had a big charity screening in Hollywood – $100, deductible – and everyone wore a black tie,” he explained. “I went with a very distinguished crowd, including Norton Simon and his wife, Jennifer Jones. And I won’t tell you what I thought of Last Tango in Paris, except that it did seem crude to me. I really don’t know why Marlon made it.”
If it made him feel any better, Marlon Brando had no idea why he made it, either. The actor didn’t have a clue what Last Tango in Paris was about while he was shooting it, and that didn’t change.
