Archie (BritBox 2023)

4 Kernels

Stars: Jason Isaacs, Laura Aikman, Jason Watkins, Harriet Walter, Henry Lloyd-Hughes

Today, I took the opportunity to finish watching Archie on BritBox, the “true story” about Archibald Leach from Bristol, England, who became the infamous Hollywood star known as Cary Grant. It’s a look into his life from childhood until he died, taking the audience on a journey from his humble beginnings to his successful career as a movie star.

The story is a bit jumpy as it starts with Cary Grant on stage in his elder years when he was touring the country doing sit-down talks with audiences. While he’s talking, his memories shift through the story, so there’s a lot of back and forth from present to past. (Frankly, I’m a fan of continuity and dislike jumping timelines.) The scenes include his childhood and abandonment, from losing his mother to his father discarding him, which experiences are the foundations of the demons that followed him to his adult years.

You watch Archie as a teenager work his up the entertainment ladder from being a stage performer with the Pender Troupe that toured in the USA to eventually Hollywood, becoming a leading man on screen. Even though he was married five times, the series focuses on his heated relationship with Dyan Cannon, with whom he had a daughter. You don’t see his former wives, only the last one, Barbara, who was with him until he passed away. Apparently, the series is somewhat based on Dyan Cannon’s book, Dear Cary, and the difficulty she had living with his controlling personality.

Jason Isaacs plays a fair Cary Grant, nailing at least his tone and voice mannerisms. At times, when you look at him in the role, you see Cary, but at others, you are often reminded this is someone else and not the star we were so dazzled with for all those years. Perhaps the younger generation will be unable to connect with this series because they lack knowledge of his movies and haven’t seen him on screen. I can remember watching him often as a child and in my teens. And who can forget An Affair to Remember, where he starred in what’s been called the most romantic movie, memorialized again in Sleepless in Seattle?

He admits to Dyan that Cary Grant is his creation and no doubt he created the man to forget about the hurtful demons of the past. You also see him as an excellent father figure, no doubt determined to be nothing like his father, which his mother hurtfully says to him at one time. As you watch Cary’s life play out with his complex parental relationships and his struggle with his own relationships, the series at least ends on a happy note that he finds himself in the end and finds love again.

I recommend that those who know Cary Grant watch the series. It’s worth the time at least to learn of his background, life, and the last two women he loved. As for his relationship with Dyan Cannon, I have my own thoughts about that mismatch, and no doubt you’ll have yours, too, at the end. You might find an article on Salon (link at the bottom) and an interview with Dyan Cannon of interest. I saw her once many years ago at a religious event, and she talked about her life with Cary. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what she said, but I do remember that she seems to carry the stories of her time with him wherever she goes, even if she divorced him and it was decades ago.

There is a lot of focus on Dyan in this series, which sometimes makes Cary out to be the bad guy, hoping for some sympathy from the audience regarding her short marriage with him and what she supposedly suffered. Let’s be honest. She married a man older than her father and set in his ways when they tied the knot. They both appeared, at least in this series, to expect each other to change. Cary wanted her to rise up to his standards in life, and she wanted to drag him down to her generational behavior. She was young, career pursuing, and it was doomed. If this series was based on her book, I find it a bit self-serving behind all the “true story” claims at the credits because the audience is only given the story through her eyes and her three-year marriage to the icon. Cary has no voice in this production that would give us insights into Dyan and her behavior behind closed doors.