Stars: Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Jane Wymark, Mary Martin, John Garfield, Robert Hutton, Alan Hale, William Prince, James Mason, Eva Marie Saint, Josephine Hull, Raymond Massey, John Alexander, Priscilla Lane, Helen Mirren

Director: Frank Capra

Summary: Featuring five Cary Grant films. In 'Night And Day' Cary Grant portrays famed composer Cole Porter in a biographical film version of his life. 'Destination Tokyo' is a definitive undersea war epic. 'North By Northwest' finds a man pursued by strangers. Also 'Arsenic And Old Lace' and 'A Class Apart', a documentary.

Four of the suave Cary Grant's most enduring and best-loved films, NIGHT AND DAY, DESTINATION TOKYO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE plus a bonus documentary disc CARY GRANT: A CLASS APART
NIGHT AND DAY (1946)
Grant portrays Cole Porter in this musical biographical film about the composer's life. From his early years in Indiana, his experiences in the war, and later the crippling accident, are among the events loosely followed. Directed by CASABLANCA's Michael Curtiz and co-starring Jane Wyman and Ginny Simms, who sing "You're the Top" and highlighted by Mary Martin's performance of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."
DESTINATION TOKYO (1943)
Directed by DARK PASSAGE's Delmer Daves, DESTINATION TOKYO is a patriotic war epic about U.S. submarine USS Copperfin sent into Japanese waters and the dynamic amongst crew members. Featuring the debut of John Forsythe (TV's DYNASTY, CHARLIE'S ANGELS)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a suspense thriller that finds Cary Grant in the role of Roger Thornhill, a Manhattan advertising executive mistaken for a spy. Considered by many to be the prototypical pure action movie (creating the template for later James Bond and Indiana Jones films), the film is a cross-country roller-coaster ride with Alfred Hitchcock at the helm. The film is duly famous for several classic and indelible scenes, including the desert biplane encounter and the Mt. Rushmore climax. The original title was THE MAN IN LINCOLN'S NOSE, which was replaced by a reference to a line from William Shakespeare's HAMLET (in which Hamlet says, "I am but mad north-north-west."). The magical combination of Hitchcock and the debonair Grant--who made four wonderful films together--makes NORTH BY NORTHWEST a suspense-filled standout.
When Thornhill finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, the world as he knows it comes to an end. Suddenly danger threatens as the hapless businessman is targeted as an American intelligence agent and set up as a killer. All of Thornhill's attempts to straighten things out only make matters worse--and soon the desperate man is on the run from murderous foreign operatives, the CIA, and the police. The supporting cast, including Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau, is uniformly excellent.
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)
Beware nice old ladies offering elderberry wine! Grant plays mild-mannered drama critic Mortimer Brewster who discovers the shocking truth about his two elderly aunts, Abby and Martha: The seemingly harmless old ladies have the most disagreeable habit of poisoning their gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar. They believe they are doing these lonely old men a favour by putting them out of their misery! Based on Joseph Kesselring's 1941 hit Broadway play, this is one of the all-time greatest black farces, a quick-fire relay between the "murders" and Brewster's frenetic attempts at averting their discovery. "Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops!"
CARY GRANT: A CLASS APART (2004)
Written and directed by Robert Trachtenberg, this is a thought provoking look at the stellar trajectory of working class Englishman, Archie Leach of Bristol, to legendary Hollywood star. With extensive clips of classic Cary Grant movie moments, A CLASS APART is narrated by Helen Mirren and also features interviews with Deborah Kerr, Martin Landau, Eva Marie Saint and a number of Grant's wives.

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A strong candidate for possibly the most entertaining and enjoyable film ever made by a Hollywood studio, North by Northwestis positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo(1958) and the stark horror of Psycho(1960). In the corpus of Alfred Hitchcock films it shows the director at his most effervescent in a romantic comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite". It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a US undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history. And of course there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a pedestrian has no place to hide) and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. With its sparkling Ernest Lehman script and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score, what more could a filmgoer possibly desire? --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

On the DVD: This wide-screen print of the movie looks remarkably fresh, preserving the vivid depth of the original's VistaVision cinematography. The main extra feature is a new and entertaining 40-minute documentary hosted by Eva Marie Saint in which most of the surviving cast and crew give their insights into the making of the picture (we learn for example that canny Cary Grant charged 15 cents per autograph). Screenwriter Ernest Lehman provides an audio commentary and on a separate audio-only track Bernard Herrmann's masterful score can be heard in its entirety. There's also a stills gallery and trailers. --Mark Walker

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Warner Brothers Shorts, Theatrical Trailers, Destination Hitchcock The Making Of North By Northwest, Commentary On North By Northwest, Stills Gallery
Year:	1946
Release Date:	June 7, 2004
Runtime:	584 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 067042
Keywords:	Five, Old, Day, Night, Collection, Arsenic, Lace, Box, Apart, General, Class, Grant, Destination, Tokyo, North, Set, Northwest, Drama, Discs, Cary, Signature
Genre:	Drama