A biennial festival celebrating Cary Grant, based in his hometown, Bristol
18-20 November 2022
The 5th Cary Comes Home Festival centres on the theme of “Class”, exploring Cary Grant’s incredible journey from working class poverty as son of a tailor’s presser in Bristol, UK to the epitome of Hollywood elegance and style.
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Cary Grant plays Dudley, an angel using devilish wiles to bring harmony back into the lives of a bishop (David Niven), his wife (Loretta Young) and those around them, the ultimate Christmas film screened in the glorious nave of St Mary Redcliffe Church
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Katharine Hepburn adopts the guise of a boy to help her crooked father (Edward Gwenn) escape embezzlement charges. She keeps the disguise when they team up with a Cockney rogue (Cary Grant) for a series of cons, and when she attracts the attention of a woman. But she is forced to choose which identity to keep when handsome artist (Brian Aherne) confesses to experiencing “queer feelings”. With an introduction by Jade Evans.
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A guided tour of Bristol City Centre featuring the locations that inspired Bristol-born Archie Leach’s journey from Horfield to Hollywood, and the spots where he was photographed on his many visits home, after he’d reinvented himself as Cary Grant.
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Come down for a night of early 60s glamour with special cocktails, live music and more! Featuring glamorous settings in the French Alps and Paris, it stars Audrey Hepburn as a widow thought to know the whereabouts of a fortune stolen by her dead husband. But are any of those on the track of the money – Cary Grant, James Coburn and Walter Matthau among them – really who they claim to be?
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Arrive at our Gala screening of Charade at the Curzon in Clevedon in style. We’ll pick you up behind We The Curious on Explore Lane at 6pm so you can arrive in time for 60s inspired live music and cocktails before the screening which starts at 8pm. You need to book tickets for Charade separately via www.curzon.org.uk.
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Cary Grant plays Ernie Mott, the feckless Cockney son of an ailing woman shopkeeper Ma (Ethel Barrymore in an Oscar-winning role), straying into crime and falling in love with the wife of a gangster. With an introduction by Ehsan Khoshbakht, followed by a panel discussion exploring the Hollywood representation of class.
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Letty (Loretta Young), an unmarried mother who sets out to blackmail rich businessman Mal (Cary Grant), president of Amalgamated Dairies, after he accidentally hits her truant son Mickey with one of his milk trucks.
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Ex-nightclub singer Helen Faraday (Marlene Dietrich) returns to performing as the popular “Blonde Venus” to support her son and husband Ned (Herbert Marshall) who has become sick with radium poisoning. Don’t miss this Pre-Code melodrama starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant, with spectacular cabaret numbers and glittering costumes on the largest screen in Bristol.
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Newly-wed drama critic Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) frantically tries to embark on his honeymoon with impatient new bride (Priscilla Lane), but has to contend with his zany family. In one of his best comic performances, Cary Grant effortlessly delivers rapid-fire dialogue, facial contortions and pratfalls to make any slapstick fan happy. Our festival finale – not to be missed on the largest screen in Bristol!
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Special Ticket Offer: 3 films at the Former Bristol IMAX including two rarely screened pre code films, Born to Be Bad and Blonde Venus and comedy classic Arsenic and Old Lace – not to be missed on the largest screen in Bristol!
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We invited video essays on the theme of Class, celebrating the working-class heritage of Archie Leach, born in Bristol, UK in 1904 as the son of a tailor’s presser, who reinvented himself as Hollywood legend and style icon, Cary Grant. Check out the entries and watch catch up with the filmmakers on a special episode of The Video Essay Podcast.
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An Illustrated talk with James Naremore to launch his new book Some Versions of Cary Grant – with a Q&A with Andrew Kelly – focussing on Cockney Cary, particularly his performances as working-class characters in Sylvia Scarlett and None But The Lonely Heart.
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Join us on a guided tour of Bristol City Centre featuring the locations that inspired Archie Leach’s journey from Horfield to Hollywood, and the spots where the Bristol Post photographed him on his many visits home, after he’d reinvented himself as Cary Grant.
Read more Looking for Archie Walking Tour – Bristol Walk Fest 2022
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A talk about William Edward Green and Archibald Alexander Leach, two working class boys who grew up in Bristol. Willie reinvented himself as early cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene. Archie became Hollywood icon Cary Grant, one of cinema’s brightest and most enduring stars.
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Cate Bryan Piano Studio presents a piano recital in honour of Cary Grant’s 118th Birthday, with a programme including music featured in some of our favourite Cary Grant films from North by Northwest to An Affair to Remember. Includes audience participation!