1966's Walk Don't Run was a transitional movie in the careers of star Cary Grant, costar Jim Hutton & character actor George Takei. It's set at the 64 Olympic Games in Tokyo when housing for visitors was unusually tight. It's not a #mustC or even a great film but a charming, innocuous #romcom with a lot of nostalgia value that broke into the box office top 30 when the World learned it would be Grant's film finale.
https://youtu.be/ifKgKeEgLjw?si=3tBOk5U6H-qyh2ol
Here's how #BoomerBurbanBoy saw new 60s & 70s movies
The last movie #CaryGrant made was one of the few that I saw more than once on a single day while a child in the 60s. My mother usually dropped me off at the nearby Crest Theatre whenever it was convenient after lunch while she went shopping w/ grandma & the sibs during our periodic visits. I often arrived a 1/2 hr or more before the earlier screening would finish & invariably ended up sitting down & spoiling what was left of the story's plot before watching the whole movie from its' start uninterrupted after a classic cartoon or two.
I'd then make a call to granma's home phone before the next screening to see if they'd returned from their errands so a good pickup time c/b arranged. I tried every few minutes until the movie restarted, and then every 15 minutes or so depending on what I knew was coming up in the story. Mom often agreed to let me stay to the end of that 2nd screening for someting I liked & might never get a chance to see again on a big screen like A Crack in the World.
Consequently, I often had extra time to study the looks & behavior of the story characters & the movie stars who played them. There were fewer than a dozen that weren't on TV shows that I could recognize by name. Stars like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart & Charlton Heston that sometimes appeared on talk shows & movies of the week.
I was still learning to distinguish the celebrity names for several pairs of stars that often played similar roles like Paul Newman/Steve McQueen, Kirk Douglas/Richard Widmark, SpencerTracey/James Whitmore. Grandfatherly Grant & an amiable young uncle Hutton were imprinted on me for life by the time I got picked up after a 2nd complete viewing that day just weeks after the annual Christmas gathering of the Clan at mom's parents' home.
It's highly unlikely that I saw Cary Grant onscreen again for almost a decade until the first summer I returned from college . My youthful taste for the fantastic over comedy, especially of the romantic kind, would have steered me clear of his early BW classics & later Hitchcock masterpieces. An appreciation of his incredible talent didn't develop until several of his great screwball comedies & some amazing dramas were finally seen.
Most Chicago TV channels(of 8) would shut off by 2AM before I went away to college. Old movies broadcast on weekends were usually part of a series or hosted presentation wraparound like WGN's Creature Feature & Family Classics. The THREE networks broadcast edited, panned & scanned recent films on their Movie of the Week nights in between bigger & better blocks of commercials that rarely exceeded 3 minutes. The new PBS outlet which featured lots of educational stuff & Muppets was one of first to broadcast uncensored Monty Pythons.
WTTW also had a late nite film showcase w/o commercial interruptions for Japanese, French & silent films to air w/ subtitles. I ended up appreciating the endings of more than a handful while in HS when I'd make a snack run to the kitchen before bed. I then went to bid my mom goodnight after the rest of the family had retired & was sometimes surprised to find her viewing classic B&W foreign films like Mr. Hulot, The 7 Samurai & Rashomon. I'd sit down to watch quietly while ingesting and get sucked into the plot of their simple stories until the end.
Eventually they started broadcasting commercial free B&W pre-war American comedies & dramas that were rarely if ever shown on the network stations. I discovered at college that some old movies & shows could still be viewed in all their B&W glory on large private screens when rented for a weekend event. One night when I went to say goodnight to mom before bed soon after I'd returned home for summer break, I was pleased to discover her watching some great old movie that was made when she was still a child. Showcase had improved.
The classic Arsenic & Old Lace, based on the play that local colleges & HSs still performed occasionally, was on. I'd never seen it or any other Grant movie since Walk Don't Run a decade prior and was enthralled instantly. Weeks later I finally sat down with mom to laugh together at 1938's delightful Bringing Up Baby from the start & 1940's The Philadelphia Story a week later before heading back to college. We later saw North by NorthWest & Monkey Business when they were showing Cary's 50s films the next summer I came home.
I didn't realize how important those silent minutes together with Mom were until years later after I graduated & moved to CA. Those were some of the last times I got to spend enjoying movies w/ her alone that the rest of the family would not sit still for long at the drive-in or with commercials on the family's 20in & later 25in color TV.
We didn't spend much time together alone outside of occasional snacks & shopping for my attire once I was allowed control of the old BW TV & to eat dinner alone when network Prime time began at 7PM in Chicagoland. Once I finished HS Driver's Ed & got a permit, I drove her to various grocery markets & outlet stores until college. Sadly we never discussed her special interests in music that eventually had such a huge impact on my tastes. Instead we would listen to the radio or catch up on news about the numerous cousins & relatives we'd go visit.
That's it for my early Grant movie memories until I moved to LA after graduation. I got a Z channel box months after arrival & discovered the Vista revival theatre in Silverlake plus the Nuart & Fox Venice in nearby Santa Monica. Years later, the wired cable box offered TCM along with HBO, Cinemax & Showtime as an option.
#WalkDon'tRun did not feature Cary Grant as the romantic lead. Tim Hutton instead assumed that pleasant role opposite the charming Samantha Eggar. I recognized Hutton as the calvary lieutenant in The Hallelujah Trail western comedy I'd seen in the summer of 65. Tim next starred in 1967's Who's Minding the Mint, a so-so heist comedy memorable mostly for its' plethora of TV stars. He costarred twice! with #JohnWayne in 1968, but I seem to recall watching Hellfighters in 69, about a year after the The Green Berets at the same Sky-Hi drive-in.
1965 must have been a heck of a year for George Takei. He was in the 2nd Star Trek pilot Where No Man Has Gone Before, which secured his role as Mr Sulu when production finally began in 66. He also got paid to interact with Grant & Hutton for at least a couple days, if not hours. He played the official role in advancing the plot to try & discover what mysterious event Jim Hutton was competing in the 64 Olympics for America.
He's such a great storyteller, I wonder if he has he ever talked about that rare event in his career. He must have especially enjoyed working with Hutton since he waited more than a year to make his next film starring the legendary John Wayne on location in Vietnam after Jim signed up for his film package deal apparently. He even sacrificed his participation in about a third of the Star Trek episodes of season 2
Here's a few useful links as reward for those that made it this far
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Grant
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk,_Don't_Run_(film)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hutton
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hallelujah_Trail
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who's_Minding_the_Mint?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellery_Queen_(TV_series)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Berets_(film)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Takei#Early_career
