Cary Grant at 100

They don’t make them like Cary Grant any more. Sure, George Clooney’s got many of his good points—the good looks, the one-two combo of great comic timing and solid dramatic chops. But only the guy born Archibald Leach a century ago this month has so many classics to his credit that a three-week retrospective like this isn’t quite long enough to catch every essential film. As a comic actor, he had a doubletake that still ranks among the very best—check it out in the definitive version of that community-theater chestnut Arsenic and Old Lace, or his pairing with Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, a bomb in its initial release but now regarded as one of the finest of the screwball-comedy genre. Yet he was also an eminently capable romantic lead and noir hero, who teamed with Alfred Hitchcock on four of Hitch’s best thrillers. Three of those are playing in this series: North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief, and Suspicion. (In fact, Ian Fleming was so taken with Grant’s persona that he used him as a model for James Bond; Grant refused the role, forcing him to settle for some unknown Scottish guy instead.) Of the fourteen films shown here, the only one we’re not fond of is Gunga Din, a Kipling romp that hasn’t aged very well, so consider this a recommended baker’s dozen. Oak Street, 309 Oak St. S.E., (612) 331-3134, www.oakstreetcinema.org