+1
One of my all-time favorites too. But I'm willing to concede that, in his early films he was really quite ... bad. But back then, the studios picked them for looks, and made them work in movie after movie. And they developed their craft. I was lucky enough to see Arsenic and Old Lace in a remodeled movie palace (Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto, California). Sure, he does a lot of mugging, but on the big screen the expressiveness in those double-takes had me constantly chuckling. And it was one of the first times when I really began to appreciate him as a craftsman actor and understood why he was called a genius of comic timing. Who couldn't like him in movies like North by Northwest, His Girl Friday, and To Catch a Thief. But I also liked him as something of a hard case in Notorious and Only Angels Have Wings. My absolute favorite, though, is a sentimental pick, Father Goose. It was charming from the opening song ("If ya don't happen to like it, pass me by!") all the way through, and I remember reading it was one of his favorites too because he got to play a very unkempt, un-Cary-Grant-like character. I'll always give it another viewing.
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Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain ... only straw. Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? Scarecrow: I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they? Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.