Editing Cary Grant (section)

=== 1946–1953: Post-War success and slump ===
[[File:Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman Notorious.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Grant and [[Ingrid Bergman]] in ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' (1946)]]
After making a brief cameo appearance opposite [[Claudette Colbert]] in ''[[Without Reservations]]'' (1946),{{sfn|Halliwell|Walker|2001|p=520}} Grant portrayed [[Cole Porter]] in the musical ''[[Night and Day (1946 film)|Night and Day]]'' (1946).{{sfn|Morecambe|Sterling|2001|p=162}} The production proved to be problematic, with scenes often requiring multiple takes, frustrating the cast and crew.{{sfn|Morecambe|Sterling|2001|p=162}} Grant next appeared with [[Ingrid Bergman]] and [[Claude Rains]] in the Hitchcock-directed film ''[[Notorious (1946 film)|Notorious]]'' (1946), playing a government agent who recruits the American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy (Bergman) to infiltrate a Nazi organization in Brazil after World War II.<ref>{{cite book |title = Woman's Home Companion |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Cz1aAAAAYAAJ |date = 1946 |publisher = Crowell-Collier Publishing Company |page = 11 }}</ref> During the course of the film Grant and Bergman's characters fall in love and share one of the longest kisses in film history at around two and a half minutes.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Notorius |journal = New York |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=j-ICAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA107 |date = October 11, 1982 |publisher = New York Media, LLC |page = 107 |issn = 0028-7369 }}</ref>{{sfn|Connolly|2014|p=215}} Wansell notes how Grant's performance "underlined how far his unique qualities as a screen actor had matured in the years since ''The Awful Truth''".{{sfn|Wansell|1996|p=99}}

In 1947, Grant played an artist who becomes involved in a court case when charged with assault in the comedy ''[[The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer]]'' (released in the U.K. as "Bachelor Knight"), opposite [[Myrna Loy]] and [[Shirley Temple]].<ref>{{cite book |title = The New Yorker |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VL0LAQAAIAAJ |date = July 1947 |publisher = F-R Publishing Corporation |page = 47 }}</ref>{{sfn|Leider|2011|p=265}} The film was praised by the critics, who admired the picture's [[slapstick]] qualities and chemistry between Grant and Loy;<ref>{{cite web |url = https://variety.com/1946/film/reviews/the-bachelor-and-the-bobby-soxer-1200414998/ |title = The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer |work = Variety |date = December 31, 1946 |access-date = June 6, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160614141316/http://variety.com/1946/film/reviews/the-bachelor-and-the-bobby-soxer-1200414998/ |archive-date = June 14, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> it became one of the biggest-selling films at the box office that year.{{sfn|McCann|1997|p=195}} Later that year he starred opposite [[David Niven]] and [[Loretta Young]] in the comedy ''[[The Bishop's Wife]]'', playing an angel who is sent down from heaven to straighten out the relationship between the bishop (Niven) and his wife (Loretta Young).<ref name="Life48" /> The film was a major commercial and critical success, and was nominated for five Academy Awards.{{sfn|McCann|1997|p=194}} ''Life'' magazine called it "intelligently written and competently acted".<ref name="Life48">{{cite book |title = Life |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mVIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA71 |date = January 12, 1948 |publisher = Time Inc |page = 71 |issn = 0024-3019 }}</ref>

[[File:Cary Grant Myrna Loy Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Grant and [[Myrna Loy]] publicity photo for ''[[Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House]]'' (1948)]]
The following year, Grant played neurotic Jim Blandings, the title-sake in the comedy ''[[Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House]]'', again with Loy. Though the film lost money for RKO,{{sfn|Leider|2011|p=226}} [[Philip T. Hartung]] of ''Commonweal'' thought that Grant's role as the "frustrated advertising man" was one of his best screen portrayals.{{sfn|Deschner|1973|p=196}} In ''[[Every Girl Should Be Married]]'', an "airy comedy", he appeared with Betsy Drake and [[Franchot Tone]], playing a bachelor who is trapped into marriage by Drake's conniving character.<ref name="Maltin1995">{{cite book |last = Maltin |first = Leonard |title = Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-R8IAQAAMAAJ |year = 1995 |publisher = Plume |page = 391 |isbn = 978-0-452-27327-6 }}</ref> He finished the year as the fourth most popular film star at the box office.{{sfn|McCann|1997|p=212}} In 1949, Grant starred alongside [[Ann Sheridan]] in the comedy ''[[I Was a Male War Bride]]'' in which he appeared in scenes dressed as a woman, wearing a skirt and a wig.{{sfn|Benshoff|Griffin|2011|p=348}} During the filming he was taken ill with infectious [[hepatitis]] and lost weight, affecting the way he looked in the picture.{{sfn|Erickson|2012|p=274}} The film, based on the autobiography of Belgian [[Belgian Resistance|resistance fighter]] [[Roger Charlier]], proved to be successful, becoming the highest-grossing film for 20th Century Fox that year with over $4.5&nbsp;million in takings and being likened to Hawks's screwball comedies of the late 1930s.{{sfn|McCann|1997|p=195}} By this point he was one of the highest paid Hollywood stars, commanding $300,000 per picture.{{sfn|Wansell|2011|p=163}}

The early 1950s marked the beginning of a slump in Grant's career.<ref name="TCMDW" />{{sfn|Morecambe|Sterling|2001|p=192}} His roles as a top brain surgeon who is caught in the middle of a bitter revolution in a Latin American country in ''[[Crisis (1950 film)|Crisis]]'',{{sfn|Hanson|Dunkleberger|1999|p=509}} and as a medical-school professor and orchestra conductor opposite [[Jeanne Crain]] in ''[[People Will Talk]]'' were poorly received.<ref>{{cite news |title = The Screen In Review; 'Crisis,' With Cary Grant and Jose Ferrer, Is New Feature at the Capitol Theatre |first = Bosley |last = Crowther |work = The New York Times |date = July 4, 1950 |url = https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F01E2DE103FE23BBC4C53DFB166838B649EDE |access-date = June 5, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160611161248/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F01E2DE103FE23BBC4C53DFB166838B649EDE |archive-date = June 11, 2016 |url-status=live }}<br />{{cite book |title = The New Yorker |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UaAeAQAAMAAJ |date = August 2009 |publisher = New Yorker Magazine|page = 16 }}</ref>{{sfn|Deschner|1973|pp=207–209}} Grant had become tired of being Cary Grant after twenty years, being successful, wealthy and popular, and remarked: "To play yourself, your ''true'' self, is the hardest thing in the world".{{sfn|McCann|1997|p=197}} In 1952, Grant starred in the comedy ''[[Room for One More (film)|Room for One More]]'', playing an engineer husband who, with his wife ([[Betsy Drake]]), adopt two children from an orphanage.{{sfn|Wansell|1996|p=116}}<ref>{{cite journal |title = Orange Coast Magazine |journal = Orange Coast|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4GAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA296 |date = December 1987 |publisher = Emmis Communications |page = 296 |issn = 0279-0483 }}</ref> He reunited with Howard Hawks to film the off-beat comedy ''[[Monkey Business (1952 film)|Monkey Business]]'', co-starring Ginger Rogers and [[Marilyn Monroe]].{{sfn|Shevey|1990|p=204}} Though the critic from ''[[Motion Picture Herald]]'' wrote gushingly that Grant had given a career's best with an "extraordinary and agile performance", which was matched by Rogers,{{sfn|Deschner|1973|p=214}} it received a mixed reception overall.{{efn|Critical response to the film at the time was mixed. Bosley Crowther wrote: "It is simply a concoction of crazy, fast, uninhibited farce. This sort of thing, when done well—as it generally is, in this case—can be insanely funny (if it hits right). It can also be a bore."<ref>{{cite news |first = Bosley |last = Crowther |url = https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DE5DC133AE23BBC4E53DFBF668389649EDE |title = The Screen In Review; 'Monkey Business,' a 'Screwball Comedy' With a Chimpanzee, Starts Run at the Roxy |work = The New York Times |date = September 6, 1952 |access-date = June 6, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160611161011/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DE5DC133AE23BBC4E53DFBF668389649EDE |archive-date = June 11, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} Grant had hoped that starring opposite [[Deborah Kerr]] in the romantic comedy ''[[Dream Wife]]'' would salvage his career,<ref name="TCMDW">{{cite web |url = https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/76199 |title = Dream Wife&nbsp;– Article |publisher = Turner Classic Movies |access-date = June 11, 2016 |first = Margarita |last = Landazuri |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160614141023/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/76183%7C76199/Dream-Wife.html |archive-date = June 14, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> but it was a critical and financial failure upon release in July 1953, when Grant was 49. Though he was offered the leading part in ''[[A Star is Born (1954 film)|A Star is Born]]'', Grant decided against playing that character. He believed that his film career was over, and briefly left the industry.{{sfn|McCann|1997|pp=211–212}}