Chapter 14

Abstract Following Elsie Leach’s release from the asylum in 1936, Cary Grant began to rebuild his relationship with his mother. In her many letters to him, she addressed him as Archie, and she urged him to visit her and hinted that she would like to visit him in Hollywood. He was reluctant to bring her to California, where he lived a life among the rich and famous, with friends including the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and the eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. On screen, his reputation was enhanced when he reunited with George Cukor and Katharine Hepburn in the sophisticated comedy Holiday (1938). He also branched out, playing a very unsophisticated, Cockney soldier in the British Empire adventure film Gunga Din (1939). Although his performance is delightfully zany, and Gunga Din was an enormous success on first release, it has not aged well. The film’s racist attitudes and imperialist ideology have rendered it unpalatable for modern audiences.