When Cary Grant sought a dose of reality
What happens when you reach middle age with a made-up name, an unplaceable accent and a personality molded by others to please millions? The answers found in the 2017 documentary “Becoming Cary Grant” (9 p.m., Showtime) may surprise you.
Even by the impossible standards of Hollywood’s golden age, Cary Grant stands out as the epitome of class and debonair grace. But according to this film, based on Grant’s own unpublished journals and musings, he was in great pain and never at ease with the man he had become.
Born Archibald Leach in 1904, he was acting by age 6. At the same time, his mother fell into depression and was institutionalized by young Archie’s father. Decades later, in the 1950s, movie star Cary Grant came to realize that his motherless upbringing had deeply affected his relationships, and he sought therapy. He found it in a Southern California treatment center that made use of LSD, developed only a decade earlier.
Don’t go looking for a mind-blowing version of the star of “Arsenic and Old Lace.” The use of the hallucinogen was tightly controlled and treated more as a kind of accelerant for introspection. As Grant’s own musings reveal, it helped him come to terms with other people and himself and embrace fatherhood late in his career.
“Becoming” offers glimpses of home movies, unseen footage and interviews with Grant’s closest friends and associates as well as a wealth of clips from his more celebrated films.
It’s strange to associate Grant with LSD, the ultimate symbol of the 1960s, perhaps because he became increasingly uneasy with popular culture during that decade.
Grant’s film career from 1932 to 1966 perfectly coincided with the period of the Hollywood Code and its restrictions on portrayals of sexuality, violence and indelicate subjects, including homosexuality. Rumors of Grant being a closeted gay man have been around for decades but are not discussed in depth in this film.
Grant retired because he didn’t feel at home in the kinds of movies Hollywood was starting to make. His last film, “Walk, Don’t Run,” appeared just one year before “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Graduate,” seen by many as the beginning of a new era.
Grant may or may not have found his “real” self. But he was smart enough to know when to put his classic persona into mothballs. Perhaps that’s why audiences never tire of him and why he will always be Cary Grant. Whoever that is.
‘ORANGE’ IS BACK
Knowing when to quit is essential to storytelling. Not to mention television. Netflix begins streaming season five of “Orange Is the New Black” today, capping a week that saw the streaming service cancel two series, “Sense8” and “The Get Down.” Just how long a sentence does that mean for “Orange Is the New Black”?
ALSO RETURNING
Other returning series include “Dark Matter” (8 p.m., Syfy, TV-14), now in its third season, and “Wynonna Earp” (10 p.m., Syfy, TV-14), entering its sophomore year.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Auditions continue on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, repeat, TV-PG).
› A special edition of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) anticipates Game 4 of the NBA Finals (9 p.m., ABC), between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors.
› Michael Imperioli (“The Sopranos”) guest-stars as “Lucifer” (9 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14) debuts in a new time slot.
› Mary fears a difficult childbirth may kill her on the penultimate episode of “Reign” (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).
› A woman is accused of her alleged abuser’s murder on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Signs of the Zodiac Killer’s return on “MacGyver” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› The quest for the White Apron continues on “MasterChef”
(8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› Freya vows revenge on “The Originals” (8 p.m., CW, TV-14).
› A traumatized child may hold clues to a cold case on “Hawaii Five-0” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC). Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.