Page "Leo McCarey" Paragraph 2

In the sound era McCarey ventured into feature-film direction, working with many of the biggest stars of the era, including Gloria Swanson ( Indiscreet, 1931 ), Eddie Cantor ( The Kid From Spain, 1932 ), the Marx Brothers ( Duck Soup, 1933 ), W. C. Fields ( Six of a Kind, 1934 ), Mae West ( Belle of the Nineties, 1934 ), and Harold Lloyd ( The Milky Way, 1936 ).

In 1937, McCarey won his first Academy Award for Directing for The Awful Truth, with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, a screwball comedy that launched Cary Grant's unique screen persona, largely concocted by McCarey ( Grant also copied many of McCarey's mannerisms ).

Along with the similarity in their names, McCarey and Cary Grant shared an eerie physical resemblance, making mimicking McCarey's intonations and expressions even easier for Grant.

As writer / director Peter Bogdanovich notes, " After The Awful Truth, when it came to light comedy, there was Cary Grant and then everyone else was an also-ran.