Cary Grant
Movie fans with a sense of history of Hollywood’s silent era may have noticed the rarity of Cary Grant wearing spectacles in this movie. More to the point, David Huxley sports glasses that look very much like the trademark glasses sported by silent film comedian Harold Lloyd. This is not by accident: Lloyd was director Howard Hawks’ original choice to play David, but he turned it down. Only after thereupon being offered and turned down by a number of the top stars of the time ranging from past Oscar winner Frederick March to future Oscar winner Ronald Colman, the offer finally fell down the hierarchy to where Grant was positioned at the time. Context is necessary here, of course. Today, Cary Grant is remembered as one of the legendary figures of the Golden Age of Hollywood. At the time the film was in production, however, nobody realized he was just a year or two away from superstardom.
Katherine Hepburn
Amazingly enough, Hepburn had never appeared in a comedy before this film. This is all the more amazing considering that within a two-year time span she Grant co-starred in three of the most popular comedies of the era exploding into a powerhouse comedic team. Carole Lombard was originally considered to play Susan, but Hawks felt that the similarities in background between Hepburn and Vance would make her immediately believable. First, however, she had to be instructed in the of comedic acting which mainly involved teaching her how to avoid overacting. The box office disappointment of the film nevertheless contributed to her infamously being “box office poison” which result in her appearing in just one movie between 1939 and 1941.
Skippy
A dog plays a central part in the plot by running off with a dinosaur bone and burying it. The canine cast in that role was arguably just as famous at the time—if not more so—then his human co-stars. Skippy famous played Nick and Nora Charles’ dog Asta in The Thin Man series of films and was for a time as recognizable as Rin Tin Tin or Lassie as a result of expressing more personality on film than either of those legendary canine stars of the screen.
May Robson
George is actually the pet dog of Susan’s Aunt Elizabeth. It is Robson as Aunt Elizabeth who is on the receiving end of what has come to be arguably the most famous line associated with the film. Upon being greeted at the door by David dressed in woman’s nightgown. A hilarious bit of crackling fast screwball dialogue ensues in which she asks him who he and why he’s wearing what he’s wearing. The bit climaxes with Cary Grant ad-libbing “Because I just went gay all of a sudden!” and jumping manically into the air. Robson’s priceless reaction of absolute shock appears to be a genuine state of surprise at this unexpected departure from the script.
