Cinema Retro has received the following press release:
“A hilarious and morose invocation of a lost world.
Anyone who has ever been movie-mad will relish this irrepressibly digressive,
surprise-filled, exquisitely written memoir (sort of). I certainly did.”
—Phillip Lopate Novelist
Todd McEwen grew up in a sleepy suburb just thirteen
miles from Hollywood, and at a young age he became obsessed with the big
screen. In this collection of essays—part memoir, part film criticism—McEwen
spins lush, technicolor memories. He recalls early mornings watching Laurel and
Hardy, matinées of Chinatown, and of course, his site of worship: his hometown
movie theater.
Cary Grant’s Suit is at once a love letter to old
Hollywood, a portrait of McEwen’s postwar, sunbelt neighborhood, and a sharp
analysis of a particular moment in American cultural history. The suburban
cul-de-sacs of McEwen’s childhood serve as the stage where the fears and
obsessions of the era are acted out: the neighborhood kids play “war” in the
pool and reenact The Wizard of Ozon the sidewalk. In this environment, McEwen
develops a keen eye for the desires and domestic dynamics, the technological
optimism and looming anxiety of the era. He uses this sensitivity to produce
shrewd (and often hilarious) readings of the films of his youth.
This collection includes essays on: Casablanca (in which
McEwen humorously catalogs the many drinks and cigarettes that appear
throughout the film), Laurel and Hardy (and its resonances with the domestic
and technological anxieties of the 1950s), The 39 Steps(and a trip to Scotland
to retrace the hero’s path), Chinatown(as an object of obsession), White
Christmas(as a “treatise on the textures of the Fifties”), not to mention the
titular essay on North by Northwest (arguing that “[it] isn’t about what
happens to Cary Grant, it’s about what happens to his suit”),and many, many
more.
Todd McEwen was born in Southern California in the 1950s.
As a child he was interested in comedy and the undersea realm and was terrified
by Bambi. In high school he had his own radio show, interviewing folk singers
and puzzle inventors. At college he read Victorian and medieval English
literature. He worked in radio, theatre, and the rare books trade before
arriving in Scotland in the 1980s. After a spell at Granta, he has often worked
as an editor and teacher. His novels include Fisher’s Hornpipe, McX: A Romance
of the Dour, Who Sleeps with Katz, and The Five Simple Machines.