Cary Grant was among the greatest comedy stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, although his two best movies were actually dramatic performances for screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and The Philadelphia Story. With innate comedic talent, it would have been easy for Grant to stick to comedies his entire career, but as time went on, he pushed himself into more dramatic territory for all-time great filmmakers like Hitchcock.

With the seamless ability to walk the fine line between comedy and drama, it’s not surprising that Hitchcock cast Grant time and again, and the pair developed a close working relationship over nearly 20 years. Having made four films together in total, Grant embraced a much darker, more sinister persona in his Hitchcock movies than was ever apparent in his more lighthearted screwball comedy roles. As one of the greatest cinematic collaborations of all time, it makes perfect sense that Grant’s two greatest movies were with Hitchcock.

Cary Grant's 2 Greatest Movies Are Notorious & North By Northwest

These Films Showcase A Darker, More Mature Side To Grant’s Talents

Grant and Hitchcock’s movies together include Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest. When taken together, all these films capture one of the most acclaimed collaborations of all time, yet it was Notorious and North by Northwest that stand out as career highlights for both the actor and director. With the first film being a spy-centric noir co-starring Ingrid Bergman and the second an all-time great thriller, these two movies showcase Grant at his absolute best.

Grant gave an outstanding performance in Notorious, which marked Hitchcock’s transformation from a good director into a truly great one.

Notorious invited viewers to experience a complex love triangle as Grant, Bergman, and Claude Rains' characters' lives were intimately entangled during an espionage operation. Set in April 1946, Grant played a government agent enlisting the help of a war criminal's daughter to infiltrate the life of a Nazi associate hiding in Rio de Janeiro after World War II. As a serious love story exploring themes of bitterness, distrust, and jealousy, Grant gave an outstanding performance in this movie, which marked Hitchcock’s transformation from a good director into a truly great one.

The story of mistaken identity told in North by Northwest stands as the most iconic performance in Grant’s entire career, and the famous shot of Roger Thornhill being chased by a plane stands as one of the director’s most celebrated sequences. Telling the story of an innocent man being endlessly pursued across the United States, the over-the-top nature of North by Northwest made for nail-biting viewing and solidified Hitchcock’s status as the master of suspense. Although it’s a more lighthearted film than Notorious, North by Northwest was no less compelling.

Partnering With Alfred Hitchcock Was One Of Cary Grant's Best Decisions

Hitchcock Always Got The Best Out Of Grant

While it’s true that Grant would have still been a Hollywood legend had he not teamed up with Hitchcock, the duo's work together holds up better than anything else in his career. Grant's screwball comedies made him a major movie star and were huge box office successes at the time, but audiences’ comedic tastes change over time, and romantic screwball stories don’t have the same kind of timeless quality as Alfred Hitchcock movies.

Partnering with Hitchcock was the best decision Grant ever made, and it was because of movies like Notorious and North by Northwest that we are still discussing and analyzing his career today. Hitchcock discovered something in Grant that no other filmmaker did, and it was in their movies together that he was able to tap into darker, more morally ambitious characterizations. It was because of Cary Grant's work with Alfred Hitchcock that he is ed as far more than the handsome, suave, and charismatic leading man he usually played in comedies.