CARY GRANT, DARK ANGEL

CARY GRANT, DARK ANGEL Geoffrey Wansell. Arcade; 2016.

This updated version of Wansell's biography of Grant is a coffee table trade paperback loaded with photographs. The book keeps hinting at Grant's "dark side," which numerous co-stars, friends and directors apparently noticed, but it's never really explored in any depth, although there are details of the actor's problematic relationship with his mother. As usual, the book notes that Grant and Randolph Scott lived together even after Grant's first marriage -- Grant's first five marriages all failed, and his sixth ended with his death -- but is coy about everything else. Apparently Grant was a terrible husband until his more mellow final years. The author does a perfectly workmanlike job of exploring Grant's various film roles, his affairs, and Hollywood career, but whether Grant was gay or bisexual and desperately needed the heterosexual facade of a movie star, or whether he was just the stereotypical much-married Hollywood actor, this book doesn't reveal.  Much of the book covers very well-tread territory.

Verdict: Not bad for what it is, but there's nothing really new here. **1/2.