thanks so much for all the comments and positive feedback, I really enjoy reading them. Will always ...
thanks so much for all the comments and positive feedback, I really enjoy reading them. Will always endeavour to return a rate, please let me know if I miss anyone out!
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Suave, good suits, action, pretty ladies? Believe it or not, someone got there before Bond. In 1959, at the peak of Alfred Hitchcock’s popularity he released ‘North By Northwest’ a comedy thriller starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and the wonderfully sibilliant James Mason. It garnered 3 Oscar nominations and was the 8th highest grosser for the year. However, 50 years on it consistently rates as one of the most popular movies of that decade and also of all time (any film ranked #28 on the internet movie database must have something good going on). It also happens to feature pretty high on MY list too: and heres why:
During my late teens, action movies were all I lived for. I wanted to be an Arnie or an Indie, a rough and ready hero who could take a few licks and still prevail. Used to wear a padded lumberjack shirt with pride because it matched one Arnold Schwarzenegger wore in Total Recall – looking good was not a priority..
However I stumbled across an old technicolour film one day and was entranced. Who was this smooth, impossibly elegant guy with the masculine shoulders and the tan? He looked so commanding and in control..but not in a gun toting, muscular kind of way. Cary Grant looked the part and I wanted to see more.
North by Northwest (1959) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock 131 minutes Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau
The plot has holes
so gaping you could fly a crop duster through:
The Plot (if you can suspend your belief): Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, a Maddison Avenue advertising exec. Through a case of mistaken identity, he is believed to be a secret agent for the government, who just happens to have the same name. A pair of goons kidnap him under the eyes of a crowded club and take Thornhill off to see their boss, the wonderfully sinister Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) for interrogation. Our hero is order to ‘talk’ (about what – we never know), but of course doesn’t know what to say – after veiled threats he is force fed a bottle of liquor and taken off to be disposed of. Of course, being Cary Grant, he comes to his senses just in time. The police apprehend him and stick him in a cell to sleep it off.. The following day he returns to the site of his questioning, and is directed to the United Nations building in Washington where the owner of the property is working. Thornhill swans up to the front door, calls the guy up and is framed for his murder in front of a crowd of people! He just happens to be snapped by a photographer, seconds after apparently commiting the act and is forced to go on the run. In the same suit with only a pair of sunglasses as a disguise.. However being Cary Grant (and that is who CG is plainly portraying, Thornhill is simply a caracture) he can’t help being suave and sophisticated. Being pursued by ticket collectors on the Greyhound train out of New York he bumps into a pretty young lady (Eva Maria Saint as Eve Kendall) in the dining carriage. Some of the most wonderfully elegant flirtation follows which would sound horrible coming out of the mouth of anyone but CG himself. Each line Thornhill lays out is gently batted back by his quarry.
Roger Thornhill: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her. Eve Kendall: What makes you think you have to conceal it? Roger Thornhill: She might find the idea objectionable. Eve Kendall: Then again, she might not.
All this while wearing the same synthetic grey suit, Jackie O sunglasses and drinking a Gibson Martini… you’d think he’d want to be anonymous, being on the run, wouldn’t you??
It transpires that Thornhill gets his woman. However, Vandamm is on the same train, we see him being passed a note by one of the train attendants and smiling knowingly. This is where the suspense starts kicking in :is Eve working for him??? Has Vandamm been tracking Thornhill throughout??
The plot twists and turns in a similar vein. The Government turn up, give Thornhill a briefing on what’s going on: apparently the spy who he was mistaken for doesn’t actually exist. All the hotel bookings and the airport transfers that Vandamm has discovered are simply a shell to distract him.. from what we never find out. ‘The Man’ now has a real person to fill this role and want our hero to continue as the baddies are on his tail. I won’t spoil the rest of the plot for you: the chase goes on, Thornhill and Kendall fall for one another (or do they??) and ultimately defeat Vandamm and his cronies in spectacular style.
They would, wouldn’t they, after all we’re talking about Cary Grant here, aren’t we??
What I think: This film is a homage to Cary Grant at his finest. The actor had a career playing debonair leading men during the previous two decades and NBNW is the epitome of it. Don’t expect to believe the story, suspend judgement on the scrapes that CG gets into..simply admire a poised, immaculate actor at a career highpoint. The grey suit he is wearing throughout the film remains unruffled, and even whilst being machine gunned by a crop duster, so does our hero. Paraphrasing someone: ‘men want to be Cary Grant and women want to be with him’ – in control during a crisis, witty and dynamite with the ladies. What can anyone do, but admire the guy? Director Alfred Hitchcock was on a hot streak during this time. From the mid 1950s into the 60s he made the likes of Rear Window, Dial M For Murder, Vertigo and Psycho. He set the standard for the thriller genre during this time and all these movies feature very highly in all time movie polls that are released. North By Northwest however is THE first extravagant, technicolour thriller which would’ve shaken viewers by their lapels on the big screen. From the suave hero who is phased by nothing, the sinister villain, the beautiful girl, thunderous music, the humour and exotic location: this film has it all. In fact, Albert Broccoli based his James Bond screen adaptation on this film and picked Sean Connery for the role due to his physical similarity to Grant, Roger Moore for his wry sense of humour. And 20 Bonds later the significance of this film is clear. The content may be a little gentle for today’s audiences, but all the elements are in place. If it’s fast paced, edge of your seat excitement you’re looking for, this is where it all began…
Pictures of North By Northwest (DVD)
Great disguise, huh?
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![North By Northwest [1959] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78537182.jpg "North By Northwest [1959] [DVD]")
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