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North by Northwest
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, teams with one of his favorite leading men, the iconic Cary Grant and knocked it out of the park with the classic 1959 suspense thriller North by Northwest that combines suspense, humor, and action in a package that is so engaging this reviewer stayed on the edge of his chair. This film was robbed of a 1959 Best Picture nomination and, as he was so many times, Hitch was also robbed of a Best Director nomination.
Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, a New York advertising executive who gets abducted when he is mistaken for a man named George Kaplan and finds himself in so much danger that a bottle of bourbon is poured down his throat and he is placed in an automobile planning for him to drive it off a cliff. No sooner does he miraculously get out of that mess is he framed for murder at the United Nations in front of dozens of people, which sends him on the run for his life.
To reveal anymore of what happens would be wrong, but let me say that this film has always been considered top tier Hitchcock and there's a reason for that. In my review of more than one Hitchcock film, I have mentioned that with his films, it is not so much the story but the way it is told. With a screenplay by six time Oscar nominee Ernest Lehman, we have a first rate story that offers mystery, romance, red herrings, humor, and, of course suspense, at every turn. Loved after his drunken automobile ride when Roger returns to the scene of the crime and finds there's no bourbon stain on the sofa and the liquor cabinet is now a bookshelf. The scenes of him playing detective with his mother, played by the fabulous Jessie Royce Landis, in Kaplan's hotel room is a welcome comic respite to what has gone on up to that point. The story presented initially provides us with two sets of black hats and we somehow know they aren't both black hats we just can't figure out which is which.
And as soon as the comic relief winds down, we get undeniable sexual tension between Roger and the icy Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) that arrives a little too on cue to be coincidental but we have to wait a minute to find out what's going on there. And there are no words for that crop duster plane sequence...loved the way it started with a quiet shot of the plane WAY in the background that only lasts a couple of seconds and the conclusion of it, which we definitely don't see coming. And a big bouquet to Hitch for setting that heart-stopping finale on the faces of Mount Rushmore. Most directors would have put that scene on the Hollywood sign.
Grant and Hitchcock work well together here and I'm glad Jimmy Stewart was doing Anatomy of a Murder making him unavailable for this. The sexual sparks Grant creates with Eva Marie Saint are undeniable and I loved the steely turn from James Mason and Martin Landau as his number one flying monkey. It's a tad longer than it needs to be, but anyway you slice it, a classic that lived up to its reputation.
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, teams with one of his favorite leading men, the iconic Cary Grant and knocked it out of the park with the classic 1959 suspense thriller North by Northwest that combines suspense, humor, and action in a package that is so engaging this reviewer stayed on the edge of his chair. This film was robbed of a 1959 Best Picture nomination and, as he was so many times, Hitch was also robbed of a Best Director nomination.
Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, a New York advertising executive who gets abducted when he is mistaken for a man named George Kaplan and finds himself in so much danger that a bottle of bourbon is poured down his throat and he is placed in an automobile planning for him to drive it off a cliff. No sooner does he miraculously get out of that mess is he framed for murder at the United Nations in front of dozens of people, which sends him on the run for his life.
To reveal anymore of what happens would be wrong, but let me say that this film has always been considered top tier Hitchcock and there's a reason for that. In my review of more than one Hitchcock film, I have mentioned that with his films, it is not so much the story but the way it is told. With a screenplay by six time Oscar nominee Ernest Lehman, we have a first rate story that offers mystery, romance, red herrings, humor, and, of course suspense, at every turn. Loved after his drunken automobile ride when Roger returns to the scene of the crime and finds there's no bourbon stain on the sofa and the liquor cabinet is now a bookshelf. The scenes of him playing detective with his mother, played by the fabulous Jessie Royce Landis, in Kaplan's hotel room is a welcome comic respite to what has gone on up to that point. The story presented initially provides us with two sets of black hats and we somehow know they aren't both black hats we just can't figure out which is which.
And as soon as the comic relief winds down, we get undeniable sexual tension between Roger and the icy Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) that arrives a little too on cue to be coincidental but we have to wait a minute to find out what's going on there. And there are no words for that crop duster plane sequence...loved the way it started with a quiet shot of the plane WAY in the background that only lasts a couple of seconds and the conclusion of it, which we definitely don't see coming. And a big bouquet to Hitch for setting that heart-stopping finale on the faces of Mount Rushmore. Most directors would have put that scene on the Hollywood sign.
Grant and Hitchcock work well together here and I'm glad Jimmy Stewart was doing Anatomy of a Murder making him unavailable for this. The sexual sparks Grant creates with Eva Marie Saint are undeniable and I loved the steely turn from James Mason and Martin Landau as his number one flying monkey. It's a tad longer than it needs to be, but anyway you slice it, a classic that lived up to its reputation.