CineTV Contest: North By Northwest
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Alfred Hitchcock, a cinematic genius films in 1959 an epic mystery thriller called North By Northwest. A spy adventure with lots of intrigue and fun, starring Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill. The screenplay is by Ernest Lehman.
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Meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, a publicist named Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for an important secret agent. This mistaken identity will lead him to be pursued by the police and by the men of the spy Philip Vandamm (James Mason). On the run, he meets a beautiful woman named Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint).
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The publicist is mistaken for a CIA agent named George Kaplan who doesn't even exist. Roger Thornhill is an ordinary man, and the interest of the film comes from seeing someone like that in such outlandish situations.
We will observe trips, kidnappings and unreal situations. Searching for the non-existent Mr. Kaplan, Thornhill gets involved in many problems that will take him to the UN, make him meet the beautiful and seductive Eve Kendall, try to rescue The Professor (Leo G. Carroll) and face the evil Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) and Leonard (Martin Landau).
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Clara Thornhill is the mother of the protagonist and she is played by Jessie Royce Landis, her role is tremendously funny as she infantilizes a character like Roger Thornhill, who is already mature, and she was played by an actor only 7 years younger than her.
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Eva Marie Saint is double agent Eve Kendall. She and Cary Grant sparkle on stage and convey a lot of sensuality together, something that for the time is strange that the censors didn't pick up on:
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Hitchcock's cinema always stands out for its essentially visual approach. In this section, the film is full of indelible moments such as the scene at the UN (with part of the interior shot with hidden camera and another simulated with studio sets), the art auction, the romanticism on the train, the sequences on Mount Rushmore, and the scene of the lethal attack of the crop duster plane.
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The scene of the fumigator plane (in which crops are fumigated where there are none), is mythical since they are minutes without dialogues, with pure tension and a very well managed rhythm.
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There is a subtext in which it is easy to notice the sexual tension between the bad guys played by Martin Landau and James Mason.
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At the end the two protagonists go from being about to die on Mount Rushmore to being intimate on a train as a newlywed couple, ending the film with the image of the locomotive going into a tunnel. Reading between the lines here is another of Hitchcock's sexual subtexts.
Cary Grant, gives his character a kind and charming ironic touch, embodying the false culprit in trouble that can compromise even his own existence, the blonde protagonist, the villains are elegant, the adventure is narrated with a mastery that manages to mix adventure, light humor, sober romance and of course suspense.
The film features Leo G. Carroll, years before being the boss in The Man From UNCLE; and Edward Platt before being Maxwell Smart's boss in the series Get Smart.
Of note in the film are the credit designs by Saul Bass and the music by the great Bernard Herrmann. Here is the beginning and end of the film.
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The film is a classic of cinema, cataloged as one of the best of Alfred Hitchcock. In addition, it laid the foundations for the James Bond saga.
At its premiere it was a resounding success with the public and critics, and in 1959 it obtained three Oscar nominations (for best artistic direction, best editing and best screenplay). However, it had the misfortune to coincide that year with the presentation of "Ben-Hur", by William Wyler.
The chase over the effigies of Mount Rushmore and the chase of the crop duster are two of the great scenes, in the history of cinema in general. Herrmann's music certainly lives up to the images. Saul Bass added the film's opening titles kinetic art, based on the aesthetics of movement.
It has been recognized by the American Film Institute as the 55th best film of all time, and Alfred Hitchcock considers it his best thriller.
This is my entry in the CineTV Contest #67 - Favorite Suspense Movie Link Here, I hope you liked my proposal. Best regards to all and good luck to the other contestants.
Obviously, I have read the contest rules @caulderfreeman a greeting.
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