Eva Marie Saint
James Mason
Jessie Royce Landis
This classic 1959
American thriller was directed by Hitchcock himself. It was originally set to
star James Stewart (Vertigo, Rear Window) as Thornhill, but as Hitchcock
developed the script, he decided Thornhill was more of a Cary Grant type.
The movie is based on
a sixty-page write-up by a journalist named Guernsey. Hitchcock bought the
write-up for $10,000. He and Ernest Lehman worked on the script, and Lehman
went on to develop the screenplay.
What’s exceptional
about this movie is that you never know what’s coming next. It keeps you
guessing and wanting to see how it ends.
The plot centres on a
man named George Kaplan. Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for
Kaplan, and because of that, he’s almost killed and spends a night in jail.
Things get worse when
Roger can’t convince the police that he was kidnapped, drugged, and nearly
killed. It doesn’t get any better when he becomes a murder suspect for stabbing
a man at the UN.
Now Roger has to prove
his innocence and save the woman he loves.
This movie is known
for iconic scenes, one being the crop-dusting scene where a Naval Aircraft
Factory N3N Canary chases Thornhill. That scene was named the best of all time
in the August 2009 issue of Empire magazine’s "1001 Greatest Movie
Moments."
The other famous scene
is the shoutout on Mount Rushmore at the film’s end, which was filmed on a
replica.
Now as fantastic as the other cast members were, I question the casting of Cary Grant, I felt he could have done better. Also, the movie was a bit too long for me and the plot, although fine by the second act, became a bit too twisted and just unrealistic for me to be fully engaged with what was happening.
The movie also
introduced new trends. Fashion experts at the 2006 GQ rated the gray suit Cary
Grant wears throughout almost the entire film as the best suit in film history
and the most influential on men’s style.
The movie ranks fourth
in AFI’s 100 Years... 100 Thrills, behind Psycho (1960), Jaws (1975), and The
Exorcist (1973). North by Northwest was nominated for three Academy Awards—for
Film Editing, Art Direction, and Original Screenplay (Ernest Lehman)—but lost
them all to Ben Hur.
This is a solid
mystery, and one you will enjoy.
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