Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Sight & Sound Challenge: North by Northwest (1959)

Film: North by Northwest (13/250)
Critics Poll: 53rd
Directors Poll: 107th
First Time/Rewatch: Rewatch

Another Hitchcock! I hadn't seen this one in years and I didn't remember too much about it (except Eva Marie Saint's character claim to be 26, which...no). I forgot how fun it was! I love Cary Grant's one-liners, which definitely give this film some spice, and I love the whole "wrong man" plot. What I don't particularly love are Hitchcock's "icy blondes." I knooow. It's his thing, and I love Hitchcock's films, don't get me wrong. I like them with a little more warmth (Grace Kelly in Rear Window), or conversely, so icy that they're hilarious (Tippi Hedren in The Birds). Eva Marie Saint is a big ol' snooze for me. But I just ignore her and focus on the fun back-and-forth between Cary Grant and James Mason, the plane swooping down at Grant, that crazy climax on Mount Rushmore, and the train whooshing into the tunnel in the least subtle sex metaphor ever. Go Hitch!

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