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North by Northwest
Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell
Alfred Hitchcock's star-studded romantic comedy adventure is the best escapist entertainment there is. It anticipates the thrills of the James Bond genre but recasts the hero as the Hollywood equivalent of an everyman (it's easy for a guy to imagine he's Cary Grant, right?). |
| Boring old advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) signals a bellman in a hotel lounge to ask where the nearest telephone is. He is mistaken by two henchmen for a fellow named George Kaplan (not to be confused with famous Jazz radio host Michael Kaplan). He rises and walks toward the phone only to be escorted by the thugs to a mysterious mansion. |
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| Examining this initial action sheds light on what's so delightful about the entire movie. The henchmen are trying to track down a man named George Kaplan. They don't know what he looks like but they know he's staying at this specific hotel so they have him paged. Roger Thornhill appears to respond to the page so they nab him. The coincidence seems innocent enough and the action of all parties involved plausible enough that we're never challenged to suspend our disbelief. |
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At the same time, the underlying story that sets the coincidence in motion is something that could only be cooked up by a wily screenwriter. In this case, Ernest Lehman. It's a shaggy dog story that will cast its unwitting protagonist into a world of international espionage, into the arms of icy blonde du jour Eva Marie Saint, and clambering over Abe Lincoln's nose on Mount Rushmore. |
| The script, peppered with sexual innuendo, suits Cary Grant's sly, sexy style. James Mason as his sophisticated nemesis is a perfect match. We're asked to believe that Eva Marie Saint's character who falls in love with Grant, once fell in love with Mason. It's not too much of a stretch. |
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| Working on this gorgeous, big budget, big star production must have made Hitchcock yearn for simplicity because he followed it with the $800,000 Psycho. |
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The road picture aspect of the film allows Alfred Hitchcock to strut his directorial stuff in locations as open as a corn field in Indiana and as tight as a railroad train sleeping compartment. We visit the United Nations Building, Union Station in Chicago, the Mount Rushmore observatory...it's almost like taking a vacation. Don't miss the bus.
 
The DVD extras include a documentary about the making of the film, hosted by by Eva Marie Saint, an isolated track of the great Bernard Herrmann score, and commentary by witty screenplay writer Ernest Lehman. |
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