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Welcome back Ultra Jorge! It has been a long time. Hope all's well in your world.
I remember not enjoying North by Northwest quite as much as I expected to. I think it's held up as one of Hitchcock's best films and while I did think it was pretty good, I also remember thinking there was something unengaging and slow (if that's the right word - not wanting to make it sound like I needed modern fast-cuts and roller-coaster pacing to enjoy it) about the whole thing too.
And Cary Grant's weird voice disturbed me the whole time too. I think that was the first time I'd ever heard him speak and it made me suddenly realise that all these funny accents I'd heard various actors use over the years had all been copies of his!
Some of my favourite Hitchcocks (though I haven't seen them all) - The Birds, Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat.
From: Australia | Registered: Dec 2003
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Wow, I actually loved North by Northwest and its a contender for my very favorite Hitchcock film, and is probably my very favorite Cary Grant film. If you're not that familiar with Cary Grant, I think it's a good example of the kind of roles you'd often see him in. My other favorite Cary Grant movie is Gunga Din which has him in a type of role he didn't often get to play.
I love Charade because it has the other love of my life, Audrey Hepburn, in it and is charming and absolutely hilarious at times. But that is Cary Grant at the very end of his career and he's poking fun at himself (which makes him even more likable but isn't the best example of his work).
Getting back to North by Northwest, I think a lot of it is what Hitch was trying to shoot for: he was trying to get across the idea of moving gradually across the country from New York to South Dakota to increase the sense of things spiraling out of control for Cary Grant's character. But in doing so, it may make things feel like they are dragging out. Personally, I love to just take in the scenary and the dialogue, and I love the scenes between Eva Marie Saint (BTW, be still my beating heart) and Grant.
I think if any character in the movie is "over the top" it would have to be James Mason's villain. Whenever you see a parody of James Mason getting angry, it is always referencing this movie.
But don't worry Jorge and Blacula, I'll give you time to love movie.
PS - welcome back Jorge! LW needs more of you! Talk some movies, books, comics, football...
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Cobie, I did notice the dialogue was very good. Some great lines. The scenery also was great. That house in the end...wow. And I'm sure like you Cobie I have had a drink at that bar in the Plaza.
(this year I am going to try and get involved with the football picks again!)
From: Tampa | Registered: Mar 2004
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Cary Grant has a fascinating life too: check out his wikipedia sometime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Grant
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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North by Northwest is kind of the culmination of "the Wrong Man" theme that Hitchcock visited over and over again in a variety of movies. I'm actually not sure it's the best of his forays into that genre, but it's certainly the biggest in scope.
Of the four Grant-Hitchcock collaborations, I'd rank it the second best, behind Notorious. To Catch a Thief would be third, and Suspicion a distant fourth.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Wow, I totally agree with your order of the Grant/Hitch collaborations! North by Northwest is my favorite, but Notorious is by far the best and a contender for Hitch's best film. It's one of the greatest movies ever made and Claude Rains, Ingird Bergman and Cary Grant all deliver performances that are stunning. The final sequence is one of the best, most memorable sequences in film history.
To Catch a Thief is a fun movie but a bit 'fluffy' at time where you start to feel it isn't all that serious and that is distracting. In fact, Cary Grant carries the whole movie and without him it would suffer. And it has an overly long annoying car chase scene (I'm sure I reviewed it in depth earlier in this thread).
Suspicion is kind of unmemorable and really only for Hitch completists. I watched it once and really only remember the plot details.
To get back to the beginning, Notorious is a must-see for movie buffs. Casablanca made me a fan of Claude Rains early on, but Notorious made me sit back and take notice of how damn talented he was.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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BTW, I much prefer North by Northwest over The Man Who Knew Too Much. I love Jimmy Stewart but he and Doris Day don't work as well for me as Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Have you seen the original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much? With Peter Lorre? I think it's in many ways a lot tighter movie than the re-make.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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Some awesome Cary Grant movies:
The Philadelphia Story Arsenic and Old Lace Only Angels Have Wings Topper His Girl Friday My Favorite Wife The Talk of the Town
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Unfortunately I haven't but its one I've always wanted to. This conversation tonight has reignited my interest in it. I'm a Peter Lorre fan too ever since I first saw Maltese Falcon.
When I was in High School watched The 39 Steps which was great. I wouldn't mind rewatching it again.
I like Hitch's earliest films because he had to work within certain confines and so really flexed his muscles (and made his actors do the same) with very little. I like his later stuff too, but you can see he got a little funky with cinema tricks and camera angles and the like. Early on, things were very clever and that enhances the viewing.
[ July 01, 2010, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Another really sweet, fun Cary Grant movie with Myrna Loy is "Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House" which was playing on TCM a few months back.
An Affair to Remember is excellent as well. Incredibly romantic. It perhaps has been overly praised over the last few decades but don't let that jade you--it is quite good.
And when I was at UCONN and had a film class we watched Blonde Venus which was one of his earliest appearances and perhaps his first great one, co-starring Marlene Dietrich and directed by the incredible Josef Von Sternberg. I absolutely recommend everyone check that out. It certainly would never have gotten made in the post-War years becuase its so racy.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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I almost mentioned Mr Blandings, but I thought the list was getting too long, so I left it out!
I don't think I've watch An Affair to Remember.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
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BTW, I was going to do a ranking of the Hitchcock-Stewart collaborations, but, while The Man Who Knew Too Much is almost certainly the weakest, the other three (Vertigo, Rear Window, and Rope) are all so awesome that I'm not sure I could order them!
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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I agree on the Stewart/Hitch pairings! I watched Rope a few years back I believe right after you starting talking about it and completely fell in love with that movie. It now is on the short list of dream productions for me to see live on the stage.
Rear Window has been a favorite Hitchcock movie since I was a kid. It's my Mom's favorite Hitchcock movie (my parents are big film buffs, which is why I am). I bought it and had my wife watch it for the first time about a year ago and once again even on the 10th or so viewing, I was blown away by how good it was.
Vertigo was a film I didn't like when I was a kid/teeneager because of the tricky camera angles but I've really grown to love it. What is so incredible is just how dark the film is in tone and how there is this underlying creepy feeling throughout. It makes me feel like Jimmy Stewart could have been this incredible horror star had he wanted to or had he made movies in a horror-centric era.
Rear Window has perhaps the single most excruciating sequence to watch ever in a Hitch film, with Grace Kelly in the apartment and Raymond Burr making his way back, then re-entering the apartment and *then* confronting her. And then when it finally calms down and you're heart is racing, Raymond Burr notices Grace Kelly's signal to Jimmy Stewart and you realize it isn't over yet. And then the next 5 minutes are terrifying. That entire end of the movie is one of the greatest endings ever in movie history.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I almost mentioned Mr Blandings, but I thought the list was getting too long, so I left it out!
I don't think I've watch An Affair to Remember.
An Affair to Remember is really great. It's highly romantic but absolutely in the mid to late 1950's mold that makes you just wish you lived in that time (or me at least).
It also romanticizes a cruise ship voyage more than any other piece of work.
Deborrah Kerr wasn't one of my favorites until From Here to Eternity (great film) but that really made me like her a lot. I always knew her role there was very outside the norm and so I wanted to catch up on some of her other films. Many of them are a little "fluffy" for me but some of them are really great. An Affair to Remember is the greatest.
And the ending is terrific.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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I think that was the first time I'd ever heard him speak and it made me suddenly realise that all these funny accents I'd heard various actors use over the years had all been copies of his!
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