"Mother!" And I (North By Northwest (DVD))

Member Name: ruth_cole

Product:	North By Northwest (DVD)
Date:	19/12/04 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: many

Disadvantages: none

Every year there is one film, along with The Great Escape and The Sound of Music, that is guaranteed to make my Radio Times highlighted list of "things I will watch this Christmas" (because obviously I need to see the other two for the 1,283rd time). That film is North By Northwest. And yet every year I would somehow manage to tune in 45 minutes after the start of the film and in my Allen-esque way, refuse to watch the rest (it's incomprehensible by then anyway). A hangover, a DVD and a year later, and having seen and loved it, this year... I tuned in right on time. :)

Hitchcock's suspense/romantic comedy/drama is a film deserving of its classic masterpiece status. A case of mistaken identity casts Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) into a maelstrom of enforced drunkenness, cropdusting, mysterious ice queens and Mount Rushmore. The mastermind behind the plot Van Damm (James Mason with his eerie sidekick Leondard portrayed creepily by Martin Landau) is the eventual target, and the Hitchcock blonde is the elusive Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint). (I'm behaving myself, so I won't quote "Rattlesnakes" here).

Arguably Cary Grant's finest hour, this is one of his most natural, charming and cool performances - think Charade with a steel edge. The beleaguered advertising exec he portrays is a sharp cookie but a human one. He veers from steely defiance to comedy double-takes and smooth one-liners with effortless grace (not to mention his touching attachment to his good ol' Mother...).

Eva Marie Saint's frail appearance may not have the glamour of a gorgeous Grace Kelly or the sexy shuffle of a Kim Novak (no prizes for guessing Rear Window and Vertigo are old favourites) but she has the acting ability of both of them put together and she invests Eve Kendall with a great deal of panache and just the right amount of vulnerable cracks in the Teflon veneer. As an aside, like Grant, she looks effortlessly stylish and very much the height of 50s cool, beautifully coiffed and tailored.

Supporting performances, especially Mason with a smoothly intoxicating delivery, are solid and admirable. But this being Hitchcock, the visuals are as great a part of the action as the people draped elegantly over them. From the deceptively simple opening credits (giving way to a beautifully distorted opening shot and the trademark Hitch cameo) to the gorgeous sweeping shots of the cropdusting scene and the stomach churningly vertiginous views of Mount Rushmore's famous facade. Finally, the strong humour of the script (onto that in a moment) is underpinned by Hitchcock's cheeky (and at the time shocking) innuendo (just watch the train). I love films that include train sequences anyway... it's by far the most civilised way to travel.

The lightning wit of Ernest Lehman's script is yet another building block in this sumptuous architecture. The one-liners, the effortlessly sexy banter, the daft asides - all are endlessly gripping and entertaining, and surprisingly economical for such a long and complex film. There's also a wonderful vein of daftness that even the machinations of the most eccentric Bond villain never topped; why shoot a man alone in a remote area when you can send a crop duster after him? :P

The final piece of the puzzle after performance, words and pictures is of course sound. The score is beyond brilliant, its cracking pacy drama a perfect complement and certainly one for my OST wishlist. I can just imagine being tempted to speed to it in the car. ;)

The down side for me to writing about films like these is that the less said, the better. It does mean you're spared much more ramble, though. The DVD has a reasonable collection of extras including a decent 40 minute making-of documentary, an audio commentary from Lehman and the excellent idea of showcasing Bernard Hermann's incredible score by providing a music-only Audio Track. Lehman's Droopy Dog voice hangs languidly over the action and is quite hilarious... he adds nothing new but his commentary ramble is so wryly likeable that it's very enjoyable ("I assume I'm addressing an audience that's seen the film..."). The documentary is hosted by Eva Marie Saint and includes appearances from Lehman and Martin Landau, and is a slick and interesting enough tribute to Hitch and NBNW in particular. Nothing hugely new, but a decent time-passer. There's also the usual trailer as well as a production stills gallery, so it's a fairly generous package if not a groundbreaking one.

Certificate PG
Runtime 131 mins

And the title of my op? Well. How could I resist a quote from the film (which was also a nod to a good friend) married to a Wonderstuff song title?

Alex (aka George Kaplan)
xxx

Summary: