#57: North By Northwest

North By Northwest (Hitchcock, 1959)

Hitchcock's most mainstream film, North By Northwest revolves around certain iconic scenes. The cropduster, the fight on Mt Rushmore, and other scenes seem designed to be put in trailors and parodied for years. The main character is played by Cary Grant, Mister Handsome of the 40s through 60s. They worked really hard to put butts in movie theater seats belonging to people who would not otherwise be interested in psychological thrillers. The plot is a pretty typical Hitchcock plot. A man being hunted by criminals mistaking him for a government spy, who meets a woman involved in a multi-layered net of deception. It takes basically the average plot across on Hitchcock movies and gives it the gloss and production value of a Hollywood film.

This mainstream production is a mixed bag. It makes it more fun and entertaining than other Hitchcock films, but it also makes it less psychologically interesting and harder to suspend disbelief. For instance, the crop duster scene. I work for a crime syndicate and manage to send a person I believe to be a government spy to an isolated location alone. I want to kill him. What's my weapon of choice? A crop duster! Because it's way easier and more likely to succeed to run an airplane into somebody than to just drive by with a machine gun! The scenes most designed to broaden the appeal of the movie are the scenes that come off as the silliest. The effect is, North by Northwest is the Hitchcock movie you watch if all you're in the mood for is light entertainment. Which, sometimes you are. But if you're looking for something as psychologically interesting as Vertigo or Strangers on a Train, you'll be disappointed.

Rating: *** / 5

47/101

Next: L'atalante

Others:

Hannah and Her Sisters **** / 5

A pretty typical Woody Allen film. It revolves around three sisters and their present and past husbands. Woody Allen's character used to be married to Hannah, and now Michael Caine's character is. Woody Allen has some unexplained hearing loss, and has to go in for a CAT scan. He's told it might be cancer in the worst case scenario, but it turns out he's totally fine, which sets him off on an existential crisis. Michael Caine's character is attracted to one of Hannah's sisters, and they have an affair. It's a good film, but nothing that stands out from Woody Allen's other films.

New films:

The Good, The Bad, and The Weird: 6/10

A Korean take on The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good is a man trying to kill the bad guy for being the notorious 'Finger chopper'. The Bad is a sadist trying to prove he's the best. The Weird is a bandit who's only in it for the money. Like the original it all ends up in a three way duel at the treasure site, with a very different genre-defying result. Based on it's connection with The Good, The Bad and the Ugly I expected a gunslinging tour de force. The problem is, the Good and Bad are kind of boring, and the only interesting character is The Weird. The action scenes are cool but the parts of the movie that aren't action scenes are boring. Overall it's worth seeing but nothing special.