It's hard to know what to say about this one as it joins Vertigo and Psycho as one of Hitchcock's most written about movies. I'll be keeping this on the shorter side as I'd be here all night otherwise. I did note, as I went through it again for this blog, that it was probably the first time since his WWII movie Saboteur that Hitch would cast his hero into such a thrill ride across the country. The two share a kind of patriotic touch point in this as North by Northwest with its Cold War connotations, makes much of the glorious post war affluence in the architecture of New York City and Mt Rushmore as poster sized adverts for the land of the free.
The casting is noteworthy. James Stewart pleaded with Hitchcock for the Thornhill role. Gregory Peck was also considered. Both men had been in Hitch's movies but the thriller auteur chose against them and banked on the intergenerational sexiness of Cary Grant. In a brief moment when Grant walks through a woman's bedroom and her tone changes from alarm to attraction and Grant wags a finger at her with a pronounced, "uh-uh," he's not only funny but believable. Neither alternative castings could have carried that off. It does ring a little naff, now, but only a little. Grant was in his mid-fifties but physically trim and had a face that aged beautifully. This still happens and the examples of it are easily listed.
The other thing that still happens is the romantic paring of older men with decades young women. Eva Marie Saint was over two decades younger than Grant at the time. Her character describes herself as being a decade younger still, broadening the age chasm. My assumption is that the goodwill of Grant's stardom covered what can only be obvious in widescreen Technicolor as it is, here. Also, Jessie Royce Landis who was a single year older than Grant, plays his mother. Personally, as I'm knowingly watching fiction, I tend to look past age gaps (especially since I know a fair few people younger than me who make more of them) but the Grant/Saint rift is only smoothed by a pair of committed performances.
Hitchcock's 1950s were mostly larger and more lavish productions than he'd been used to, with few exceptions. Here, he seems to gleefully flaunt the big bucks that MGM could still throw at its productions. The setpieces that mix soundstage and location like the crop duster chase, Mt Rushmore scenes, the exterior/interior U.N. building and so on survive the punishing clarity of 4K in a way that some recent films shot that way have not. The final act sequence with the modernist house and the monumental Mt Rushmore heads is given a nocturnal dark blue wash that feels so confidently contrived that we happily accept it.
But that's the thing about these big, bold Hitchcock epics from this time; they have more scope than normal thrillers but less substance than almost any musical. Hitch's famous trope of the McGuffin (an object that primarily served plot motion) doesn't make an appearance until the third act and feels perfunctory. The triangle of Grant, Saint and the intimidatingly urbane James Mason as Van Damm makes us care more than anything else. There is nothing of the creepy psychology of Vertigo, the stark horror of Psycho or the unease of Marnie on screen, here. Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman just like the idea of dummy agents enough to dress it in a plot and cast Cary Grant and some big scenery. In this run of Hitchcock greats, North by Northwest feels like popcorn. But it is deluxe popcorn.
Viewing notes: I watched the recently released 4K, plain edition from Warners which looks astounding all the way through. A puzzling but not displeasing Dolby Atmos soundtrack is on by default which can overstate Bernard Hermann's blaring score but that's not a big issue. Some good extras like the writer's commentary and contemporary promo featuring Hitchcock himself also come recommended.
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