Summer of Hitchcock: North by Northwest

This summer My Friend Amy is hosting a Summer of Hitchcock, where we watch a selection of Alfred Hitchcock movies and discuss them on our blogs and twitter. This week we watched North by Northwest.

I first saw this movie a few years ago during my Into to Film class in college. I had never seen a Hitchcock movie before. My dad is a HUGE fan, he's seen almost everyone one of his movies at least twice. However I just had never got into any of them myself. After watching this one back in college I greatly enjoyed it. Re watching it again was fun too. I've discovered that I LOVE the older movies that were filmed in Technicolor. I don't know what it is but it makes the movie seem grander and more colorful to watch.

I love how Cary Grant is a smart aleck. The scene when he first walks into Van Damm's house after getting kidnapped the first time and he's trying to figure out why he's there and who Kaplan is has him back talking and making smart quips. The auction scene is also a riot. George Clooney and Chris Noth as Mr Big in Sex and the City remind me so much of him.

I miss the days when traveling on trains was romantic and elegant. I mean did you see how they had dinner? On white tablecloths, with wine glasses and salmon!

One thing I found funny was that he didn't seem to cast characters that looked their age. The actress playing Roger's mother was only 8 years older than Cary Grant. I had to look it up on IMDB because she definitely did NOT look old enough to be his mother. Eve was supposed to be 26, Eva Marie Saint was 36 when she did the movie. And note of funny for myself, the actor playing Van Damm, James Mason, is always going to be known to me as Joseph of Arimethea from the Jesus of Nazareth mini series.

The entire Mt. Rushmore scene is great but I found the scenes when you could tell it was fake very laughable. Of course I know about the times and the Special effects but still there's this one shot where Roosevelt's head looks like it's made out of Styrofoam. I also kept thinking about National Treasure 2 the whole time.

The ending of the movie is a riot. It's so obvious that a lot of people just won't get it.

I'm glad that this was the first movie of the summer to watch. As this was the only one I have watched I am eager to watch the other movies we have planned in the schedule.

Next week: Dial M for Murder