Alfred Hitchcock’s tale of mistaken identity and Cold War
spying has gone down as one of the most highly regarded films in history. It
was nominated for three Academy Awards, is ranked at 55 in the AFI’s 100 Years
100 Movies ranking and holds an 8.6/10 on IMDb. Carey Grant plays Roger
Thornhill, an Ad Man who is abducted by James Mason’s ‘Townsend’ character
under the suspicion that he is the spy George Kaplan. Thornhill is chased
across America from New York to South Dakota
via Chicago by
the Police and Townsend, meeting the seductive Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint)
along the way. In this next sentence I’m going to say something that will
probably draw a lot of negative comments along the lines of “You don’t know
what you’re talking about” or “You mustn’t have been watching it right” but not
only do I not think North by Northwest is
a great film but I personally believe it is the worst Alfred Hitchcock film I’ve
seen so far. The film undoubtedly features some great stand out moments but as
far as suspense and thrills go, this one left me cold.
At the very beginning I was excited by the premise and the
first half an hour or so had me gripped and occasionally laughing at the likes
of Hitchcock’s cameo and Grant’s drunk driving and subsequent arrest. The film
started unravelling for me with the appearance of Thornhill’s mother (Jessie
Royce Landis) in a role that felt completely pointless. Not only was her role
not particularly funny as I believe it was intended but she looked the same age
as Cary Grant (and was in fact only seven years older). I felt that her
participation in the hotel scene was unnecessary apart from giving Grant
someone to bounce ideas off. The problem was that the character was
underwritten and poorly written.
From then on, although I enjoyed the visuals, set pieces and
acting, I never had any sense of danger or intrigue. I was unfortunately able
to second guess both of Eva Marie Saint’s twists and didn’t for one moment
believe that Grant’s Thornhill would ever fail to get away. For a Hitchcock
film that is really poor. His films over recent months have never stopped
surprising and shocking me but North by
Northwest lacked the suspense of Rope
or shock of Psycho. Nothing ever
jumped out of the blue at me and there were no twists that left me stunned. It
may be that I had my hopes too high but I was honestly disappointed. I understand that this is a very different film from those two but it didn't even entertain me as much as they did.
Despite my reservations I don’t want to give the impression
that I thought this was a bad film because it certainly isn’t. The set design,
rear projection and locations were all stunning with the Mount
Rushmore set looking especially realistic. The film is much more
action orientated than the few Hitchcock films I’ve seen previously and with
the sharp suits, sharper dialogue, travel and action it reminded me of an early
Bond film. Although I was watching the film for the first time today I must
have seen the crop-duster scene twenty times in clip shows, videos, montages
and parodies. Even though I’d seen it, it was still an excellent sequence to
behold and that was one of the few scenes where I wondered how Thornhill would
escape. The climax at Mount Rushmore was also exhilarating
and assisted enormously by Bernard Herrmann’s incredible score. His distinctive
music woks wonderfully in this final scene but is also brilliant throughout the
rest of the film too.
With regards to the acting I thought that the principle cast
were all very good. Carey Grant is very good as the dashing Madison Avenue man
and excellent in some of the more low key scenes but didn’t think he was quite as
convincing during the fast paced action scenes. Overall though his demeanour,
style and grace were some of the highlights of the film. Eva Marie Saint was
also good in a role that was surprisingly bold and raunchy for its time. She
carried off her deception well and also conveyed the emotional intensity of her
role very well. James Mason made for an excellent villain, once again reminding
me of Bond.
Overall I thought North
by Northwest was an extremely well made film but it bored me. Most of the
problems for me come from the writing but perhaps I was expecting something
different. For a mystery thriller I was rarely thrilled or filled with mystery
and I certainly don’t believe it is as good as I’d been lead to believe it was
and don’t feel so bad for waiting so long to watch it. My shock at not enjoying
the film as much as I expected drew me to reading its entire IMDb and Wikipedia
entries thinking that I must have missed something but in the end I came to the
conclusion that I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected I would. Now you
can tell me what an idiot I am…
6/10
Cheers on voicing an honest opinion, even if it is an unpopular one. I haven't watched North By Northwest in years and years, it's one that I'd like to rewatch and reassess myself sometime soon. Great write up!
ReplyDeleteFew! First comment, no death threat. Thanks for commenting. I'm really dissapointed because I expected to love this film. I bought it on Blu-Ray so I'll go back and watch it again myself in a year or two.
DeleteNo death threat here either, but for me it's a 10/10 film, hands down. I never saw it as a mystery thriller, for me its predominantly a popcorn blockbuster, with definite influences for the Bond films. You made some good points, but I disagree on this one.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the popcorn thriller style of the movie and can totally see how it's influenced films since but for me it just wasn't an enjoyable watch. Thanks for the comment and refraining from yelling at me!!
DeleteAt least you watched the whole thing before voicing your opinion. I for one think this is one of Hitchcock's finest films. It's cool that you didn't feel the same way.
ReplyDelete