NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) *** In which Alfred Hitchcock irrefutably demonstrates that a great director needs neither brilliant acting nor an intricate plot to generate historic suspense. And that even when it is entirely clear from the start that it's a film where nothing bad could happen. Cary Grant is thrown from one scene to another, exhibiting more difficulties in handling most of them as an actor than a character, in the milieu midst of a veritable potpourri of Hichcockian backdrops, drawings, and excessively angled shots (in the best sense). It's more pleasant than surprising when the plot more attacks the big uphill than comes together, none of which detracts from the effect. They must have really liked older men then; Grant is as old as the lady that plays his mother and he looks very enthusiastic (in an understated way) for a man who isn't young. His long suit is likeability, and he's absolutely brilliant when the plot calls for him, when indeed duty requires him, to act like a juvenile delinquent (the auction scene). The cropduster scene is everything an existentialism student could hope (the faceless terror that returns; and contrast that metaphysical ambiguity with the deemphasized anti-American take on the government that exploits young women in support of good in their battle against evil), and the grand finale in which they flee the bad guys across the noses of Presidents...it looks silly, obviously not real, stage lighting, foregone conclusion, visually striking, strategically tense, simply wonderful. Eva Marie Saint is never vaguely convincing as her character, but it's not really necessary. She does add credibility to Grant being an actor, and that's probably the most important contribution she could have made. James Mason is aesthetically better as the bad guy, but in what's nearly as peripheral performance as Martin Landau as the bad guy's gay gofer. Plenty of stuff to shock audiences of the day, then; but longer half-life stuff to bring jubilation to the hearts of people who love movies to look and act like movies.
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