My Top 25 Favorite Films: #3!!!

Alfred Hitchcock has made dozens of great movies. The aforelisted Rear Window. The Birds. Psycho. Frenzy. Lifeboat. Saboteur, not to be confused with Sabotage. The Man Who Knew Too Much. Family Plot. The 39 Steps. The Lady Vanishes. Foreign Correspondent. Shadow of a Doubt. But, for me, there is only one I can watch over and over and over.
North By Northwest is perfect film entertainment because it intricately blends together drama, adventure, mystery, and intrigue. But, most notably, it does so with a helluva lot of laughs. Thanks to the magnificently layered performance of Cary Grant.
The guy oozed charm and sophistication out of every pore, but, in this movie, he manages to evoke tons of laughs with an impeccable delivery. As Roger O. Thornhill (the initials are ROT), Grant portrays the quintessential snobbish, pampered playboy whose main goal in daily life is to determine what time of night he can enjoy his first Bombay martini. But, as usually happens in every Hitchcock, an ordinary and innocent man is in the wrong place at the wrong time with definitely the wrong people. And the story spins from that, as said innocent guy must extricate himself from some pretty perilous situations. Hitchcock went to this well a lot, but, in North by Northwest, the water is his most refreshing.
I came to this movie later in life, and I really wish I had gotten to see it on a big screen when it probably first opened at the Loews Mount Vernon theater. Every time I have seen it, the experience, while still perfect, always changes just a little bit as I notice some new detail or nuance. There are location shots from NY's Grand Central Terminal that take you back to that train station as it looked circa 1958. The rear projection of a train going up the Hudson Line train tracks is authentic, especially since I rode that same railway for about 20 years.
North By Northwest is noted in film lore for two very specific sequences. The famous crop dusting scene has been shown on virtually every Oscar clip show ever staged, but it never fails to grip me one more time. And, the climax set on Mount Rushmore, while clearly a backlot replica, still remains as exciting as anything filmed for the big screen. In fact, this very ending prompted what was supposed to be the title of the movie. "The Man in Lincoln's Nose." Hell, even the trailer (and Hitchcock sure knew how to make those as well) is riveting.

If you get the DVD of this movie, there is a very well-known blooper still in the movie. In the Mount Rushmore observatory during the scene where Eva Marie Saint confronts Grant with a gun, watch the little kid sitting at one of the tables in the background. He is preparing for the subsequent gunshot by holding his ears. Even in its mistakes, the movie is captivating.
Unlike most of the other films on this list, I have no poignant or funny memory attached to seeing North By Northwest. All I can say is that I have enjoyed. Again and again and again and again. Perhaps one of the most perfect movies ever made.
Except maybe for the top two movies on my list. They're coming next.
Dinner last night: The 90th birthday celebration of a friend's (Djinn from the Bronx) dad at Madeo. I had the Chicken Pizzaiola with the Bob Newharts and the Don Rickles dining together in the next booth.