The Sunday Memory Drawer - Revisiting Another Movie Memory

Another terrific Saturday night courtesy of the Aero Theater in Santa Monica.  Someone at the American Cinematheque got the brainstorm of running nothing but Alfred Hitchcock movies this month and I am back suddenly as a kid gobbling up one thrill after another.

A few weeks back, they ran "Rear Window," which is my 4th favorite movie of all time.   Last night, it was time for "North By Northwest," my third favorite movie of all time.  The theater was packed both nights, which also says a lot about what's playing these days in the regular cinemas.  

As for me, I am young again.  I go back to my early days when my cousin Gini took me to the RKO Proctor's in Mount Vernon, New York to see "The Birds."  An awfully adult movie for a little boy who primarily saw Disney films and anything with Jerry Lewis.   This day was the first time I felt I was a grown-up.  I will never forget my cousin for raising the bar on my movie experience that afternoon.   

I was seeing an Alfred Hitchcock movie!

I began a journey across the master's playlist.  Alfred Hitchcock had made dozens of great movies. I sought them out in the worst possible place.  Television.   The Late Show.  The Early Show.  CBS or NBC or ABC Blank Day Night at the Movies.

"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." 

All terrific.  It took me years to get to all of them, but I did.

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 back lot 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 my list of favorite movies, 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.

And it was perfect again just last night.

Dinner last night:  Pulled pork sandwich at Holy Cow.