North by Northwest

I mostly remember Hitchcock movies from watching them with my mom and aunt growing up. My aunt loved to watch creepy movies, and Hitchcock has some of the creepiest. At least it seemed that way when I was a child. When I mentioned to my mom that I was going to be watching she said that she had no desire to go back and watch old movies, even though she had loved Hitchcock films. That set us off to teasing about the acting in some of these old movies and the odd and affected voices of the actors. We had a good laugh. I didn’t have any concrete memories of these movies. How would they translate now?  Would the actors seem bad and boring with affected accents? Would I be giving up two hours and fifteen minutes of my life that I could never get back, and for no good reason?

I am happy to say that I was wrong. North by Northwest tells the story of advertising executive Roger Thornhill who is mistaken for a man who exists only on paper, George Kaplan. Caught in the middle of a spy ring, no one believes that he is not responsible for driving drunk and the subsequent murder that is committed in broad daylight. Why he grabs the knife handle I will never know. Having no choice but to flee, he goes on the run and meets the gorgeous Eve, who seems to know more about the situation than makes sense, but whom Roger trusts and falls in love with nonetheless. What follows next is comedy and drama as Roger tries to get to the bottom of “George Kaplan” so that he can clear himself of murder and regain that life that he has had to leave behind.

A few things that struck me when I put the disc in was that I didn’t have to sit there and watch trailer after trailer before the movie began and the credits rolled in the beginning. I guess you basically had to know who the actors are because there was no way to look up who played who. Alfred Hitchcock does his blink and you miss him cameo in the beginning, which is fun, and the story kicks right into action.

Roger Thornhill is a dapper, cool, calm and collected businessman and he was cracking jokes even as he was being kidnapped and his life is otherwise endangered.  The storyline was quite funny and there were no distracting accents for me. Just good comedy and drama. I always think of the ’60’s as an antiquated time period so how surprised was I to see them portray a one night stand, have lots of sexy banter and some name calling. I was a mix between amused and mildly uncomfortable because I didn’t expect the sauciness from this movie! I know it happened I just didn’t know that it was shown in the movies. I didn’t think there were any surprises with the storyline and in that way this comedy/drama leans heavily on the comedy because while I knew exactly what was going to happen, I was still entertained.

Next up Dial “M” for Murder. Ooh. I like that one!

Have you seen this Hitcock movie?  Is it a favorite of yours or do you have a favorite part?  I loved the wry humor.  Do you prefer Hitchcock’s comedy/dramas or the thrillers?

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