The Man
Many brilliant directors have graced the celluloid world since the inception of the moving camera and left their indelible imprints over the decades. I pride myself in being an amateur student of cinema and of all the collective works of these great men that I’ve watched till now, Alfred Hitchcock clearly stands miles ahead of his contemporaries and successors.
Having watched more than a dozen of his movies (Number 17, NBNW, Vertigo, Spellbound, Strangers on a train, Dial M for Murder, Psycho, Wait Until Dark, etc.), what strikes me is that though each of them had a completely different storyline and setting, most adhered to a particular formula – a very successful and potent one.
The formula comprised elements like a man/woman getting caught up in events beyond his/her control, an icy cool blonde who provides not only (carnal) succor but aids him in clearing his name of the crime of which he’s accused, the witty dialogues even in the most serious of films, an ultra sharp editing style which makes the pace of the movie difficult to keep up with and how can one forget those brief cameos that he played with such aplomb?
The Masterpiece
Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is a middle-aged advertising executive, has two failed marriages behind him, boozes like a fish, lies like a born liar and is every bit a mama’s boy. As he gets ready for a business luncheon with his clients at a hotel, he is erroneously mistaken for “Roger Kaplan” and kidnapped at gunpoint into a waiting limo and taken to a secluded estate bearing the name “Townsend”.
The leader of the syndicate, Van Damme (James Mason with a voice only rivaled by CMG) is an “Exporter” of Government secrets who suspects Thornhill of being Roger Kaplan (a non-existent FBI agent). Much against his wishes, a bottle of “Bourbon” is poured down Roger’s throat after which he’s made to sit at the wheel of a stolen Mercedes and set on course to fall off the cliffs into the sea. By a strange twist of providence, he comes to his senses and thence ensues a stunningly picturised sequence where Roger tries his best to keep the car on the road (in a highly inebriated state).
He’s arrested by the cops for drunken driving (before he can do a “Salman”) but view his “abduction” story as a creation of drunken fantasy. When he takes the cops to the country house to show them proof, he’s shocked to find that all traces of the previous evening have been wiped clean. All but condemned to a spell in prison, Roger decided to take things into his hands and escapes from the cops to go to the UN and meet Mr. Townsend, the gentleman who owns the mansion where Roger was kidnapped. To his utter shock, the real Mr. Townsend and the gentleman whom he met in that house are different and to add to his dilemma, Mr. Townsend is knifed from behind while talking to Roger and this, in full view of the public in the UN!
From there it’s a cat and mouse game as Roger heads to Chicago to find the real Mr. Kaplan (who he doesn’t know to be non-existent). He bumps into an attractive 26-year old Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) who helps him out of one tricky situation too many and safely gets him to Chicago. What he doesn’t know is that Eve is an FBI agent clandestinely masquerading as Van Damme’s mistress to get all secrets out of him.
A lot of unimaginable twists and turns later, the bad guys bite the dust and the good guy gets the blonde.
Thus Spake Cheeky
So, how does a movie like this get to be a movie like this?
The movie, I found, was a perfect recipe for success and there was nothing that could have stopped it from becoming a cult classic. The performances were perfect, the story was intriguing, the background score heightens the urgency of things, the camera angles and cinematography were awesome and the direction was awesome!
The movie was made in 1959 but looks as if it was made only recently. Such is the novelty of the plot and the technical finesse with which it was made. There is not a single dull moment in the whole movie and the pace at which it moves (with locales shifting from NY, Westbury, Manhattan, Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California & South Dakota) is sure to leave the spectators riveted to the edge of their seats right through the 2 hour duration.
The production design and screenplay were by Ernest Lehman who fills the plot with a zillion blind turns. Despite all that, each character is suitably developed and given equal prominence. The background score was conducted by Bernard Herrmann with a major portion being filled with fast-moving cinematic strings and percussion instruments.
Favourite Scenes
One clearly stands out as the best ever in cinematic history - the one where Roger is waiting in the middle of a dusty prairie for the elusive Mr. Kaplan to turn up. This 7-8 minute sequence remains unrivalled and unmatched to this day. There is not a house or person in sight for miles together and as Roger begins to get a bit impatient, a farmer waiting for a bus nearby points to a crop-dusting plane and remarks that it is dusting where there are no crops.
As the farmer boards his bus and the place becomes deserted again, Roger is terrified to see the plane coming directly towards to him and he realizes only when it is a handshake away that its trying to mow him down! What a scene!
The other memorable one is the climatic scene picturised against Mt. Rushmore…awesome again!
Favourite Dialogues
Roger: I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me. I don’t intend to disappoint them by getting myself slightly killed.
Vandamme: Do you intend to cooperate with us? I’d like a simple “yes” or “no.”
Thornhill: A simple “no” for the simple fact that I simply don’t know what you’re talking about.
If tomorrow were the end of the world and you had a choice of watching one last movie on video, I’d strongly recommend you to chuck everything else and watch “North By Northwest”. It’s that brilliant!
Finally, I can’t help sharing with you an anecdote that I came across on the net involving Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was once stopped at the French border by a suspicious customs officer. Eyeing the space on the document where Hitchcock listed his profession as ''Producer'', the official demanded, ''And what do you produce?''
''Gooseflesh,'' Hitchcock cooly replied.
I’m sure those who have watched his movies will readily agree.
