North By Northwest

My wife and I, this past Sunday, were able to watch this classic Alfred Hitchcock film on the big screen at our local theater.  It is such a wonderful film, and I had never seen the film in its entirety before, having caught bits and pieces of it over the years when it has played on television.  Seeing it also, larger than life, on a real movie screen enhanced everything about the experience. 

It was and is a true gem.  Eva Marie Saint was so very excellent in her role.   Cary Grant was, of course, good.  Martin Landau was so surprisingly recognizable, even though he was exceptionally young in this film.  I loved the filming style of Hitchcock in this film.   The film stock gave the images a more than realistic vividness and saturation which I always find so pleasant and so philosophically of the time period (it was the film stock type that predominated color films of the mid 1950s until the end of the 1960s).  Even the opening credits were pure beauty in that 50s-60s style.   The opening scene of the film focused on the reflection of city traffic as seen through reflections in the office windows of a modern, glass skyscraper.   Absolutely beautiful and transfixing.

There was even a pipe smoking professor in the film. Leo G. Carroll was excellent in his role as the CIA/FBI head honcho guiding most things behind the scenes as a wise professor.

A suspense film that makes most films over the last 30 years pale in comparison.  

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