50/50 Review #13: His Girl Friday.

This marks my first Howard Hawkes flick, and jumpin' jehosaphat... what a doozy! Ex-journalist Hildy (Rosalind Russell) is getting married to Bruce (Ralph Bellamy), but first needs to tell her old boss and ex-husband, Walter (Cary Grant). But Walter goes out of his way, using all his resources, trying to make sure she doesn't end up marrying the guy so that she will end up back with him and at his paper. And unfortunately, a potentially wrongly accused murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen) is going to be hanged the following day, and his story becomes further and further intertwined with theirs.

I felt like I couldn't breath the entire movie. The acting style had everyone speaking about five times as fast Social Network, and all on top of each other. Honestly, it was completely fascinating and rather humorous (I even laughed out a loud a couple times). Of course, an hour-and-a-half of it came to be a bit much at times. The comedic timing of the actors mixed with the whip-crack speed of the dialogue was outstanding, even if it was difficult to keep up sometimes. And hey, there were even a couple meta jokes!

The story took me into unexpected places, too. I was expecting the one where Walter tries to stop Hildy from getting married again. But what I didn't expect was the newspaper angle and all the wrongfully accused murderer stuff. That was a unique twist to this story that kept me guessing where the film was gonna be going next. I also appreciated the con artist feel of the film. It was like Hildy and Walter were trying to out-con each other throughout the film, and then there was even an ending not unlike that of a con artist flick.

And... that's about it. Really. Outside of the brilliant, witty dialogue and the incredible speed with which it was said, the film doesn't really offer up much else (though I'm sure we could bring feminism up here pretty easily). At least not on a first viewing. The characters are fascinating, and the actors who portray them do so excellently. But everything this movie has to offer resides in its words. All five billion of them (potential hyperbole). Ironic how this review seems to be just the opposite.


A Keanu 'Whoa'

(P.S. If there's anything more specific you want to talk about, just hit me up in the comments!)

60/60 Review #38: North By Northwest.

And I didn't think it could get better than Rear Window. Eagle Eye--I mean, North by Northwest tells us the story of Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), an advertising executive who gets mistaken for an undercover CIA agent by Philip Vandamm (James Mason), a foreign spy. Roger is thrust into a series of events that eventually makes him a very wanted individual by the authorities, so he has to stay on the run. He eventually meets up with Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), a young woman who seems to want to help. But nothing is as it seems, and Roger faces twists and turns trying to figure out just what is going on and how he can get out of it.

Whereas almost every other Hitchcock film I've seen this month has had a long build-up to the suspense, this one hits you about 6 minutes into the movie. It really takes only the required time to set up the lead character before shoving him into this mess. And from that point on, it never slows down or holds back. While the movie is over 2 hours long, I didn't think there were any major pacing problems. I did wonder a couple times where the film was going to go now that it seemed it was almost over ("There's still an hour left? It feels like we're almost to the climax!" "There's still 30 minutes left? Aren't we at the climax?"). I guess in a sense this could be seen as a good thing, considering the entire last half of the movie felt like one long climax/suspense scene that just kept throwing more twists at you just when you thought you were almost there.

I thought the writing in Rope was top notch, but this one takes the cake. While the story at times feels almost too complex (I actually got lost a couple times), the characters are just so great that it keeps you involved. Cary Grant plays such a smart-ass, which is a refreshing change of pace. He wasn't over-dramatic or anything like that. It's like he took everything going on with a grain of salt and reacted. Then we have Eva Marie Saint, who plays such a fine Femme Fatale that I could never keep a handle on whether she was a good guy or not.

I think what I enjoyed most about this film is that while there is a lot of suspense, it has a ton of humor. And I don't mean just dark humor like Hitchcock has given in previous films I've watched--but sarcasm and witty dialogue. And boy was I surprised at the amount of sex talk allusions in this film, particularly the scenes on the train. For 1959, this was probably pretty dang close to scandalous the lengths Hitchcock went with it. There's a whole discussion full of innuendo about them going back to have sex all night, despite the fact they just met.

The music was also pretty good. It had a much more modern feel. Older films tend to have a grander sound to their soundtracks, sometimes overwhelming the scenes. I'm not a music or soundtrack aficionado, so I can't tell you what it was... it just feels like this particular soundtrack was at a turning point in film.

And I kind of had that feeling about the film as a whole. Of all the Hitchcock films I've watched this month, this one felt the most 'modern', I suppose. The only thing about it that felt old school was the kissing scenes. Besides that, it didn't really feel dated at all. Now, almost every month, there's generally at least 1 movie I watch that I'm tempted to go out and buy after viewing it (but I never do). There have been 3 this month (this, Rear Window, and Rope), but for the first time I'm considering going and actually buying this film. I could definitely see myself getting in the mood for this one and just popping it in for the fun of it.

That being said, this nudges out Rear Window as my favorite Hitchcock, despite its sometimes confusing plot (I'll need to rewatch it to catch a few things). And this actually means a lot considering this is the one I was most looking forward to watching, so my expectations were already pretty high (and that typically doesn't end well when that happens during this project). Instead of just rambling on, I guess I'll leave it at that, since I honestly don't have anything profound to say--oh, except that I started picking up on the number 13 in this film. I don't know if it was on purpose, but all the numbers (room numbers and whatnot) given in this film seem to add up to 13. And I caught the Hitchcock cameo for the second time this month. Anyway... that's it.


Royale With Cheese

(P.S. That's it for Hitchcock Month! I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed overall. I had such high expectations for this month, and about half the films kinda fell short for me. But the good ones were really good. And it was a good month overall. Anyway, next week we're moving on to the longest month on this entire project (the only month to have 10 films including extras), Crime Month Part 1--since there are 2 back-to-back months full of crime films. This first month deals more with heists and cops/robbers... so it should be a fun one! See you then.)