Play It Cool

Rating: 6/10 (24 September 2004)

North By Northwest -
On watching this movie as a sixteen year old, I was thrilled at the scope of the chase unfolding before my eyes. When I watch it again last night, I wasn't as impressed due to paying more attention to the corny exchanges between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. The crop duster episode still seemed the most enthralling sequence of the film; not only as a result of masterful suspense, but also because there's no opportunity for cringeworthy innuendo.
A few films from the 1950s, such as this one and Anatomy of a Murder, had daring scripts, but now seem too forced. If a man used Thornhill's lines on a night out in this day and age, he'd be shunned and laughed at no matter how handsome he is.
SB