The Complete plot and dialogue is available online at http://www.filmsite.org/nort.html
Amazon.com essential video
A strong candidate for the most sheerly entertaining and enjoyable movie ever made by a Hollywood studio (with Citizen Kane, Only Angels Have Wings and Trouble in Paradise running neck and neck). Positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo (1958) and the stark horror of Psycho (1960), North by Northwest
(1959) is Alfred Hitchcock at his most effervescent in a romantic
comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant
performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite";
seminal Hitchcock critic Robin Wood (in his book Hitchcock's Films Revisited) makes an airtight case for this glossy MGM production as one of The Master's "unbroken series of masterpieces from Vertigo to Marnie."
It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O.
Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by
enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced
these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as
his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy
Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of
the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history.
And, of course, there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the
United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a
pedestrian has no place to hide), and the cliffhanger finale atop the
stone faces of Mount Rushmore. Plus a sparkling Ernest Lehman script
and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score. What more could a
moviegoer possibly desire? --Jim Emerson
Saturday, the 26th of August 2006
‘Cary Grant - Alfred Hitchcock Night’
The schedule is as follows:
3:00 Louis Armstrong "Satchmo" - This is a biography and musical history of Satchmo. A fascinating and interesting story. There are performances that date back a long way and I am quite surprised that they were able to restore as much as they did from early films. My only wish is that they would have done more complete musical performances of each number = but I suppose, given the great amount of material that Satchmo did in his life - it would be almost impossble and this is only a single DVD.
3:30 Coming Attractions - the usual collection of interesting stuff from Dennis
3:45 "To Catch a Thief' - Cary Grant with Grace Kelly - directed by Alfred HItchcock in a wonderful movie in 1955.
6:00 Potluck Dinner - Potluck, details to be announced.
7:00 "North by Northwest ' - One of the greatest of the Hitchcock thrillers with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in 1959 with a truly great supporting cast.
Cary Grant was one of the best actors in the history of film. He appeared in 72 films from 1932's 'This is the Night' to 1966's 'Walk Don't Run'. He is an uncredited singer in several films.
He was born in Horfield, Bristol, England on January 18, 1904. He died in Davenport, Iowa on November 29, 1986 of a Cerebral hemmorage
from imdb.com Once told by an interviewer "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I." His early years in Bristol, England, would have been an ordinary lower-middle-class childhood except for one extraordinary event. At age nine he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. The real truth, however, was that she had been placed in a mental institution, where she would remain for years, and he was never told about it (he never saw his mother again until he was in his late 20s). He left school at 14, lying about his age and forging his father's signature on a letter to join Bob Pender's troupe of knockabout comedians. He learned pantomime as well as acrobatics as he toured with the Pender troupe in the English provinces, picked up a Cockney accent in the music halls in London, and then in July 1920 was one of the eight Pender boys selected to go to the US. Their show on Broadway, "Good Times", ran for 456 performances, giving Grant time to acclimatize. He would stay in America. Mae West wanted Grant for She Done Him Wrong (1933), because she saw his combination of virility, sexuality and the aura and bearing of a gentleman. Grant was young enough to begin the new career of fatherhood when he stopped making movies at age 62. One biographer said Grant was alienated by the new realism in the film industry. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he had invented a man of the world persona and a style--"high comedy with polished words". In To Catch a Thief (1955) he and Grace Kelly were allowed to improvise some of the dialogue. They knew what the director, Alfred Hitchcock, wanted to do with a scene, they rehearsed it, put in some clever double entendres that got past the censors, and then the scene was filmed. His biggest box-office success was another Hitchcock 1950s film, North by Northwest (1959) made with Eva Marie Saint since Kelly was by that time Princess of Monaco.
Alfred Hitchcock directed 65 films from 1922 to 1976 with many famed films to his credit. He was born on Auguest 13, 1899 in Leystone, London, England and died on April 29, 1980 in Los Angeles of renal failure.
from imdb.com Alfred Hitchcock was the son of East End greengrocer William Hitchcock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.
In 1920 Hitch learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and managed to secure a job as a title designer. He designed the titles for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In 1923 he got his first chance at directing when the director of _Always Tell Your Wife (1923)_ fell ill and Hitch completed the movie. Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing assignment on Number 13 (1922), however, before it could be finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitch was then hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. In reality Hitch did more than this - working as a writer, title designer and art director. After several films for the company, Hitch was given the chance to direct a British/German co-production called The Pleasure Garden (1925). Hitchcock's career as a director finally began. Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema with a significant body of work produced over 50 years.
3:00 Louis Armstrong "Satchmo" - This is a biography and musical history of Satchmo. A fascinating and interesting story. There are performances that date back a long way and I am quite surprised that they were able to restore as much as they did from early films. My only wish is that they would have done more complete musical performances of each number = but I suppose, given the great amount of material that Satchmo did in his life - it would be almost impossble and this is only a single DVD.
3:30 Coming Attractions - the usual collection of interesting stuff from Dennis
3:45 "To Catch a Thief' - Cary Grant with Grace Kelly - directed by Alfred HItchcock in a wonderful movie in 1955.
6:00 Potluck Dinner - Potluck, details to be announced.
7:00 "North by Northwest ' - One of the greatest of the Hitchcock thrillers with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in 1959 with a truly great supporting cast.
Cary Grant was one of the best actors in the history of film. He appeared in 72 films from 1932's 'This is the Night' to 1966's 'Walk Don't Run'. He is an uncredited singer in several films.
He was born in Horfield, Bristol, England on January 18, 1904. He died in Davenport, Iowa on November 29, 1986 of a Cerebral hemmorage
from imdb.com Once told by an interviewer "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I." His early years in Bristol, England, would have been an ordinary lower-middle-class childhood except for one extraordinary event. At age nine he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. The real truth, however, was that she had been placed in a mental institution, where she would remain for years, and he was never told about it (he never saw his mother again until he was in his late 20s). He left school at 14, lying about his age and forging his father's signature on a letter to join Bob Pender's troupe of knockabout comedians. He learned pantomime as well as acrobatics as he toured with the Pender troupe in the English provinces, picked up a Cockney accent in the music halls in London, and then in July 1920 was one of the eight Pender boys selected to go to the US. Their show on Broadway, "Good Times", ran for 456 performances, giving Grant time to acclimatize. He would stay in America. Mae West wanted Grant for She Done Him Wrong (1933), because she saw his combination of virility, sexuality and the aura and bearing of a gentleman. Grant was young enough to begin the new career of fatherhood when he stopped making movies at age 62. One biographer said Grant was alienated by the new realism in the film industry. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he had invented a man of the world persona and a style--"high comedy with polished words". In To Catch a Thief (1955) he and Grace Kelly were allowed to improvise some of the dialogue. They knew what the director, Alfred Hitchcock, wanted to do with a scene, they rehearsed it, put in some clever double entendres that got past the censors, and then the scene was filmed. His biggest box-office success was another Hitchcock 1950s film, North by Northwest (1959) made with Eva Marie Saint since Kelly was by that time Princess of Monaco.
Alfred Hitchcock directed 65 films from 1922 to 1976 with many famed films to his credit. He was born on Auguest 13, 1899 in Leystone, London, England and died on April 29, 1980 in Los Angeles of renal failure.
from imdb.com Alfred Hitchcock was the son of East End greengrocer William Hitchcock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.
In 1920 Hitch learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and managed to secure a job as a title designer. He designed the titles for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In 1923 he got his first chance at directing when the director of _Always Tell Your Wife (1923)_ fell ill and Hitch completed the movie. Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing assignment on Number 13 (1922), however, before it could be finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitch was then hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. In reality Hitch did more than this - working as a writer, title designer and art director. After several films for the company, Hitch was given the chance to direct a British/German co-production called The Pleasure Garden (1925). Hitchcock's career as a director finally began. Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential director in the history of world cinema with a significant body of work produced over 50 years.
Film 1: ‘To Catch a Thief’
The complete plot and dialogue is available onlne at http://www.filmsite.org/toca.html
Cary and Grace on the French Riviera, October 17, 2005
| Reviewer: | Bobby Underwood "starlighthotel" (Bakersfield, California United States) - See all my reviews
|
American John Robie (Cary Grant) has been living well in a beautiful villa on the French Riviera for the past 15 years. Once the most notorious thief in France, the man known as "The Cat" has been quiet for many years. He was in prison during the war when the Germans bombed it. He chose to stay and fight with the French Resistance upon his escape, and became a legend. It led to his parole, which is rather precarious now that a string of jewel robberies mimicking his exact style are occuring on the rooftops of the rich.
The French police want him for it, and his old pals are angry that he's brought them this unwanted attention after all these years. Since the only way to clear himself is to catch the thief himself, he hooks up with an insurance agent whose company is paying out the claims on all the robberies and begins a game of cat and mouse with the thief. The cheese in the trap is the delicious Grace Kelly.
Francie Stevens (Kelly) and her mother, Jessie (Jesse Royce Landis), are vacationing on the Riviera. Robie, posing as a lumber tycoon from Oregon, wants to keep they and their diamonds company until the thief strikes. Francie throws off his game, however, when she learns early on who he really is and displays a wild enthusiasm for helping him steal! Robie isn't there to steal, of course, but has trouble convincing Francie of that when her mother's jewels are stolen. Coming on the heels of a romantic interlude between the two, it is especially insulting.
That evening together is framed beautifully by Hitchcock, cutting back and forth between the fireworks outside on the Riviera and the fireworks going on inside. Kelly is like a playful kitten with a gleam in her eye, and Grant the older cat, who's seen her kind of kitten before and isn't sure he wants to play. There is a wonderful chemistry between the two, who seemed to be made for each other on the screen. A wild ride in her sports car along the coast that has Robie a little worried and a picnic in elegant dress are a treat to watch.
Complicating matters is another sexy kitten, Danielle Foussard (Brigitte Auber). She is the daughter of one of his old pals (Jean Martinelli) and would like nothing better than to run off with Robie to South America. But she is a different kind of kitten, perhaps harder to handle than Francie. When her father is murdered and pegged as the thief, she lashes out at Robie at his funeral. By this time, Francie's wise mom has set her straight about Robie, and together they set a trap for the real thief at a posh costume ball.
It will lead to an exciting and entertaining chase on the rooftops as Robie unmasks the imposter. Since he's enlisted Francie's help this time, he is forced to admit he may not be the lone wolf he thought he was. There is a terrific conclusion as everyone gets what they want, especially the viewer. Look quick for Hitch on the back seat of the bus Grant uses to evade the police! This is elegant escapist entertainment that you can't help but fall in love with. A marvelous film to get lost in on any weekend.
Film 2: ‘North by Northwest’
