North by Northwest (1959) FULL WATCH ALONG w/Coby

The reason Roger Thornhill was mistaken for George Kaplan was because Kaplan was being paged by a bellhop when Thornhill called for the bellhop to send a telegram to his mother...The actress playing Roger's mother was about the same age as Cary Grant. So you were right: She doesn't look old enough to be his mother...You were very perceptive to pick up who the spy was the first time round...I LOVED how you metaphorically smacked your forehead with your palm every time Roger Thornhill claimed to be George Kaplan...Cary Grant did die about 25 years later (28) but it wasn't from pesticide...Thornhill use of the pencil sketching to reveal the address, you called very early...I'd like to note that Thornhill, as a Madison Avenue man, is learning the tricks of the trade very quickly as he moves north by northwest...Many people consider this to be the first Bond film, or the prototype. (Cary Grant had turned down the role.)...Unlike many Hitchcock films, this has no source material. It is an original script by Ernest Lehmann (sp?) written with Hitchcock in an attempt to make the ultimate Hitchcock picture, so it draws from several of his earlier films, particularly THE 39 STEPS, which you will probably never watch b/c it's in black-and-white. (Trivia: Also one of J.D. Salinger's favorite films.) If you can overcome this prejudice, then here is perhaps a good running order for the next few Hitchcocks, including color & black-and-white: NOTORIOUS! (Grant and Bergman: "Not something and something but just plain something.") DIAL M FOR MURDER: Grace Kelly; originally shot in 3D! TO CATCH A THIEF: Cary Grant & Grace Kelly! SABOTEUR with Priscilla Lane & Bob Cummings; THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY (Hitchcock's most vibrantly colorful dark comedy, with Shirley MacLaine); FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT with Joel McCrea; the weakest Jimmy Stewart Hitchcock, but still good (and with Doris Day): THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and Hitchcock's most cited favorite of his own SHADOW OF A DOUBT. And then, ending strongly with, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, which will make you forget black-and-white was ever even an issue. Although, by now, NOTORIOUS!, SABOTEUR, and FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT should have already convinced you of that.

Christopher Denny