Speaking of Trains, A Few Queries on "North By Northwest"

[launderess]

Ok, here's me indoors on cold and snowy Saturday night, watching "North By Northwest", on PBS.

Aside from the glorious shots of NYC in the 1950's one thing stuck out to me, Eva Marie-Saint's role seems rather "fast" for a woman in a 1950's film. I mean she does almost everything but rip Mr. Grant's clothing off and have him right there.

Certianly not something one expected of "nice" girls in the 1950's. *LOL*

L.

 

[frigilux]

I watched it with friends two weeks ago and thought the very same thing!

We realized there were some essential Hitchcock films we'd not seen properly. Tomorrow night we're watching To Catch A Thief.

 

[jetcone]

Well there were "fast" girls in the 50's

Not to hijack the thread Laundress:

But funny I had the same experience last week watching "The Day the Earth Stood Still" Gene Shalit said definitely screen the original before going to see the new version. He said the original was more "colorful".

I had seen this film a hunnerd times to date. Almost every Halloween growing up.
But I pulled it down off the shelf and for some reason was seeing things I had never noticed before!! The acting was superb, the camera angles, the creation of tension, the depth of the sets and costumes excellent. The accents were almost in cadence with the terror and tension they were building in the plot.

It was as if I had never seen the film in all those years.

Whats going on here? Have we come so far that we look back with new eyes on these classics? Did our parents reach that point when viewing films of their childhoods?

And of course what was forgotten was found again and enjoyed throughly : When the power fails all over the world there is a shot of "Mad housewife having to pull wet soaked laundry from her new 1951 Westinghouse washer" Even those don't work without 1951 Atomic Electricity!

 

[rocketwarrior]

North by Northwest

Actually the dialogue in the train scene was, during production, a little more suggestive but was 'modified' in the final editing. We have, as is so often the case, been 'protected' by the censors.

 

[rocketwarrior]

Make Love

....for example, Eve says "I never make love on an empty stomach." but the censors had them dub in "discuss" instead of "make" so the line becomes "I never discuss love on an empty stomach." You can see the momentary lack of synch if you watch carefully.

 

[passatdoc]

Klaatu Barada Nikto.....

...which of course are the fateful three words that Patricia Neal must utter to the robot Gort to prevent the destruction of the world.

Jetcone, one of my favorite scenes is the cameo appearance of Frances Bavier, who was "Aunt Bee" on Andy Griffith.

Aunt Bee had her own racy/fast episode on Andy Griffith. She went on a Caribbean cruise and the cruise ship captain started hitting up on her and they fell in love. He proposed marriage, but her duty to Andy and Opie won out and she returned to Mayberry in her spinster aunt role.