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FLASH AND MATCH Rear Window is smooth and amusing about the dangers of voyeurism, a subject Alfred Hitchcock had longed to make as a thriller. In figuring out a way to meet 1954 standards to avoid being objectionably perversive, he puts James Stewart in a wheelchair with a set of binoculars so he can snoop on the residents of a building with most of its thirty one apartments conveniently plopped right in front of him. The pleasure isn’t merely in the temptation to peep, it’s also in the transparency—there aren’t any attempts at Hitchcology, or jacked up fraud as in Vertigo. Excepting Anatomy of a Murder, Stewart has rarely been this entertaining or right for a role; every one of his limitations—he has many—are sidelined as he waits to flash bulbs to save himself. Comfortably flitting around in her Philadelphia-bred style, Grace Kelly is vivacious, showing she really can fit into Hitch’s glove of deviance. (I’m one of the brave who believes Dial M for Murder would be more humorous had she been offed for being romantically involved with Ray Milland and His Ineffableness Bob Cummings; and though she has some clever chat in the overrated To Catch a Thief, it’s Jessie Royce Landis who steals the show—including its last scene she’s not even in—and looks better in blue wig and ball gown than Grace does in gold ensemble.) With Raymond Burr as the chop-chopper, Thelma Ritter dispensing her customary blue collar wit and wisdom. Hurrahs to Joseph MacMillan Johnson and Hal Pereira for the sets. North By Northwest is a lark by Hitch who one day out of the blue said, “I’ve always wanted to do a chase sequence across the faces of Mount Rushmore.” Screenwriter Ernest Lehman couldn’t resist and for more than a year they tossed around ideas under the working title Breathless. In production, Hitch said, “Ernie, do you realize what we’re doing in this picture? The audience is like a giant organ that you and I are playing. We play this note on them and they react that way...we’ll press different buttons and they’ll go ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ and we’ll frighten them and make them laugh. Won’t that be wonderful?” Play and push buttons they do, happily, sans the scares. This nonsense ranks highest among Hitch’s frivolous concoctions; there’s not a thing to upset you, or ponder over. Has some showpiece numbers—the most gamey with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in a train dining car. (Would a fellatrix like Linda Lovelace be able to match Eva blowing Cary’s match?) Grant in a role James Stewart coveted; Eva is a decidedly super-cool blond hot box MGM wanted Cyd Charisse to play; James Mason, Martin Landau, Jessie Royce Landis and Leo G. Carroll enjoyable supporting acts. Neat titles by Saul Bass; Bernard Herrmann doing his usual heavy-duty thumping. Often neglected in trivia pursuits: TWA’s Constellation and portable stairs are given more visual plugs than Northwest. Text COPYRIGHT © 2005 RALPH BENNER All Rights Reserved.
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