Jessica (Barbara Stanwyck) and Brandon Bourne (James Mason) appear to be a successful, happily married couple. They dine weekly with Jessie's mother Nora Kernan (Gale Sondergaard), who shows deep affection for her son-in-law. They live in a lovely Gramercy Park apartment. But, there marriage was threatened some years ago when Brandon had an affair with Isabel Lorrison (Ava Gardner). Her departure helped repair their marriage; however, Isabel has just returned to New York, and she wants Bran back. Our film for this week is East Side, West Side (1949) Before I begin discussing the film itself, I wanted to comment on the "East Side" setting. One of my favorite places in the world is Gramercy Park. For those of you not from NYC, Gramercy Park is a small region in Manhattan; it encompasses an area from 19th Street to 21st Street, and from Third Avenue to Park Avenue South. In its center is the actual Park, a private garden available only to residents. Centered in the Park is a statue to Edwin Booth; across the street is The Players' Club, which Mr. Booth founded in 1888. Among the inhabitants of the area were James Cagney (who lived at #34), Gregory Peck (you can see him walking in the Park in A Conversation with Gregory Peck), and Margaret Hamilton; John Garfield died in #3. The home in which the Bournes reside is #36 (right next door to James Cagney!) and was my personal dream apartment. Now, there is no way that Jessica can see the river, even from the top floor of the east face of the building (Stuyvesant Town would be in the way), but it's still an impressive residence.
It goes without saying that Ms. Stanwyck is impressive as Jessica. Though Jessie is quiet, Ms. Stanwyck makes sure she is not passive. Jessie is determined that her marriage will survive (her parents' marriage was tumultuous, and it had a toll on their daughter), but neither is she a doormat. She has made it clear to her husband that she won't tolerate his philandering any longer. Though she has suspicions at times, she is willing to trust to a point that he is keeping his word. Ms. Stanwyck makes her pain evident, but also shows us Jessica's strengths - especially when she finally confronts her chief nemesis, Isabel (for an interesting discussion of the scene, please visit this review by Jeanine Basinger in The New York Review of Books. It includes a review of Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, by Peter Evans and Ava Gardner in which Ms. Gardner alleges an affair with Ms. Stanwyck's husband, Robert Taylor).
None of us are huge James Mason fans; though he is at his best when there is something a bit shady about the character. This film is no exception. Mr. Mason has no problem with making Bran distasteful and weak; the result however is that you know pretty quickly that he is not a fit husband for anyone, much less the caring Jessica. His interactions with Rosa Senta (Cyd Charisse, in a rare dramatic role) cut immediately to the chase. He flirts, she puts him down, saying "If I were your wife, I'd cut your heart out!" The audience totally understands her reaction; we don't even need to know that Isabel can summon him with a flick of her little finger to understand that he is spineless.
Conversely, Van Heflin as Mark Dwyer is excellent and immediately likeable. Sure, he falls for Jessica a bit too fast (but it is only an 108 minute film!) and he doesn't appreciate Rosa's affection for him, but he's a good man who has little use for Bran, and is upfront in his relations with the women in his life. Mr. Heflin, in his third appearance with Ms. Stanwyck (they had already appeared together in B.F.'s Daughter and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers) , shows an easy relationship with his co-star. There is an equality and regard in their relationship that (appropriately) is not present with Mr. Mason. Part of the reason that Mr. Heflin's character is so attractive is the regard with which he is held by Rosa Senta. She's loved him since childhood, but she is also a woman with a regard for herself. She won't accept him as a second choice. His honesty towards her; her response to their conversations make both characters attractive.
Let's also acknowledge that the women in this film are remarkable for their solidarity. Sure, Isabel and Felice Backett (aka "The Amazon", played by Beverly Michaels) are heinous people, but the interactions that Jessie has with Helen Lee (Nancy Davis) and Rosa, and the love that Nora has for her daughter demonstrate that not every female discussion results in a catfight. These women are protective of Jessie. Ms. Davis, (in her first screen role; she was on the set of this film when she met her future husband, Ronald Reagan), says it best, when she decries the belief "that [women] aren't capable of affection for one another and honest friendship." Rosa, Nora, and Helen show the depth of female friendships. (TCM article) Beverly Michaels was also appearing on the big screen for the first time. She was married to the film's producer Voldemar Vetluguin at the time (the marriage would end in 1952). She only appeared in 11 films (3 of them uncredited), but she's quite good in this small but memorable role. After her divorce, she married again, to screenwriter/director Russell Rouse. They were married for over 30 years, until his death, and had two children (their son Christopher is an editor). She died in 2007, at the age of 78, by which time she had become something of a cult figure as a noir-ish bad girl.
As is often the case, Mr. Mason and Ms. Stanwyck were not the first choices for the Bournes - Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert were the considered first. This would also be Gale Sondergaard's final film for 20 years - she and her husband Herbert Biberman were blacklisted; they moved to New York City where she was able to get work on Broadway. Finally, in 1969, she returned to the big and small screen (AFI catalog) with the film Slaves (directed by her husband) and the TV show It Takes a Thief. We'll leave you with the trailer to this excellent film.
As a happy start to the month of April, TCM Presents on Fathom Events featured North by Northwest (1959), an Alfred Hitchcock adventure starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. This presented an excellent opportunity to see this fascinating film on a big screen Roger O. Thornhill (the O stands for nothing, except to make Roger's initials "ROT") is a successful and rather cavalier Madison Avenue executive. Twice married and divorced, Roger has a jaundiced view of the world. There is in advertising, he says "no such thing as a lie. There's only expedient exaggeration." But it is a precept he adheres to in life, as he lies constantly to his mother and his latest girlfriend. Out for a business drink at the Plaza Hotel, he signals a bellboy to assist him in sending a telegram to his mother. But when he follows the bellboy to the counter, he is accosted by two men Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht (Robert Ellenstein), who had requested that the hotel (and that bellboy) page George Kaplan. Assuming that Roger is answering that page (and is therefore Kaplan), they escort him from the hotel at gunpoint, and bring him to a home on Glen Cove, Long Island, where he is briefly questioned by a Mr. Townsend (James Mason). When Roger cannot answer their questions, they force-feed him bourbon, and toss him into a car, with the intention of sending him over a cliff. Roger escapes, but the consequences of his attempts to prove what really happened lead him into a series of dangerous adventures.
Even after repeated viewings, North by Northwest is an exhilarating movie. Of course, my repeated viewings were on television screens, and you have not seen the film (shot in VistaVision) until you've seen it on a big screen - the cropduster sequence alone is worth the price of admission! Cary Grant is perfect as a jaundiced, flippant man who is catapulted into a world of violence and misdirection. But the world in which Roger finds himself is, in many ways, not much different than the world he lives in - one in which there is only "expedient exaggeration". For what is George Kaplan but an expedient exaggeration? Interestingly, Cary Grant was not initially considered for the role of Roger. Having just concluded Vertigo, Hitchcock considered continuing his relationship with James Stewart by casting him in the part. Though Stewart dearly wanted the role, Hitchcock ultimately decided that Grant was a better fit, and delayed his shooting start until Stewart was committed to Bell, Book, and Candle (1958) (See these TCM articles for more information). It's been reported that Grant was a bit reluctant to play the role, because he felt he was too old for the part (he wasn't!)
One story about Hitchcock's direction of Cary Grant is
amusing. An individual on the set one day (when the crew was
shooting in the Plaza Hotel), noticed that Cary Grant just began filming
his scene with no direction from Hitchcock. He approached the
director, and asked: "'You haven’t even said 'Good morning' to Cary. How
does he know what to
do?' Hitch answered casually, 'Oh, he’s been walking across this lobby
for years. I don’t need to tell him how.'" (Alfred Hitchcock Geek blog). Mr. Grant, of course, had retained an apartment at the hotel for many years. There were also issues with casting Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall. Though Ms. Saint had already won an Oscar for On the Waterfront (1954), MGM wanted Cyd Charisse in the role, and Cary Grant was angling to have Sophia Loren cast in the part (he was deeply in love with her at that point). But Ms. Saint brings that cool Hitchcock blonde with the inner raging fires to the part. She said in a interview for Vanity Fair that the intensity of the train kissing scene caused a photographer to fall off his ladder, so engaged was he in action! She also gets to wear my second favorite dress in all of moviedom (see it above. My first, for the record, is Grace Kelly's black and white outfit in Rear Window. Both created by the imaginative Edith Head).
The film features several interesting villains - James Mason is quite good as Phillip VanDamm. But the performance that really stands out is that of Martin Landau as Leonard, VanDamm's "right hand." Landau, with eyes that never seem to close, and a serpentine way of walking is both disturbing and fascinating. This AFI catalog entry notes that the Production Code Administration (PCA) was concerned at Leonard's seeming effeminate. With lines like "Call it my woman's intuition, if you will" and VanDamm's response that "I think you're jealous. No, I mean it. I'm very touched, very," Hitchcock plays up an interesting relationship between the two (and ignores the PCA). The disappearance of the character Licht (as portrayed by Robert Ellenstein) became much clearer when the film is viewed on a big screen. Licht is one of the men who kidnaps Roger (he's on Mr. Grant's right in the lobby card at the top. He's also notable for his odd way of holding a cigarette). We see him several times; then he disappears. Why? Well, he was on the cropduster flight that attacked Roger! The newspaper announces that two people were killed in the crash (not as easy to see on a TV screen), and someone was firing a gun BACK at Roger (as the plane passed him, so the sniper was leaning from the plane window and firing back at him.). Ergo, Licht was the sniper, and one of the two people killed when the plane collides with the oil tank truck.
Two other performances are really too wonderful to ignore. The first is Jessie Royce Landis as Roger's mother, Clara Thornhill. A bit dotty ("You gentlemen aren't really trying to kill my son, are you?") and mercenary (she takes $50 from her son to con a room key from a hotel clerk), she is also delightful and droll. Famously, it's been said that Ms. Landis was YOUNGER than her onscreen son, however she had claimed herself younger than she actually was (she was in reality 8 years older than Mr. Grant). Regardless, they make a delightful combination. Leo G. Carroll (The Professor) had already appeared in five Hitchcock movies, including Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941); the latter was Cary Grant's first film with Hitchcock. Born in England in 1886, Mr. Carroll started his career on the London stage, eventually moving to New York, where he appeared in 35 Broadway plays, including the title role in The Late George Apley (1944), a screen part that would go to Ronald Colman and Detective Rough in Angel Street (1941), which would be reworked for Joseph Cotten in Gaslight (1944). Seemingly always cast as an old man (his film career didn't really start until he was nearly 50), Mr. Carroll played a wide variety of supporting roles from Phelps Finnegan in Sadie McKee (1934) to Count Bertil Jacobsson in The Prize (1963). For two years, he dealt with two chatty spirits on TV's Topper (1953-1955), but he became known to a new audience as the enigmatic Alexander Waverly in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1968). Mr. Carroll was married to Edith Nancy de Silva from 1926 until his death at the age of 85 in 1972.
When North by Northwest opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York City (and other venues nationwide), it garnered praise, as in this New York Timesreview, which commented that it was "the year's most scenic, intriguing and merriest chase,"or a review in Variety which said that "the Alfred Hitchcock mixture - suspense, intrigue, comedy, humor. . . Seldom has . . .been served up so delectably." In 1995, it was added to the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. And the American Film Institute put it in 4th position in their 100 Years, 100 Thrills listing.
If you've not yet seen this film, please do yourself a favor and get hold of a copy. In the meantime, I'll leave you with the sexually charged dinner conversation between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint.
