Another Hitchcock movie.

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It's not like I don't have any other movies to pick from; I like Hitchcock's movies for my own reasons. Nowadays I turn to him and pick one of his movies to get me out of utter boredom. The previous statement doesn't mean that his movies are entertaining; they're great, and some of them are masterpieces. However this wasn't the case a few months ago. I have been told that I have a bizarre way of picking out movies; at least I had. But somehow my rhythm got changed and I intend to go back to my bizarre way; maybe I'll mix in the two. Okay, as I was talking about Alfred Hitchcock's movies, I was in a dilemma of what to pick. I was choosing between two movies. At first I was thinking of writing about Rear Window (1954) but then I was slowly leaning towards North by Northwest (1959). Now I have picked both of them; yea, it's a two-in-one post.

Hmm, now how to go about all this. Maybe I'll describe the movies and characters a bit and then add my unfiltered opinion. Okay Let's look at Rear Window (1954) and then North by Northwest (1959).

Rear Window (1954)

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I only watched this last night and you know the reason. Before I say anything about the movie let's look at the cast and crew. As I have been mentioning from the beginning, it's Alfred Hitchcock's direction and production of a mystery thriller. The screenplay was written by John Michael Hayes which is based on "It Had to Be Murder" by Cornell Woolrich with James Stewart and Grace Kelly on the lead.

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Stewart is playing the role of L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies, a very sought after photographer, the best in the field, who had an accident and fractured his leg. He is dating the beautiful, sophisticated and vivacious Lisa Carol Fremont, played by Kelly, but is having second thoughts about continuing the relationship. According to Jeff, they are too different and leading opposite lifestyles. She's a socialite who never wears a dress twice and always on the cover page of some magazine. However, Lisa is head over heels in love and she believes that with a little compromise and will to change, two people can be together. Oh the plot, the photographer is now bound to the wheel chair and while his nurse is taking care of him, he is spilling his guts about what he thinks his relationship is headed to and peeping in the neighboring windows which is the only amusement he gets during his time of confinement. He doesn't know anyone who he's peeping to but gave each of them nicknames. His nurse keeps telling him that if he keeps peeping, he'll be in trouble soon enough and looking at his leg, he says, he'd welcome trouble. Soon after not only his relationship changed it's dynamic but also trouble found him to get him out of his misery. And when it came, he needed aid from his long term friend NYPD Det. Lt. Thomas "Tom" J. Doyle. No further spoilers, and what I think of this movie is at the end.

North by Northwest (1959)

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Another Alfred Hitchcock's direction and production and written by Ernest Lehman, this is a spy thriller film with Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, James Mason as Phillip Vandamm, Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall and Martin Landau as Leonard. Although I saw it weeks ago, for some reason, I kept it pending. Well, this is a good time to write about it.

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I like a good spy thriller and yes I have finished all the James Bond movies. But this isn't like all those movies. Roger is an advertising executive divorced twice and unsure about commitments and romantic relationships. One day he gets grabbed by two thugs and gets taken to Phillip Vandamm whose occupation in the beginning was unknown. Vandamm believes that Roger is actually Kaplan and he is hiding his identity. The motive behind Roger's kidnapping was simple; make him drunk and cause a fatal accident to lead him to his death. While driving under influence, Roger had a small scale accident and that got him arrested by local authorities. As many times as he tried to explain, neither the authorities nor the people close to him believed his innocence. After that, his life gets even more complicated. In the midst of the confusion, he meets Eve who tries to help him. But soon he finds out that everything is not as it seems and the trouble is mounting higher than before.

Thinking cap on

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No, it's not Hogwarts's sorting hat.

What do I think about the movies!!! Hmph!!!

Both of them are great movies and there's no way I can deny that it wasn't a time well spent. But there are a few things that I don't quite agree with. For example, (firstly) in most of Hitchcock's movies the protagonist is male and "he" is experiencing a major drawback. In these movies however, the male leads are far off from being settled down. Where one is in confusion about his relationship, the other has been divorced twice which leads to believe that they're not trying to keep up a relationship. On the other hand, the leading ladies are as troublesome as the males are. Majority of the leading actresses of his films are blonde but with a refined fashion taste but that isn't the point here. Both Lisa and Eve are a stark contrast of one another. Nevertheless both the leading ladies were resourceful and they both were trying to help their counterparts the best way they could. The films are great in their own way and it's good to see how the characters developed throughout the movie. I guess plain simple characters are boring to watch and probably Hitchcock was implying that the world isn't plain and simple so why should movies be any different. Complex characters for complex movies. Overall, for me, both of the movies pack the exact amount of twist and turns with a good load of suspense and unlike Vertigo or Shadow of a Doubt where I felt that the ending is completely unjustified, Rear Window and North By Northwest have exceeded expectations.

I don't know if you find it funny or not but I think Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearances in his films are rather comical.