I hadn’t seen the Cary Grant Vs. the Crop Duster scene from ‘North By Northwest’ in ages so I looked it up over lunch today and was surprised by how little of it I recalled. The long prelude–six minutes before the plane begins its attack–is Hitch at his methodical best,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24XNg4DQTr8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98TETzMWjTg It’s hard to pick a favorite Howard Hawks films given the diverse amount of genres he worked in and always at such a high level. “To Have and Have Not’, ‘Bringing Up Baby’, ‘Rio Bravo’, ‘The Big Sleep’, ‘Red River’–Jesus, what an absurd list of genres to have conquered.
Here’s a wonderful, atmospheric clip from a 1932 pre-code movie called ‘Hot Saturday’ . The film was drected by William Seiter and starred Cary Grant, Nancy Carroll and Randolph Scott (possibly making this the first time Grant met Scott which lead to them becoming mysterious ‘housemates’–you’ve seen those photos in
Try this one on for size in the bad-luck show-biz department. You’re a successful Broadway actor in the 1920s. The movie business comes calling. You land roles of increasing prominence. The talkies arrive and it’s found that your voice is more than adequate for leading man status (at a time