Suspense // Current

MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Ti West on THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL

Ti West sure digs his retro. In THE ROOST — his tidy little horror film about a... more

DanPersons
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24 days ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Lars von Trier's ANTICHRIST: A Conversation

“Lars von Trier doesn’t like to fly.” “Lars von Trier isn’t going to talk to... more

DanPersons
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27 days ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Mira Nair on AMELIA

You’re going to have to trust me on this one: I am a romantic. ONCE is one of my... more

DanPersons
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1 month ago
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Circle of Eight Comes To Myspace, Watch Your Back!

Ever wished you could re-write the ending of a movie or TV show? Then welcome to... more

icedkate
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1 month ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Nicolas Winding Refn on BRONSON

You wanna talk extreme? Charles Bronson, ne Michael Peterson, has spent thirty-four of... more

DanPersons
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1 month ago
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST: Tim Burton on 9

So… more li’l doll people. Been a good year for that kinda thing — CORALINE,... more

DanPersons
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3 months ago
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OFFICIAL DEAD SNOW TRAILER

Here is the Official trailer first view of the UK teaser trailer of the upcoming... more

PurpleLight
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3 months ago
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Broken Trailer

Two best friends, Chris and Mike, take their annual 6-day camping trip. Things are... more

HAILSTORM2
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3 months ago
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Microsoft VCAM: PARANOIA

Paranoia by Julian's Comedy Stop, Produced by Julian Maldonado

julianscomedystop
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4 months ago
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Twisted Roots another indicator of "recession growth" in rock and roll.

Twisted Roots are a four-piece, melodic, hard rock band that makes their home in... more

zenfilm
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4 months ago
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Did Alfred Hitchcock invent the Bond film?

We all know how wonderfully influential Alfred Hitchcock was on film history and style, how inventive he was with new technologies, and how open he remained to new ideas. He wrote the book on suspense, took bold experimental leaps, and pushed against all boundaries having to do with sex and violence. He had an adjective coined from his last name and his face should be on a banknote; pound or dollar, it scarcely matters. We owe the guy.

This being said, it stings to have to question the Fat Man's legacy in any part, especially in regard to one of my favourites, 1959's North By Northwest.

Not that you'll hear any complaints about the movie from me. I love everything about it, from Cary Grant's silver suit to the notion that he has a formidable mother who henpecks him. The Kaplan/Thornhill mistaken-identity twist is clever, and who wouldn't want to slide down Abe Lincoln's nose with Eva Marie Saint?

No, my problem is with its structure, or rather, the ways in which that structure - a series of eye-poppingly inventive sequences linked in the loosest way imaginable by a breathtakingly slender plotline - has since been hijacked and used as the narrative chassis, or template, for every crappy action movie since 1980. 1980? A delayed reaction, you say? Yes, but in the intervening two decades, the recipe was kept viable by the increasingly ridiculous James Bond franchise.

North By Northwest has been called the first James Bond movie (screenwriter Ernest Lehman called it "the ultimate Hitchcock picture" while he was writing it, but no matter). And the similarities are evident. In 1960 Hitchcock himself briefly considered directing Thunderball. Ian Fleming originally wanted Grant (who was a good friend of Bond producer Cubby Broccoli) to play 007 in Dr No, and North By Northwest surely had a lot to do with that (Grant turned down the part). 1959 was also the year Fleming published Goldfinger, the first truly ridiculous Bond novel (delightful though it is), which, as the third Bond movie, would perfect the NXNW-style template from which the series would barely deviate until the advent of Daniel Craig.

It's not Hitchcock's fault that his imitators are such tools, but it is useful now and then to trace a tiresome phenomenon back to its not-so-tiresome source.We all know how wonderfully influential Alfred Hitchcock was on film history and... more