North By Northwest (1959): Rules of the Hollywood Canon

After writing that last entry, I immediately turned on the television. Of course it was already tuned to TCM on cable. The movie was improbably, North by Northwest (1959), which I have seen many times, and which certainly deserves its reputation as one of the finest movies in Hollywood history. 

I say improbably because last month I happened to be in the regional airport of Rapid City, South Dakota, in order to attend a conference in nearby Deadwood. A friend picked me up at the airport to give me and a few others a ride up to Deadwood. One of the people in the car has a podcast where he talks about classic movies. He was in the front seat. As we drove away from the airport, I asked my friend the movie buff in the front seat, whose name was Dave,

"Dave. Can I ask you a movie trivial question?" 

He said ok.

I said: "It's a fill-in-the-blank question. You have to complete the sentence. Here's goes:

I was so surprised flying into the airport just now. It didn't look anything like it did in _______"

He got the answer right away. It was easy.

The next day a bunch of us visited Mount Rushmore, which was being prepared for the upcoming 250th birthday of America celebrations in less than two weeks time. I told my companions about how the last time I was here, I had wanted to see the monument but did not want to pay the pig parking fee. So I had driven around the back of the mountain on the side road. Then I parked my BMW along a wide spot on the road. I then climbed up the back of the nearby mountain where I sat on the top of a hidden watertank and go a level view of George Washington and the other president. That was fourteen years ago.

My favorite scene in the movie is one between Grant (as Roger Thornhill) and Eva Marie Saint (EMS) (as Eve Kendall). IT is the one where Grant  returns to Chicago after the famous incident with the crop duster in Indiana.  He left Chicago thinking EVS was a gorgeous free spirited woman who had fallen in love with him. He returns with the realization that she is part of a plot to murder him. He sees their entire history in a new light.  He wangles his way to the front door of her hotel room and knocks on the door. She opens it and sees him. She thought she was sending him to certain death. She is shocked to see him but cannot reveal that shock. She has to play innocent. He treats her with contempt, this woman he had thought he loved, just a few hours before. She sees that but must play it straight.

But like a true heroine in love, she cannot betray her feelings for the man she loves. This is an breakable point of the old Hollywood canon. A woman in love cannot conceal her feelings completely. She can only try, and fail.

Grant moves past EVS to the center of the room, then looks back at her, staring daggers. She rushes from the door towards him and buries her face in his chest, overwhelmed with relief that he is alive.