Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest'

[Daniel A]

Was watching Hitchcock's classic 'North by Northwest' on TCM with my parents yesterday; I've seen the film many times, but when I happened to switch on the TV just as it began I was again too absorbed to do anything else. When it aired on Swedish television a few years ago I noticed that a line by Cary Grant appeared to have been completely erased. I wasn't too sure about it, but since my parents have it taped from an early 80s broadcast I could do a comparsion this time.

It's the scene where Cary Grant is in the hospital after the fake shooting. He lures "the professor" away so that he can sneak out to save Eva Marie Saint from the villains. He tries to get out through the door, but discovers that he's been locked in. After having tried to open the door with force, but without success, he mumbles something that sounds like "What the ehhrm...!" - this is quite audible in the old taped version. However, in the recent broadcasts there's just the background score and nothing else. You can even see Grant's mouth moving, but his words are edited out.

Is someone with the recent (well, actually late 90s) DVD edition able to confirm if Cary Grant's voice is missing from that version as well? No big deal, but I find this intance of censorship completely unneccessary. Are lines like that considered harmful in the US?

[rockefeller center]

Is someone with the recent (well, actually late 90s) DVD edition able to confirm if Cary Grant's voice is missing from that version as well?

Grant not audible on my 2001 WB DVD.

[Daniel A]

Thanks for confirming, rc!

I'm now determined I must keep my VHS player forever to be able to view the film in its original version!

[BruceH]

Depressing. What the Hell is the POINT of that? This isn't the 1930's! What a stupid thing to do.

[RDK]

Well, if they did cut "what the ermf" or whatever - and I haven't confirmed - I doubt it had anything to do with "censorship." There's nothing to censor. If anything it was just a fuck-up during the audio restoration - someone forgot to move a mixing pot or something.

[Guest ariceffron]

what was the exact word he said?? or approx. what was it? hitchcock as a lot of good films, dating from practically the silent era to the early 70s, but this is one of the best. another underrated one, TOPAZ, from the late 60s. and what ever happened to E.M.S-- she is fine

[BruceH]

She aged. (An unforgiveable sin in Hollywood.)

[RDK]

She aged. (An unforgiveable sin in Hollywood.)

Well, she's also 80 years old; I'm sure she's enjoying her retirement.

She also won an Emmy in 1989.

[Daniel A]

Well, if they did cut "what the ermf" or whatever - and I haven't confirmed - I doubt it had anything to do with "censorship." There's nothing to censor. If anything it was just a fuck-up during the audio restoration - someone forgot to move a mixing pot or something.

You're probably right. Anyway I'll try to hide a sound sample somewhere on the web. Or is it even possible to attach a two second MP3 file to a post on the board? (It says "You may attach a file to this message. Maximum file size: 100k") I suspect Jim may get into trouble then, though.

[MartyJazz]

Was watching Hitchcock's classic 'North by Northwest' on TCM with my parents yesterday; I've seen the film many times, but when I happened to switch on the TV just as it began I was again too absorbed to do anything else. When it aired on Swedish television a few years ago I noticed that a line by Cary Grant appeared to have been completely erased. I wasn't too sure about it, but since my parents have it taped from an early 80s broadcast I could do a comparsion this time.

It's the scene where Cary Grant is in the hospital after the fake shooting. He lures "the professor" away so that he can sneak out to save Eva Marie Saint from the villains. He tries to get out through the door, but discovers that he's been locked in. After having tried to open the door with force, but without success, he mumbles something that sounds like "What the ehhrm...!" - this is quite audible in the old taped version. However, in the recent broadcasts there's just the background score and nothing else. You can even see Grant's mouth moving, but his words are edited out.

Is someone with the recent (well, actually late 90s) DVD edition able to confirm if Cary Grant's voice is missing from that version as well? No big deal, but I find this intance of censorship completely unneccessary. Are lines like that considered harmful in the US?

Can't help you with this but here's a good piece of evidence of how often I've seen this film. To me, the scene stealer, since he has the best lines, is the incomparable James Mason. When Grant surprises everyone by entering the auction gallery and confronting Mason and EMS, Mason says (and this is off the top of my head, so help me): "Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely Mr. Kaplan? First you play the outraged Madison Avenue man convinced he's been mistaken for someone else. Then you play the fugitive from justice accused of a crime he insists he didn't commit. Now you're the peevish lover stung by jealousy and betrayal. It seems to me you fellows could use a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the Actors' Studio". Grant: "I'm sure the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead". Mason with the capper: "Your very next role. You'll be quite convincing, I assure you". I may have messed up a few words here and there, but obviously, I just love that particular scene.

Edited for spelling

Edited November 9, 2004 by MartyJazz

[Chuck Nessa]

Damn! Very good Martin.

[JBW]

Yes Martin, excellent.

I had a flash of that scene when reading your post.

It's a pity if the DVD has been cut. I recently watched my region 4 DVD but will re-check it tonight for the omission.

I think I have more Hitchcock films than any other director. Rear Window would have to be my favorite.

Edited November 9, 2004 by JBW

[BruceH]

Very nice Martin! Can you quote from Notorious and Rear Window as well?

[MartyJazz]

Very nice Martin!    Can you quote from Notorious and Rear Window as well?

Afraid not, although I have seen "Notorious" quite a few times. It's also one of my favorite Hitchcock films, perhaps due to a few similarities with North by Northwest, the magnetism of Grant but more importantly, the theme of a man's emotional involvement with a woman he does not trust. In both films the implicit sexual relationship of the woman with a villainous rival contributes much to the behavior of Grant's respective characters. "Rear Window" always struck me as too much of an indoors film and as a result I never found it visually as appealing as the other two.

Edited November 9, 2004 by MartyJazz

[frank m]

Eva Marie Saint is apparently still active. She did a dramatic reading in NYC with her husband earlier this year. WTG

[ralphie_boy]

That's a great line Martin! One of my favorite scenes is in the Townsend Library with the Glen Cove detectives.

I love when "Mrs. Townsend" gives them the spiel about having too much to drink - "a little pink-eyed, but aren't we all" she says. Then she says to CG: "You didn't borrow Laura's Mercedes?" and then he delivers the line: "NO, I didn't borrow Laura's Mercedes" with that classic accent.

[Larry Kart]

I have very fond memories of Eva Marie Saint's performance in a 1976 made for TV production of George Kelly's 1947 play "The Fatal Weakness," described below (note that for the purposes of this board, the music is by the composer who shared a Columbia album in the 1950s with Teo Macero). Further notes: This is a remarkable play -- in the Philip Barry vein ("The Philadelphia Story," "Holiday") but deeper; Kelly was Grace Kelly's uncle; and as I recall the summary below doesn't quite get to what the play is about -- the well-off, rather buttoned-up heroine's "fatal weakness" is that she thinks of sentiment, partiularly romantic sentiment, as something that people like her typically don't get much of a taste of; therefore its presence in her life (when the subject arrives, fortuitously, in late middle age), and the resulting opportunity to muck about with it, can't be anything but a good and especially blameless thing. Saint's ability to bring this decent, foolish, tender-hearted character to life was something else.

The Fatal Weakness

By George Kelly

Music by: Robert Prince

With: Eva Marie Saint  John McMartin  Gretchen Corbett  Dennis Dugan  Charlotte Moore  Sara Seegar

  

Academy Award-winner Eva Marie Saint stars in this comedy about a hyper-romantic woman who receives an anonymous letter disclosing her husband’s infidelity. All seems well for the middle-aged suburban couple who are the protagonists of “The Fatal Weakness”…until the letter arrives. It then becomes apparent to the woman that her daughter’s marriage is falling apart as well. The resulting action – which includes a good deal of totally cockeyed detective work – produces a genuinely funny evening of entertainment. Miss Saint has stated that the woman she plays “could be any well brought up girl who suddenly realizes that marriage can become nothing more than a habit. In a sense, she is a woman who becomes liberated. The play was written in 1946,” she added, “ but it’s so little different from what we go through today.”

  

Directed by Norman Lloyd  

[medjuck]

Eva Marie Saint is apparently still active. She did a dramatic reading in NYC with her husband earlier this year. WTG 

She lives somewhere in Montecito (on the edge of Santa Barbara) where I live. But if I've seen her around I didn't recognize her.

[BruceH]

Wasn't she also the wife in the series "McMillan and Wife" with Rock Hudson?

[BruceH]

Another great line from North By Northwest, delivered by Grant: "I like your flavor..."

[ralphie_boy]

Wasn't she also the wife in the series "McMillan and Wife" with Rock Hudson?

That was Susan Saint James. Not quite the same caliber of actress.

[BruceH]

Wasn't she also the wife in the series "McMillan and Wife" with Rock Hudson?

That was Susan Saint James. Not quite the same caliber of actress.

Whoops! Well, I was 1/3 right (and totally wrong.)

Edited November 10, 2004 by BruceH

[Daniel A]

Well, I just want to make a quick update to this topic. It seems as if the moaning of Cary Grant has finally been restored in the latest 4K Blu-Ray release of this film, after having been absent since the Laserdisc era. Unfortunately, I have no intention to buy a 4K player, but at least coming generations will be able to enjoy this film as originally intended.

[Teasing the Korean]

32 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Well, I just want to make a quick update to this topic. It seems as if the moaning of Cary Grant has finally been restored in the latest 4K Blu-Ray release of this film, after having been absent since the Laserdisc era. Unfortunately, I have no intention to buy a 4K player, but at least coming generations will be able to enjoy this film as originally intended.

One down, hundreds to go.  The number of films that have been revised in some form or other since their original release is pretty staggering.  Bladerunner, Vertigo, and Fantasia are three high-profile examples. 

[medjuck]

4 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

One down, hundreds to go.  The number of films that have been revised in some form or other since their original release is pretty staggering.  Bladerunner, Vertigo, and Fantasia are three high-profile examples. 

How was Vertigo revised?   And BTW Eva Marie Saint is still alive and 100 years old.  I thought she had died because I came across her name along with her husbands on a gravestone in  a cemetery near where I live.  However it turns out she had had her name engraved beside her husband's when he died.  

Edited November 26 by medjuck