Monday, July 1, 2019

Eva Marie Saint: Secret Weapon of ‘North by Northwest’ 1959

Eva Marie Saint as mystery woman Eve Kendall, subtle & seductive in 'North by Northwest.'


North by Northwest is one of my all-time favorites, yet I hesitated to write about this cinema chase classic. What else is there to say about the famed Hitchcock film?
As I watched North by Northwest again, I realized the secret weapon is Eva Marie Saint, as mystery woman Eve Kendall. It also happens that Eva Marie Saint turns 96 on July 4, so it seems fitting to pay tribute to the actress’ talents in the Hitchcock classic. FYI, North by Northwest premiered 61 years ago, July 1, 1959, which made me want to write about this gem even more!
Eva Marie Saint paid tribute to that gorgeous red dress at a recent Oscars appearance, still looking stylish!

Like fellow movie star Audrey Hepburn and television’s Mary Tyler Moore, Eva Marie Saint was the thinking man’s sex symbol of her era: smart, charismatic, fun, good-hearted, and lovely in a non-stereotypical way.
'North by Northwest' played up both the suspense and sex angles of this Hitchcock classic.

Hitchcock found his ideal film blonde in Grace Kelly, starring in three of his films. Then Grace retired from the screen, going from movie queen to real life princess. The Wrong Man starred his next muse, Vera Miles, who inconveniently kept having babies. Next, Kim Novak starred in Vertigo, whose vulnerabilities made her perfect casting as the enigmatic blonde. After Saint in North by Northwest came Janet Leigh’s sympathetic, brisk presence in Psycho, and finally, Hitch’s protégé Tippi Hedren, who had the look but neither the talent nor charisma to be the next Hitchcock blonde. From the mid-1960s on, audiences no longer found cool blondes teasing fire beneath the surface enthralling. Evaluating the actresses, Miles has yet to receive revision, Psycho is one of Leigh’s key roles, and Novak and Hedren now have their defenders.
As elusive Eve Kendall, Eva Marie Saint got a chance to play someone other than a nice girl.

What about Eva Marie Saint? In her day, Saint was well-liked by fans and critics, and well-received as a Hitchcock blonde. But between Kelly’s iconic legacy and the latter day evaluation of Novak and Hedren, Saint’s been a bit overshadowed. I think that Eva Marie Saint is a bit like Dorothy McGuire, both of whom were lovely in an accessible way, skilled, effortless, and naturalistic. Both Eva and Dorothy had more of a foot in modern day acting than their contemporaries. They had quiet personal lives as well, not for public display, and have since been a bit overlooked and underestimated as actors and stars.
Saint's Eve and Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill weren't strangers on a train for long!

What Eva brought to North by Northwest, encouraged by Hitchcock, was an understated, confident, smart sex appeal. Brains and beauty were a hallmark of the Hitchcock blonde. After playing several sweet young things, Eva got to play the bad girl/good girl role as Eve Kendall. Eva’s Eve initiates an introduction to Cary Grant’s man on the lam, while aboard the 20th Century Limited. Sparks and risqué repartee fly with Eve and Grant’s Roger Thornhill, but many twists and turns follow their further meet ups. Saint’s subtle changes in Eve’s supposed character benefited from her Actors Studio training, and was visually enhanced by Saint’s smooth makeover, guided by Hitchcock. North by Northwest presented her as a subtle siren who lures Cary Grant’s leading man. The scenario of the ambiguous female and the distrustful male, by the way, was reminiscent of the roles Grant and Ingrid Bergman played in Notorious.
However, romancing Eve isn't as easy as it seems!

As Eve, Eva Marie Saint skillfully goes from a seductive stranger on a train to two-timing traitor to redeemed heroine, performed in a stylish but straightforward way. North by Northwest was the twilight of an era when actors still acted in elevated studio system style, such as Lana Turner in the same year’s Imitation of Life. Eva acts with panache, but not with quotation marks.
Eva Marie Saint, as Eve, heading toward the film's famed climactic sequence.

In one of Pauline Kael’s essays on classic films, the famously cranky critic took a swipe at Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest, writing that Eva looked embalmed. Since Kael was not a Hitchcock fan, this isn’t surprising. Still, I take exception to that evaluation. Hair and makeup were cartoonish on nearly all the ‘50s female stars. In contrast, Eva’s sleek, simple hairstyle and sophisticated but subtle makeup brings out her best qualities, including those huge blue eyes. Her whole look is sleek, including the lovely clothes Eva and Hitch picked from pricey NYC stores. That includes the striking black frock with red overlay flowers that is proper in the front and party in nearly backless back!
The famous red and black dress, from a NYC shopping trip with Hitch & Eva Marie Saint.
The dress symbolized Hitch's preference for sexy to be subtle.

Despite the difference in their training, Saint from the Actors’ Studio and Grant from the Hollywood studio system, Eva and Cary got on quite well. Cary Grant was generous to her, with his star perks. Grant made sure that the lighting flattered fair Eva as well as tan Cary, and that when he approved publicity photos, they favored both of them.
As a relative newcomer to films, established star Cary Grant had Eva Marie Saint's back.

Saint has commented that her character comes into the story a bit late, something I noticed too, in this enthralling but tad overlong film. Eva as Eve comes in at the 45 minute mark of the 130 minute film. At the time, Saint’s husband told her to consider the script as a whole, not just the size of her role. Janet Leigh found that out she took her part in Psycho, despite the character getting dispatched less than half way through.
Eva Marie Saint performs the role of Eve with style, without falling into the era's outdated acting style.
Once Eva’s character is introduced, Eve Kendall and Roger Thornhill zigzag around each other, which added a genuine romantic tension on top of the espionage thriller’s stakes. Eve Kendall is a forerunner to the modern movie heroine and benefits greatly from having a multi-faceted performer like Eva Marie Saint to essay her.

FYI: I put all the movie overflow on my public FB  movie page. 



17 comments:

  1. It took a while for me to appreciate NBNW as much as I did other Hitchcock thrillers, but now I am fully on board (though I agree it's overlong, particularly in the earlier scenes.) I do love the creepy vibe between James Mason and Martin Landau, too. Hitch wanted to take Eva Marie out of the "kitchen sink" dramas she was known for and it opened up a new world of possibilities for her career. As you say, her hair is wondrously sleek and seductive and she gets to say some lines that were considered spicy at the time (one so spicy it had to be overdubbed at the censors' request.) She takes part in one of my (admittedly weird) cinematic obsessions in that she starts the climax of the film off dripping in accessories (purse, cloak, gloves, etc...) and then proceeds to lose them one by one. And that scream "I can't make it!" is tops! She's a wonderful person and deserving of tribute. Thanks!

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  2. Hi, thanks Poseidon!
    BTW, I have a public FB page here, where all my overflow pix and info goes... hate to see it go to waste! Check it out, it's fun with no crazies... so far!
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/178488909366865/
    Cheers and Happy 4th!
    Rick

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  3. You might enjoy this little thing my friend Nick and I threw together. We’re both fans of the film:

    https://youtu.be/AXLwnw31mec

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  4. If that link doesn’t work, you can just go to YouTube and enter the search words Ratner and North. The title of the video is NORTH BY NORTHWHO?

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  5. I just don't agree with the comment that "Tippi Hedren, who had the look but neither the talent nor charisma to be the next Hitchcock blonde". That comment is nonsense. The reason Tippi (after the film Marnie) was no longer a Hitchcock blonde was due to the sexual predator advances that the film director made on her...he was infatuated and she stopped his advances. Hitch then made sure she never got further work for a long time in films with others. In actual fact Tippi Hedren had more class and charisma than even Eve St Marie!! Both were great as the Hitch blondes.

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    1. Hi Naveed, You certainly have a right to your opinion. But I've always felt Hedren's claims were highly exaggerated and a rationale as to why Tippi never became a top star. Hedren had zero acting experience when he saw her on a diet soda commercial and decided to star her in The Birds. Saint was a professionally trained actress who appeared on many live TV shows before getting her big break in On The Waterfront. And acted fairly regularly ever since.
      Cheers, Rick

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    2. Hi Rick:

      I did not intend to disparage Eve in any way. She has merits of her own, and as you say was a trained actress even before starring in North by Northwest. But I do take great issue with you about Tippi Hedren. One only has to watch the two initial (and only as it turned out) films she did for Hitchcock. The Birds and Marnie. Her acting is perfect and memorable. On top of this she had the charisma and class...and of course good looks. I don't think her amateur status as a non-actor (except in commercials) has any negativity on her talent once she became an actress. The ONLY reason that she did not continue as a Hitch blonde was due to that 'disagreement' she had with him, which was really an unwarranted sexual predator moves by the famous director on her. (if it happened today, Hitch would have been sued for millions in court, assuming that Hedren had wanted to go that way). He made sure she did not continue her acting career with any prominence afterwards. The point though is that she had the looks, talent and charisma, and that the only reason she was not the 'next' Hitch blonde was due to ....Hitch's behaviour, not anything to do with her abilities. I think these are really facts in what I say, and not only opinions. Again Eve St Marie has nothing to do with this, and I rate her as an excellent actress (also a good-looker)!

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  6. This film never gets old (NBN). It's so classic. I think Saint and Grant went perfect together. Love that red/black dress!!

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    1. Some movies are made for repeat viewing, aren't they?
      Cheers, Rick

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  7. Bravo to you for highlighting Eva Marie Saint (my favorite Hitchcock blonde) in "North by Northwest" (my favorite Hitchcock movie.) She was everything you talked about in this post!

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    1. Thank you, Martin! I love that Eva Marie has gotten her due in recent years as a fine Hitchcock blonde. And I appreciate you writing,
      Cheers, Rick

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  8. Hitchcock had Hedren under a long contract and would not allow her to make any movies because she refused his advances. Anybody who finds this hard to believe has been unconscious for the last few years.

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    1. I find a number of things regarding Hedren's claims. I'll just answer this one: Hedren signed a 7 year contract at a ridiculously low salary without knowing who her employer was until the day of signing. That's from her memoir. Says a lot about Tippi's judgement. And after their falling out on Marnie and the disappointing reviews and box-office returns, Hedren did not want to do TV roles for Hitchcock/Universal. After a standoff, Hitch let her out of her contract after 3 years.

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  9. I absolutely adore Saint and Grant in this film...NBNW and NOTORIOUS both run like finely tuned Swiss watches. As far as Pauline Kael goes, the more I find out about her, the less I like her.

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    1. Hi, Right? As far as Kael was concerned, she was like the little girl with the curl! Cheers, and thanks for posting! Rick

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  10. Might it not have helped Eva Marie Saint that there was never the slightest breath of scandal in her career and personal life? A long marriage to a successful artistic man, children who turned out well and under the radar. Obvious success without showbiz ostentation. No substance abuse problems, no sad decline in old age. Maybe she's always been someone that people can admire without resenting. She was someone that one's parents approved of without being square.

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