Tunnel Vision: Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in North by Northwest

Steyn Online ^ | 18 Oct 2026 | Rick McGinnis

[Rummyfan]

There's a wonderful exchange between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in Alfred Hitchcock's final golden period masterpiece, North by Northwest. It was the last time the director would work with Grant, and the only appearance by Saint – who died this month at the age of 102 – in one of his pictures, playing a version of the "cool blonde" archetype that has embedded itself in Hitchcock's legend.

Grant plays Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive accused of murder and on the run thanks to a case of mistaken identity, and Saint plays Eve Kendall, the attractive young woman who has, for some unknown reason, helped him evade the authorities after he slipped aboard the 20th Century from New York to Chicago. They're sitting in the dining car together when she notices his monogram on a book of matches: "R.O.T." – a prop that will be crucial later in the movie.

"What does the 'O' stand for?" she asks him.

"Nothing," Thornhill replies.

It sums up so much about the film – a thriller full of wildly improbable and audacious action sequences built around an utter disregard for logic or plausibility. The film has been called an anthology of the best of Hitchcock so far in his career, an exercise in pure filmmaking, and a conspicuous middle finger from the director to everything that had held him back over three decades of filmmaking, including the production machinery of the studios and the censorship of the Production Code.

[packrat35]

Netflix is now realizing what a mistake they made. Almost $300 million spent.

[Bon of Babble]

Will be the same for Prime Video’s Blade Runner after casting a tranny in the lead.

Last one cost $185 million, I expect this one will be a lot more.

My son and his large group of sci-fi friends have already sworn they will sit out this version.

Hope Prime Video eats the loss.

[packrat35]

I am sitting out the new Narnia and the new Harry Potter with black Snape also.