NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959: Dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
After failed attempts at broadening his appeal as a typical middle-class American leading man in films such as Bigger Than Life (1956), and Cry Terror (1958), Mason wisely retreated back into the role of the upper-class smoothie that Hollywood and the public had took him to be in real-life. The film that signaled this capitulation to popular tastes turned out to be one of the best films he would ever be associated with, Alfred Hitchock's archetypal spy thriller North By Northwest. As the perpetually unflappable Phillip Vandamm, Mason creates what is in essence a proto-James Bond villain: witty, erudite, cultured, and ruthless. Hitchcock contrasts Mason's cool corruption with star Cary Grant delivering his usual masterclass in dapper self-deprecation, and together they create an endlessly enthralling dynamic that never wears thin. A monster hit that brought Mason's career out of the doldrums. DVD & BLU-RAY
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