NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) – REEL CHAT 10.0

Reel Chat

Welcome to Episode 10 of “Reel Chat” – a podcast that promises week in, week out – the “Reel World as we know it.”

On this first installment of our new “Alfred Hitchcock Presents…” retrospective series, we look at 1959’s “North By Northwest” – a film considered to be a masterpiece for it’s themes of deception, mistaken identity, and moral relativism in the Cold War era.

Host Adam Stolfo is joined by co-host Brose Avard, Andrew McCaskill and Stuart Wilson to look in great detail at this Hitchcock classic. Self confessed fan Stuart gets quite brutal on a film he feels probably shouldn’t be regarded as one of Hitchcock’s best, even though the rest of the team (and the consensus) wholeheartedly disagree.

But the difference of opinion is where “Reel Chat” shines, so join us for a trip down memory lane as we dissect the film’s amazing cast, it’s legendary director, it’s iconic score, as well as how short the film would of actually been if that annoying Paige didn’t yell out “George Kaplan” at the beginning!

And “Reel Chat’s” new segment “The Assignment” makes it’s long awaited debut.

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THE TEAM’S REVIEW SCORES

Adam 4 out of 5 – RECOMMEND

Brose 5 out of 5 – RECOMMEND

Andrew 5 out of 5 – RECOMMEND

Matthew 5 out of 5 – RECOMMEND

Stuart 3 1/2 out of 5 – RECOMMEND

Michael 4 1/2 out of 5 – RECOMMEND

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EPISODE TRIVIA

• No. of “Back To The Future” references: 1
• Some of the audio on this episode is very poor. Budgets, audio mixing, microphone levels and quality control weren’t as refined in the early days, and Adam classifies this as one of the worst sounding Reel Chat episodes. Adam and Stuart’s audio levels and clarity seem particularly affected. A huge chunk of the first 20 minutes had to be edited out, and as a result, the Reel Chat structure seems a little all over the place – at least until they start talking about the cast. A discussion on the work and career of Hitchcock was the main casualty of the edit.
• Towards the end of the episode, Adam mentions Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” as being an upcoming episode later in 2015. Reel Chat did not cover “Rear Window” until episode 94 in January 2019!
• The fun (but short lived) segment “The Assignment” gets its first mention in this episode with Stuart being the first recipient.