Coming up on Saturday at the Described Movies: North by Northwest and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
From this Saturday at 12am Eastern, that’s 4pm Saturday in NZ, 2pm in Sydney and 5am in the UK, and repeated every four hours throughout the day, it’s the described movies North by Northwest from 1959, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers from 1954.
North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.
The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization trying to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle out microfilm which contains government secrets.
This is one of several Hitchcock films which feature a music score by Bernard Herrmann and an opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass, and it is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.
North by Northwest is listed among the canonical Hitchcock films of the 1950s and is often listed among the greatest films of all time.
It was selected in 1995 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock.
Produced by: Alfred Hitchcock.
Written by: Ernest Lehman.
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and Jessie Royce Landis.
Music by: Bernard Herrmann.
Cinematography: Robert Burks.
Edited by: George Tomasini.
Colour process: Technicolor.
Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Release date: 1 July , 1959 (Chicago).
File Length: 136 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $4.3 million.
Box office: $9.8 million.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a 1954 American musical film, directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and choreography by Michael Kidd.
The screenplay, by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley, is based on the short story " The Sobbin' Women", by Stephen Vincent Benét, which was based in turn on the ancient Roman legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which is set in Oregon in 1850, is particularly known for Kidd's unusual choreography, which makes dance numbers out of such mundane frontier pursuits as chopping wood and raising a barn.
Film critic Stephanie Zacharek has called the barn-raising sequence in Seven Brides "one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen."
The film was photographed in Ansco Colour in the CinemaScope format.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and was nominated for four additional awards, including Best Picture (where it lost the award to Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront).
In 2006, American Film Institute named Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as one of the best American musical films ever made.
In 2004, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Directed by: Stanley Donen.
Produced by: Jack Cummings.
Screenplay by: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley.
Based on: the story "The Sobbin' Women": by: Stephen Vincent Benet.
Starring: Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn and Tommy Rall.
Music by: Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, (lyrics): Adolph Deutsch, (musical direction): Saul Chaplin, (musical supervision).
Cinematography: George Folsey, A.S.C.
Edited by: Ralph E. Winters, A.C.E.
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Distributed by: Loew's, Inc.
Release date: 15 July , 1954 (Houston, Texas), 22 July , 1954 (New York) and 20 December , 1954 (United States).
File Length: 102 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $2,540,000.
Box office: $9,403,000.
Any questions, comments, or ideas for future described movies: e-mail me: anthony at mushroomfm dot com (e-mail address written that way to cut down on
spam)
Enjoy the movies,