Oct. 21 Wheeling Film Society: North by Northwest

John Whitehead

The Wheeling Film Society (WFS) announces its third annual season of screening-discussions of classic Hollywood films.  John Whitehead, professor of film studies at Wheeling Jesuit University and author of Appraising The Graduate: The Mike Nichols Classic and Its Impact in Hollywood(2011) and Mike Nichols and the Cinema of Transformation (2014) will serve as host for the screenings and conversations.  First up, on Friday, Oct. 17  at 7 PM at Towngate Cinema, a free screening of North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) - 136 mins. And on Tuesday Oct. 21 at the Ohio County Public Library at Noon join the Conversation about North by Northwest. Unsurprisingly, when Hitchcock approached the National Park Service about dangling Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint from Abraham Lincoln’s nose, Park officials declined.  So Hitchcock filmed on location at the Visitor’s Center and built a studio replica of the monument for his stars to climb on.  As justly famous as this climactic scene is, it is less celebrated than the one in which Grant battles a crop duster in a cornfield.  The spectacular success of North by Northwest, a love story masquerading as a spy thriller, made possible Hitchcock’s next, riskier project, Psycho.  Beloved but often marginalized as a mere entertainment, North by Northwest explores the same preoccupations with existential identity and intimacy as “serious” films like 1958’s Vertigo. Lunch With Books programs are free and open to the public. Patrons are invited to bring a bag lunch and complimentary beverages are served. Please see the library's web site at www.ohiocountylibrary.org or call 304-232-0244 for more information.