Eva Marie Saint can hold our attention without raising her voice or moving her hands. We admire her quiet assurance, particularly opposite Cary Grant: she gives him someone worth watching, even in a film built around his troubles.
Fi1m perspective
Eva Marie Saint stays poised while Cary Grant makes panic funny in North by Northwest (1959). Her Eve Kendall deserves his attention even when he ought to be concentrating on staying alive. We were delighted by how firmly she holds her place beside him: the film’s sophistication does not depend on Grant alone. She lets us enjoy his agitation without allowing it to become the only thing worth watching, and does so with little visible effort.
Her film debut had been as Edie Doyle, opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954). The emotional directness of that performance helped make her a moral centre in the drama. She followed it with A Hatful of Rain (1957) and Raintree County (1957), before playing Hitchcock’s glamorous, witty Eve. Those earlier parts are worth remembering when Eve makes being sophisticated look so straightforward.
Hitchcock’s instructions were practical: lower the voice, keep the hands still and look into Grant’s eyes. They suit an actor whose naturalistic style makes close attention to another person interesting in itself. The result in North by Northwest is a performance that needs neither bustle nor emphatic delivery to register. Beside Grant and James Mason, whose Phillip Vandamm also makes measured speech effective, Saint helps preserve the manners of a thriller that keeps putting its people in ridiculous situations. The plotting still needs indulgence, and even Saint cannot make every unlikely development convincing.
The later film career was selective, taking in Exodus (1960) and the racing drama Grand Prix (1966). From the 1970s she worked increasingly in television, with People Like Us (1990) among the later character roles. There are fewer major film performances than we might wish, but it is a poor reason to underrate the ones we have. Start with North by Northwest, and pay Saint as much attention as Grant; she gives us good reason to.
Biography
Eva Marie Saint is an American actress. Born on 4 July 1924 in Newark, New Jersey, she attended Bowling Green State University and began her career in radio and television before moving to stage and film work.
She made her feature film debut as Edie Doyle in On the Waterfront (1954), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She played Eve Kendall in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). Other film roles include Exodus (1960) and Grand Prix (1966). She won a Primetime Emmy Award for the miniseries People Like Us (1990).
Saint has worked across film, television and theatre for seven decades. She is married to director Jeffrey Hayden.
