When Alfred Hitchcock made "North by Northwest", it was so successful that the studios wanted him to make another movie in the same style. However Hitchcock wanted to move on saying, "Style is merely self-plagiarism".
Nevertheless, Hollywood loved the ingredients in "North by Northwest" and attempted many variations on the theme: "Charade", "Arabesque", "Caprice" and "Blindfold", which got as close as any.
Psychiatrist and playboy, Dr Bartholomew Snow, is enlisted by national security chief, General Pratt (Jack Warden), to help the recovery of Arthur Vicenti, a top scientist suffering from a mental breakdown. Vicenti is in danger from an organisation that kidnaps and sells scientists to the highest bidder.
Snow, who never loses his sangfroid for a moment, is blindfolded and taken to a secret location for his meetings with Vincenti, but returns to his practice in New York so that nothing appears out of the ordinary. When Vicenti's sister, showgirl Vicky Vicenti, comes looking for her brother, she and Snow become involved along with enemy agents of varying degrees of intelligence.
Eventually it all ends up in the Florida Everglades with alligators, airboats, quicksand and Rock and Claudia in a clinch at the fadeout.
By this stage of his career, Rock Hudson was as smooth as Cary Grant, but how sexy was Claudia Cardinale in "Blindfold"?
There is a scene in her dressing room where she wears a see-through costume with the only nod to modesty being a sprinkle of strategically placed sequins and some feathers. Claudia Cardinale was never likely to be first choice for Shakespeare, but she was such a stunning presence that it didn't matter if she wasn't totally projecting the Stanislavski Method.
Although Rock could give powerful performances, he just about phoned this one in. However it's really all he needed to do and he had great comedic timing; I love his reaction when his secretary catches him in his office playing with Vicky's knee. There is a stupid fight scene with Rock using a fire extinguisher, but the clever sequence where he retraces the route when he was blindfolded makes up for it.
For those who liked "North by Northwest", "Blindfold" blended the same basic ingredients well.
