PORT TOWNSEND — Actor Cary Grant was the best kisser, director Otto Preminger treated the stars well but not the extras, and Alfred Hitchcock let Eva Marie Saint pick out her own wardrobe for “North by Northwest.”
The actress, who keynoted the second annual Port Townsend Film Festival over the weekend, engaged a room full of admirers at the James Broughton Theater as she answered questions about her film career.
Saint especially won the hearts of many moviegoers when she lauded the Victorian seaport, its inhabitants and Rose Theatre owner Rocky Friedman, who conceived the film festival last year.
“Everybody’s been wonderful and we want to come back,” Saint said. “I was saying to (festival director) Linda (Yakush) that an actor who has a good time at a film festival — it’s a small community back in Hollywood –people will say, ‘You went to such and such in Port Townsend?’ and I’ll say, ‘Get thee to Port Townsend!’
“I think you truly have an amazing situation here with all ages (attending the film festival) and the fact that you have the Rose and the Rosebud (theaters) — those are gems.”
Saint proved funny, articulate, intelligent and candid in front of nearly 400 people who attended the special event, which began with a screening of “All Fall Down” starring Saint, Warren Beatty, Angela Lansbury and Karl Malden.
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