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Summary: HIS BEST CHASER...
Review: It seems 2 me that Hitchcock sort of stole many elements from his pre-chaser-films and said: "Good-eeeeevening..... You think you have seen my best efforts, but I must unfortunately dissappoint you.....!"Indeed this is a neurotic and clastraphobic chaser and suspenser - maybe the BEST EVER - thanks 2 the talents of Ernest Lehman, Hitchcock himself, his crew and the entire cast. There are numerous highlights from this film; I prefer NOT 2 single out any of them in favour of others. This film belongs IN EVERY HOME:-)
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Summary: "Real bullets? That's not very sporting..."
Review: Slap yourself if you haven't seen this movie. Although not as complex as "Vertigo" or "Rear Window," this is Hitchcock at his most enjoyable. I can't even begin to count the number of contemporary action films that were infulenced by (and frequently rip off) this. The crop-duster scene continues to be possibly one of the best suspense scenes I've ever seen, and it was only done with a plane, an empty field, and Cary Grant. The cast is perfect, the script is full of surprises and funny in a smart kind of way that modern moviemaking just doesn't understand. James Mason just oozes evil charisma. So, how's the DVD? Incredible. I can't believe it ever looked this good, even on the big screen. The color separation is vivid and sharp, and I only noticed two or three imperfections in the print, which is amazing considering the age of this film. The stereo separation and noise reduction are great. Bernard Hermann's score, one of the most brilliant and propulsive I've ever heard, is absolutely transparent. And, of course, the stereo panning during the crop-duster sequence is spot-on. Oh yeah, and it includes the original theatrical trailer, as well as a mock commercial done by Hitchcock himself extolling the virtues of Mt. Rushmore as a tourist attraction!
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Summary: North by Northwest
Review: One of Hitch's best! Roger Thornhill is no more a secret-agent than he is a brain-surgeon and yet he gets so believably swept into this suspenseful drama that you might think that you have missed something early on! The superb direction of Alfred Hitchcock combines perfectly with the Academy Award nominated screenplay of Ernest Lehman. The performances of Cary Grant,Eve Marie Saint,and James Mason are equally superb!
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Summary: First-rate Hitchcock, Plus Grant And Mason
Review: It's one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, even if the plot makes less sense than usual. There's nice chemistry between Grant and Saint; the set pieces are unusual, especially the crop dusting; Grant's mom, Jessie Royce Landis, has sardonic style and it's pleasant to realize that they were both born in the same year. Leonard (Martin Landau) with a crush on Mason is also great. The train through the tunnel at the end is an excellent example of how Hitchcock could be naughty without being explicit.
Most of all, in my view, Hitchcock and Grant have a worthy adversary in James Mason. The guy was a superb actor, a genuine heavy weight, and he brings such style and menace to the part. I think he easily matches Grant in the suave department.
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Summary: Who is George Kaplan?
Review: This has become a classic Alfred Hitchcock film, with film score by Bernard Herrmann. If the story is not remembered or commented on, everyone is familiar with the scene where Grant is getting attacked by a crop duster while standing in the middle of nowhere "North by Northwest".
Roger O. Thornhill <R.O.T> (Cary Grant), mild mannered advertising executive, raises his hand at the wrong time to send a telegram. The page boy is paging George Kaplan so Roger is mistaken for Kaplan (a shorter man with dandruff) and the fun begins. Turns out that Townsend/ Vandamm (James Mason) the bad guy is being dogged by Kaplan so Vandamm must do away with Kaplan.
Meanwhile back at the train Roger meats a cutie Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) that is apparently set on helping him.
I will not go into details as surprise and plot twisting is part of the suspense.
Will Roger get the girl?
Will Vandamm get Roger?
What is this all about?
Who is George Kaplan?
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Summary: A suspense divertimento!
Review: You must have realized all the previous films with Grant as actor the suspense and the humour were joined . From Suspicious , Catch a thief and obviously this one could not be the exception of the rule
Hitchcock always knew to show the other side of the actor , specially if he was a renowned and glamorous star . And the best proof is Charade where Stanley Donnen called again to Grant to make a love affair beneath a soft anguish thriller.
In this opportunity , Hitchcock reached a goal employing symbols of power . From Mount Rushmore to the United Nations building , the vertiginous camera movements make of this tongue in cheek spy thriller an outstanding exercise of narrative agility , a bit of fine british humour here and there and very unusual film .
You could not establish this film among the top suspense films but a smart story spattered of irony and cynicism blending two raising and even fashion professions such spies in the Cold War with the world of the advertising business .
Have you realized the hidden homage to this film made in From Russian with love in the fumigator airplane chase?
The unbridled rhythm , the prodigious musical score of Bernard Hermann and superb locations plus the adequate use of the colour deserved for this washed face cold war film a nomination to Original Script (Ernest Lehman), Set up and Decoration .
An original and unforgettable film from the Supreme Suspense Magician.
And please don't forget the known statement of Schopenhauer : About what it is said in society , the important is to be funny , the lesser aspect is its veracity .
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Summary: Whirling Dervish Handled by Masters Hitchcock and Grant
Review: A sublime, suspenseful confection from Alfred Hitchcock, 1959's "North by Northwest" has become a classic addition to the master's canon even though it lacks the risk-taking gravity of his then-just-released "Vertigo" or the blood-curdling thrills of his next classic film, "Psycho". This stands the test of time as a sophisticated thriller that is alternately clever and contrived, fast-paced and glamorous.
It is the ideal showcase for the debonair but innately accessible Cary Grant, starring as the prototypical wronged man who unwillingly embarks on a perilous odyssey away from the comfortably insulated life he led. Grant seems to thrive best when his character, a successful Madison Avenue advertising executive named Roger Thornhill, is put in inexplicable situations that build into a series of unforeseen events leading ultimately to a seemingly conspiratorial group of spies and assassins by way of a variety of locales that includes Grand Central Station, the United Nations building and Mount Rushmore. For someone used to making up the "truth" in advertising copy for marketing purposes, Thornhill is vulnerable to his own medicine at a much higher cost...his life. After getting abducted by a pair of thugs, he is forced to drink a pint of bourbon under the mistaken assumption that he is a government undercover Federal agent. A murder frame-up follows, and then he is on the run as an implicated suspect. He takes on yet another identity while confronted with even more mayhem and a world of espionage, an unbelieving mother, and Eve Kendall, a mysterious blonde, played with surprising elan by Eva Marie Saint. One wonders why she didn't play more femme fatales during her career...she seems a natural at it. Is it all a little too far-fetched? You bet. But under Hitchcock's sure direction and recognizable visual style, it is also one of the most supremely entertaining of movies.
There are a plethora of memorable scenes, set pieces really for Hitchcock to concoct some suspense in order to showcase his unique visual style. These include the wonderful crop-dusting sequence where Thornhill tries to outrun a nefarious biplane into a dried-up cornfield, the knifing of the real Lester Townsend at the UN and the final scaling of Mount Rushmore's Presidential faces to escape the villains. That's where appropriately the final salvation occurs, and Thornhill and Kendall then end up in the upper berth of a Pullman car just as they started. The film is filled with many humorous touches such as Thornhill's drunken scene at the police station (preceded by a rather politically incorrect drunk driving chase sequence), the extended seduction scenes between Thornhill and Kendall on the train, the auction scene where Thornhill is trying to get captured by the police to avoid the spies, and his unexpected marriage proposal as the lovers hang precariously between Washington's and Jefferson's foreheads. James Mason lends his particular savoir faire to the role of duplicitous foreign spy Phillip Vandamm, and a young Martin Landau is appropriately sinister as the sexually questionable henchman, Leonard. Much of the credit for the film's success belongs to Ernest Lehman, who penned the original screenplay, and Bernard Herrmann for his atmospheric score. The DVD includes a brief, informative making-of documentary hosted by Saint.
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Summary: Man on the Run
Review: Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest is by far his best film. The production, screenwriting, and musical score made this classic what it is after 45 years. This film has indeed deserves its coveted place among the American Film Institute's 100 all-time best films.
The actors along with the plotline pulled the film off with flying colors. However, Hitchcock uses the same cat and mouse espionage that he used in his earlier film, Saboteur,, which captured the fear and paranoia of World War II. Despite that somewhat unoriginal film idea, Cary Grant, Eve Marie Saint, James Mason, and Martin Landau were quite convincing in this thriller of a film full of suspense and intrigue. And the romance between marketing advertising executive,Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), and stranger on the train, Eve Kendall (Eve Marie Saint) did not hurt the film at all. What would a Hitchcock film be without that tinge of femininity and Eve Marie Saint's glowing profile?
This is one of those films where you're rooting for the "good guy" over the "bad guys". Indeed, this film has political overtones of the Cold War and McCarthyism. Could this be a film with nationalistic fervor? Could this have been a film about US consumerism and the sinister USSR? Possibly, but it's a "hot" picture amongst the "coldness" of the period. It captures the American landscape with New York's metropolis, which includes the UN building. In addition, the wheat fields of the Midwest to Mount Rushmore keeps you hanging at the edge of your seat; Cary Grant holds on to dear life both from a crazed-out cropdusting plane to the heads of Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, Lincoln,and Washington.
This film is perfect for the movie buff or anyone who enjoys watching a well-crafted film. Indeed, the 1950s had not been all about the neat fixings of suburbia and "Leave it to Beaver." You had Alfred Hitchcock to draw you back to reality, but in sophisticated film form.
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Summary: The Master of Suspense Spawns the Daddy of the Action Film
Review: Many feel this is Alfred Hitchcock's greatest American movie, and I agree! NORTH BY NORTHWEST (NbyNW) is the Hitchcock film to end all Hitch films, with all his pet themes covered with maximum wit, panache, and suspense, as well as a romance between Cary Grant and a soignée Eva Marie Saint that's as tender as it is sexy. Grant has never been more engaging and dashing (literally and figuratively :-), though the smoothly villainous James Mason nearly out-suaves him. My hubby and I have joked that if Mason had played Thornhill, the film would have been over in mere moments; if the imperious, unshakably confident Mason asked the Glen Cove police, "Do you honestly believe that this happened the way you think it did?" they would immediately reply, "No, sir, you must be right, you're free to go, sorry we bothered you." :-) NbyNW also boasts a great early performance by a reptilian young Martin Landau as Mason's possessive henchman, as well as one of Oscar nominee Ernest Lehman's best screenplays (in fact, he borrowed liberally from it for his script for the film version of THE PRIZE starring Paul Newman) and one of Bernard Herrmann's finest scores. Anybody who wants to write or direct a chase thriller should watch NbyNW first to see how it's done, and the DVD is a great place to start with its superb extras, like the documentary and Lehman's commentary track! I'm only sorry they couldn't include the Oscar-nominated short documentary THE MAN ON LINCOLN'S NOSE as well.
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Summary: About this masterpiece
Review: This has more 50's ambience than half a dozen regular '50's films combined. I love it a lot but the Mt. Rushmore sequence just cannot be as breathtaking once you know the result during a second viewing of it. It is long but very satisfying. Eva Marie Saint is a beauty and great, method actress. She gives her role an extra strong air of authenticity. Outside of her I do not approve of methood actresses or method actors.
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