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Summary: Aspect ratios
Review: Just a note to some people out there. Since "North By Northwest" was filmed with Vista Vision, it's original aspect ratio was 1.66:1. So you are barely missing anything in this full screen VHS presentation.I too want to see it in it's theatrical matted 1.85:1 ratio on DVD, but the full screen version isn't as bad as some people here are making it out to be.
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Summary: Very cool
Review: One night I was with my mom and her friend. He picked out this movie to watch when we got home. I was like, "Oh great. This looks really bad." But when we got home and watched it I was like, "WOW!" Alfred Hitchcock is really talented. This was, however, not a movie you could talk through. You really had to pay attention. I would have missed one of the most crucial parts in the movie; when the say "George Kaplan, paging George Kaplan" over the loudspeaker had it not been rewound. See this movie if you haven't already.
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Summary: "Paging George Kaplan.." How 3 words alter a life 4evr!
Review: I sat mesmerized over how one seemingly harmless misque in the opening five minutes can alter the course of a life (The title is a clue.). Cary Grant has the style and chiseled look of Harrison Ford with the surprising comic timing of Jim Carey (especially in scenes with "mother") Add a screen siren - Eva Marie Saint, a very young Martin Landau ("Crimes and Misdemeanors"), fantastic technicolour location shots, and a cropduster scene now studied in film schools, and you have one film perfect to introduce to a love interest with a home-cooked meal. For in the world of Hitchcock, what appears in the moment is far from what is lurking around the bend. A classic in need of a DVD. P.S. - Look for Hitchcock in his ever-present cameo in the opening sequence, shot near the Plaza Hotel circa 1959 - a scene (and film) which is masterfully scored by Bernard Hermann who, incidentally, wrote the score for "Taxi Driver".
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Summary: Wow!
Review: Cary Garnt's last teaming with Alfred Hitchcock is one of his most intelligent and suspensful films. Successful buisiness-man and mamma's boy grant is kidnapped, being mistaken for a non-exsistant man. Forcefully intoxicated, he is meant to drive off a cliff, but manages to escape. Suspense and love ensue. Where else does the suspense start after 4 minutes?
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Summary: One of Hitchcock's best
Review: I've always loved this film. Others who've reviewed it here have said everything there is to say about it. I have but one question. Where to Hell is the DVD?
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Summary: Humerous Hitchcock
Review: This movie is suprising because if you expected the "39 Steps" type of movie because it's Hitchcock you won't know what hit you. The Humor is added just by the twitch of Cary Grant's eyebrows and his deadpan approach. Casting was perfect here, because without Grant, it would just be another "Mistaken Identity" movie. On the entire list of top 100 movies of the century I think this was well deserving of every vote it got. When you watch it, look for the many movies that have drawn from it's Themes and even copied the dialogue.
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Summary: Hitchcock and Cary
Review: Self-assured Madison Avenue ad exec Grant inavertently gets involved with international spies when they mistake him for someone else. His problems are compounded when he's framed for murder.The movie where Grant and Saint dangle from Mount Rushmore and a plane chases Grant through farm fields. An exceptional performance by Grant plus plenty of plot twists (which are mixed with tongue-in-cheek humour) make this one of Hitch's most entertaining films (some say his best). Laserdisc includes letterboxing, digital soundtrack, Hitchcock interview, production and publicity photos, storyboards and the original trailer.
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Summary: Suspensful, classic Hitchcock
Review: Perhaps Hitchcock's best film, and Cary Grant's best dramatic performance. Ad man Thornhill (Grant) is mistaken for a secret agent and is chased by professional murderers while he chases down the real secret agent. Hitchcock proves that flashy special effects are not needed as Grant, while drugged, drives down a curving, moutain road, and the viewer is taken along for the ride with a fuzzy point-of-view shot. It makes you squirm right out of your seat. See this movie if you never have experienced Hitchcock's psychologocal mind-games or if you haven't yet realized that Cary Grant is THE leading man of the century.
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Summary: Hitchcock's best
Review: This is probably my all time favorite movie. Great plot twists, suspense, action, and humor. Cary Grant is fabulous. Watch it!
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Summary: One of the Greats...
Review: People feel the need to qualify their love of this movie. "It is very entertaining," I hear. Or someone will say, "North by Northwest is one Hitchcock's greatest light films." All, of course, utter rubbish. North by Northwest is simply one of the greatest films ever made, period. No need for qualifiers here. Cary Grant, an ad man, is mistaken for a spy and chased around America by both sides in the cold war. Saint is the mysterious blonde who helps along the way. People who minimize this film usually focus on the fact that most of this film's plot has been summarized in the above paragraph. This is not a film for your brain, however (although I still contend your mind will not starve feasting on this movie), but for your feelings, physical and emotional. The suspense (which is greatly enhanced in widescreen) is near maddening, and the heat and warmth of pure passion (yes, heat AND warmth) is an even more exhausting rollercoaster ride than the usual thrills. Listing highlights is near useless; either you already know them by heart, or they will look pathetic reduced to the written word. It is worth pointing out, however, that for all the attention garnished on the more famous cropdusting / Mount Rushmore scenes, the best moments here may well be at the auction toward the end of the film. Danger, both of life and of the heart, is extremely palpable here, slithering down your neck, oozing down your spine, and twisting over to smother your heart, and Hitch still manages to sneak in some of his best laughs at the very same time! Amazingly, neither the humor nor suspense is lessened by the other's prescence. Hitchcock didn't try to delve into warped psyches in this film (a la Vertigo) or make any sort of political statement (a la Foreign Correspondent); he simply wanted to do what he does best: make a good suspense film. He wound up making the best one ever, and one of the five or ten best films of all time.
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