 Cary Grant is the screen's supreme man-on-the-run in his fourth and final teaming with Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock. He plays a Manhattan adman plunged into a realm of spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint) and variously abducted, framed for murder, chased, and in a signature set-piece, crop-dusted. He also hangs for dear life from the facial features of Mount Rushmore's Presidents. Savor one of Hollywood's most enjoyable thrillers ever in this state-of-the-art restoration: it's renewed picture vitality will leave you just as breathless as the chase itself. Storyline: Madison Avenue advertising man Roger Thornhill finds himself thrust into the world of spies when he is mistaken for a man by the name of George Kaplan. Foreign spy Philip Vandamm and his henchman Leonard try to eliminate him but when Thornhill tries to make sense of the case, he is framed for murder. Now on the run from the police, he manages to board the 20th Century Limited bound for Chicago where he meets a beautiful blond, Eve Kendall, who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside down yet again when he learns that Eve isn't the innocent bystander he thought she was. Not all is as it seems however, leading to a dramatic rescue and escape at the top of Mt. Rushmore. Written by garykmcd Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Casey Broadwater on October 26, 2009 -- "You know, we're not making a movie," Alfred Hitchcock reputedly told screenwriter Ernest Lehman during the shooting of North by Northwest. "We're constructing an organ, the kind of organ that you see in the theatre. And we press this chord and now the audience laughs, we press that chord and they gasp, and we press these notes and they chuckle. Someday we won't have to make a movie, we'll just attach them to electrodes and play the various emotions for them to experience in the theatre." Whether the portly director was being cynical or merely offering a pithy insight into his own mastery of suspense, the fact remains that Alfred Hitchcock was a virtuoso at knowing not only which emotional keys to press, but exactly when to press them, and in what order. Disparaging critics—what few there are—may level the charge that Hitchcock's films are formulaic, but even if that's so, it's undeniable that he worked out the perfect formula, a cinematic golden ratio that balances tension and darkness with romance and wit. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hitchcock went on one of the greatest winning streaks in cinema history, cranking out Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds in quick succession. Of these, North by Northwest—with all the director's trademarks in place—is arguably the most iconically Hitchcockian, and has also served as the template for numerous espionage thrillers to come, its influence easily seen in the James Bond films and even the Bourne trilogy. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman has often said—this is his most lasting contribution to cinema, after all—that he wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures." While he didn't exactly succeed—I mean, not literally—North by Northwest is, in some ways, the apex of Hitchcock's career and a summation of his themes and techniques. They're all here: the point-of-view shots, the steely but sexy blond heroine, the glamour, the mistaken identities, the almost-cruel sense of tension, the mother issues, and, of course, the MacGuffin—an unimportant object that drives the plot— presented here in its purest form yet. Following in another Hitchcock tradition, the film centers around an everyman of sorts. Cary Grant plays Roger O. Thornhill—the O. stands for "nothing"—a Madison Avenue advertising executive who could easily be a character on Mad Men. After being mistaken for George Kaplan, an intelligence agent who we later learn doesn't really exist, Thornhill is kidnapped by a couple of heavies and taken to meet Philip Vandamm (James Mason), a suave and sinister trader in government secrets. Vandamm doesn't buy Thornhill's "no, really, I'm not George Kaplan" shtick and conspires to have him assassinated. Of course, Vandamm's thugs bungle the job and Thornhill, having now been framed for the murder of a U.N. diplomat, sets out for Chicago by train to find the elusive Mr. Kaplan and clear his good name. En route, he meets seductive blond Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who offers to share her compartment for the night (wink, wink) and hides Thornhill from the cops. To reveal any more would be a disservice to anyone who has yet to see the film, as Hitchcock and Lehman's narrative features several neck-breaking turns and twists that still surprise, even if we've now seen this type of film a thousand times. Suffice it to say that no one is who they say they are. For its time, the film has some astounding action set pieces—including the iconic crop-duster chase scene—all culminating in an edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger stand-off that takes place across the presidential faces of Mt. Rushmore. Thematically, the story is all about identity—mistaken, hidden, or lack thereof. At the start, Thornhill is successful but dull, a man who walks and talks like New York is his personal playground, but who calls his mother when he's arrested for drunk driving. His is a case of arrested development, and over the course of the film, Thornhill, by putting on the super-spy persona of Roger Kaplan, matures and develops an identity of his own. Cary Grant is perfect here, playing the fool, the romantic lead, and the reverse agent-in-disguise with equal agility. He's charming, debonair, funny, and like any advertising exec worth his salt, incredibly good with words. Of course, there are elements of the script that, in hindsight, seem absolutely unbelievable, overly machinated, ridiculous even. I mean, why would Vandamm hire a pilot to shoot at Thornhill from a biplane when he could just as easily have one of his thugs do the shooting up close and personal-like? Still, when watching the film, none of this matters. Hitchcock makes the implausible plausible, and more so, eminently suspenseful and surprising. The film is cut with machine precision, every sequence custom orchestrated for maximum dramatic impact. The action is expertly staged, the rhythms of the editing have an impeccable musical cadence, and the performances, especially from Grant and Eva Marie Saint, are phenomenal. I can't say that I've ever seen flirting in a film sexier than the entendre-laced banter that the two actors share in the train's dining car. I can only imagine how mid-century audiences must have reacted to such brazen-for-the-time dialogue, especially since it's Saint that plays the sexual aggressor, and not Grant. The film's closing shot—a train entering a tunnel—is a clever and intentionally phallic bit of symbolism from Hitchcock, who, along with being the master of suspense, was apt at implying arousal and desire without rousing the ire of Hollywood censors. With North by Northwest, he crafted one of his most purely entertaining films, a time-tested classic that's just as suspenseful now as it was when it debuted in 1959. As the first film by Hitchcock to appear on Blu-ray in the U.S., North by Northwest is a must-have release for many regardless of the film's picture and audio quality. Purchase with confidence, then, because I have no qualms whatsoever about this disc's stunning A/V treatment. The video presentation is uniformly excellent—as close to a definitive version of the film as we're going to get in 1080p—and the new TrueHD soundtrack means North by Northwest sounds bigger and more clear than ever. With a generous host of supplementary features and one of the best digibook packages to come down the Warner pipeline, I'm confident in giving North by Northwest my highest recommendation. Cameo: North By Northwest - 1959 - 0:02:09 - Missing a bus, just after his credit passes off screen during the title sequence. Cast Notes: Cary Grant (Roger O. Thornhill), Eva Marie Saint (Eve Kendall), James Mason (Phillip Vandamm), Jessie Royce Landis (Clara Thornhill), Leo G. Carroll (The Professor), Josephine Hutchinson (Mrs. Townsend), Philip Ober (Lester Townsend), Martin Landau (Leonard), Adam Williams (Valerian), Edward Platt (Victor Larrabee), Robert Ellenstein (Licht), Les Tremayne (Auctioneer), Philip Coolidge (Dr. Cross), Patrick McVey (Sergeant Flamm - Chicago Policeman), Edward Binns (Captain Junket). IMDb Rating (07/25/14): 8.5/10 from 172,219 users Top 250: #61 IMDb Rating (11/12/12): 8.6/10 from 131,177 users Top 250: #41 IMDb Rating (10/15/07): 8.6/10 from 58,966 users Top 250: #23 IMDb Rating (06/02/01): 8.6/10 from 12,793 users Top 250: #19
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