NORTH BY NORTHWEST (PG)
D: Alfred Hitchcock
MGM (Alfred Hitchcock)
US 1959
136 mins
Thriller
W: Ernest Lehman
DP: Robert Burks
Ed: George Tomasini
Mus: Bernard Herrmann
PD: William A. Horning, Robert Doyle & Merrill
Pye
Cary Grant (Roger Thornhill), Eva Marie Saint
(Eve Kendall), James Mason (Phillip Vandamm), Leo G. Carroll (The Professor), Martin Landau (Leonard), Jessie Royce Landis (Clara Thornhill), Adam Williams (Valerian)
One of the classic Hitchcock thrillers as well as one of
the best films of the decade, if not all time. It's certainly in my list of all time favourites.
Cary Grant delivers one of his finest performances as an
innocent businessman mistaken as a spy by the police and a target for assassination by enemy agents after becoming privy to information that he shouldn't know.
The balance is a perfect mix of an intense chase thriller
and tongue-in-cheek humour impeccably directed by the master of suspense.
Most would remember it for the famous crop-dusting plane
scene or the sequence atop Mount Rushmore, but there's plenty more to enjoy. An iconic masterpiece of work, not just as a standalone suspense movie, but as a compendium of all the Hitchcock
classics, drawing on elements from The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, The Man Who Knew Too Much, etc. with breathtaking originality, yet paying tribute simultaneously. If you're a Hitchcock
fan or not, this is an absolute must see.
10/10
