Go "North by Northwest"

"North by Northwest"
Overall Rating: *****


Going north by northwest this time of year [the review was originally written in December] may make you shiver--and so will Hitchcock's film of the same name. "North by Northwest" achieves a perfect blend of comedy, romance, and suspense, and is easily among the greatest films ever made.

As "North by Northwest" opens, we get a look at the suave Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant). He's a stylish advertising executive. He goes to the theater with his mother. He lies to get cabs quickly. He also makes one tiny mistake--calling a waiter to his table while the waiter is paging Mr. Kaplan. When two spies see him interact with the waiter, they assume he is Kaplan--who they want to murder.

A huge part of why "North by Northwest" works is the casting and acting. Cary Grant is perfect for his role as the debonair Thornhill; I'd be hard pressed to name an actor--then or now--who could muster the grace under fire that the role requires. This is not to disparage the efforts of Eva Marie Saint, who elegantly plays the femme fatale who saves Thornhill from the police, or those of James Mason, who is deviously wonderful as Van Damm, the leader of an espionage ring. The many actors with smaller parts, such as Martin Landau as Mr. Leonard, and Jessie Royce Landis as Thornhill's mother, complete the picture and add dimension.

As wonderful as the actors are, the story is even better. There is a perfect irony: Thornhill--who is a compulsive liar (in advertising no less), is thrust into a situation where he tries to tell the truth, but not even his own mother believes him. As you would expect in a good suspense film, from start to finish, Thornhill is one step (if that much) ahead of both the spy ring and the police--who'd be quicker to arrest him for crimes he didn't commit than to help him. Throughout the film, you're wondering what's going to come next. One moment, he's being chased by police; the next, he's dining with a beautiful woman on America's most luxurious train. It would have been easy for the danger to become unbelievable--but just as that's about to happen, Thornhill blunders onto a way to get help from the authorities--though it could hardly be called a complete accident. Hitchcock has been called the "master of suspense;" he earns that title with "North by Northwest."

Even the greatest movies have a few flaws. "North by Northwest" is no exception, with such trivia as the child who covers his ears early, before the gun is shot. The flaws are few and far enough between that they don't hurt the film.

At the risk of being entirely too sensitive, "North by Northwest" has a surprising amount of innuendo and a fair amount of violence. None of the violence is terribly gory and the sexual content is limited to kissing, so I'd still say the film is safe for older children (and perhaps younger ones--though I'd have greater reservations as to whether they'd enjoy it); it is easily as safe as most PG films of today--but it isn't really meant as a family film.

I can't do justice to Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece. In every way, "North by Northwest" goes in the right direction.

Title: "North by Northwest"
Release date: 1959
Not MPAA rated; Hays Code compliant
Overall rating: *****

Aprox. run time: 136 min.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Ernest Lehman
Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason


Original URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Mansion/7045/N_by_NW.htm

Added to blog site: 8/3/09