Customer Reviews
Grant and Hitchcock create a classic thriller - By: Stampy, 29 Oct 2008 
Roger Thornhill (Grant) is mistaken for another man by a group of foreign spies & after a few unfortunate events, finds himself on the run.
North by Northwest is recognized as one of Alfred Hitchcock's finest films & with the adrenaline soaked narrative & a great central performance it is easy to see why.
Cary Grant (Charade) delivers a sensational portrayal of advertising executive Roger Thornhill, a simple man who is mistaken for someone else. Thornhill is wonderfully sarcastic, very charismatic & plaudits must go to Grant who has created an original hero, an ordinary man who turns himself into an action hero within a short space of time in Alfred Hitchcock's wonderfully realistic world.
Hitchcock's action styled direction is picture perfect for this fast moving thriller. The British director cements the realism down to the ground with his cutting edge close shots & the fast sweeping direction, most noticeable in the landmark plane scene in the fields.
It is easy to overdo action in modern day films & Hitchcock has expertly managed to balance the action alongside the everyday events of the protagonists.
This film is close to resembling a Bond styled genre, though obviously was made before Bond films were. The cocky yet sophisticated Thornhill is well directed by Hitchcock to create the ultimate action hero in a sharply written narrative that is more realistic & entertaining than the Bond spy genre.
The reason this 1959 thriller works is down to alll the genres it covers.
Through Hitchcock's action & realistic direction, viewers are thrust into action sequences, romantic moments & crime sequences to, providing viewers with the ultimate adventure. Covering different genres is not a stroll in the park as recent films show & can be appreciated here with Hitchcock's wonderful balance.
The balance of the action & romantic genres works well with the whole mystery concept of what is happening to the central character.
The settings are well executed & further add to the intensity of the plot, particularly the field & the climax on Mount Rushmore.
North by Northwest is a top notch action thriller, made so by Hitchcock's direction, great writing & a fine central character.
9/10
Fantastic value - By: N. C. Bateman, 09 Sep 2008 I could rave for hours about this film, but suffice to say it's the perfect thriller, the template for countless other films & everyone should have it. This edition (the Warner from 2006) is a simply stunning transfer with that true Technicolor feel & alll for a fiver. Incredible.
cary grant at his epitome - By: Ms. F. I. Macdonald, 16 Apr 2008 there is nothing bad i could say about this film. Cary Grant is as usual fantastic, suave & sophisticated & humourous to boot. This film involves everything that makes a great film, twisted story, comic moments, a stunning yet mysterious woman, & a wrongly accused man who has to defy the odds to get away. It's brilliant, has some fantastic actors in it & is a real treat for anyone who can appreciate a cleverly mastered film!!
I'm an advertising man, not a red herring - By: Jonboy, 10 Mar 2008 The sheer magic of this film is down to Cary Grant at his most suave & handsome, quite something for a man of 54. Hitchcock kept him in the dark about the plot even as they filmed so his reactions remained spontaneous, but perhaps also because the writers were still scratching their heads over an ending.
JFK would ring Grant just to hear his unique voice & the audience visits NNW again & again to do the same, outclassing as it does even the silken tone of James Mason.
The plot of course is ludicrous: why would they take over a UN official's house when he was away? Why would Van Damm question the Rapid City hotel booking, when that information can only have come from him? How come the security services were not spotted planting Kaplan's clothes in his room?
To offset this there are the one-liners: Games, Mr Kaplan, must we?/What does the O stand for? - Nothing/I'm not letting you out of my sight, sweetheart & so on.
All in alll a film right up there with The Third Man & Sound of Music at the top of people's `best-ever' lists.
THE PERFECT ACTION THRILLER - By: stuart, 11 Dec 2007 VERTIGO did nothing to advance Hitchcock's career in 1957 when he released it, & it's actuallly not a shame: the following year he decided to go completely against the slow-moving erotic thriller genre & do something shamelessly commercial, escapist & single-handedly create the spy movie. Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, states he based his character on the physical characteristics & the suave personality of Cary Grant, as an added note. This could well amount to be the first James Bond film -- a dangerous villain complete with a sidekick, an allluring woman with a dubious nature & an enigmatic "boss," a dashing hero, lush locales setting the scene for powerful chases & escalating danger.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST has one crucial difference to any James Bond film, though: Alfred Hitchcock. While the Bond films have been seen as quintessential action fluff (although fluff of the better kind until the franchise ran out of gas in the 80s), Hitchcock, always the master of subtext as well as suspense, creates memorable scenes that balance sexual tension, sexual innuendo, comedy, & mounting suspense seamlessly. There is never the feeling of being bored as there is too much going on, especiallly with the sizzling chemistry of Eva Marie Saint & Cary Grant, by now a Hitchcock veteran. When they're on screen, dialog crackles & so much more is said with so little gesture -- she closes the lid on her Ice Goddess role, but gives it a nice, cheeky, knowing wink. He of course evolves from the sort of man who while looking & being slightly clumsy & under his mother's thumb -- once it becomes clear he's been marked & is a target for a sinister plot that only later becomes clear -- becomes more assertive in taking matters into his own hands. A quintessential Hitchcock Everyman, Grant has his stamp alll over his role. No one can imagine anyone else running away from that crop duster in one of the movies many standout sequences, or saying the reassuring last words to Eva Marie Saint as they cuddle together in the train. When one thinks of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, one thinks Cary Grant.
Easily one of Hitchcock's best films, made while he was at the peak of his career in the bracket formed with THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH & MARNIE. Great supporting performances are alll over the map, from Jesse Royce Landis as Grant's mother, James Mason as Phillip Vandamm, Martin Landau as Vandamm's protégée who might be a little more than that, & Leo G Carroll as The Professor. Doreen Lang appears early in the movie as Grant's secretary; she would of course be remembered as the woman who shrieks at Tippi Hedren in THE BIRDS & gets slapped by her as the camera holds itself tight on her face.
