North by Northwest
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
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- Cast:
- Cary Grant , Eva Marie Saint , James Mason , Jessie Royce Landis , Leo G. Carroll , Josephine Hutchinson , Philip Ober
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Reviews
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Hitchcock is undoubtedly one of the greatest, more visionary and brilliant directors of all time, he had made films that are still admired and studied in schools for their incredible technical quality to say the least in the vanguard. Among the various cult that bear his signature one of the best known is this "North by Norhwest" a film that deserves to be remembered as such but which suffers, perhaps more than its other major films, of an aging fairly felt as far as it affects the rhythm and fluidity of it, unfortunately this affects the general vision, especially in our days when we are accustomed to extremely fast thrillers to appear almost exasperated. It is incredible, however, that despite this great obstacle due to its age (about sixty years) the film manages to transmit, in the first half in a more fluctuating manner and in the second in a more diluted and concrete way, a strong suspense, element that distinguishes virtually all movies of the master, which allows the whole story to be followed with great interest, fundamental aspect in a film of this kind. To make this possible is the excellent screenplay that, among ingenious narrative cues, sought-after twists and iconic and intelligent dialogues, makes everything an amiably elegant and fascinating package in full spy style that is still envious today. Also giving away the excellent characters interpreted in a particularly natural and credible way by names such as Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, which make them irresistible and absolutely pleasant to see. Hitchcock, in addition to its tasty initial cameo, gives the film an admirable direction: each shot is chosen with great attention to detail, especially those concerning the environment, each functional and peculiar, and shows a genius in always choosing the 'angle that can enhance the scene at best. Unfortunately, as I said the film is not light, although this is really subjective as an aspect, and because of this it fails to reach its full potential and losing a bit of its charisma and character that would make it a film easier to remember and, in a sense, to be seen; but one thing is certain any cinephile should see it just to learn something more about the cinema.
A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. Despite one again Hitchcock's brilliant direction and just a cast that delivers well made perfomances 'North by Northwest' just doesn't have enough of suspense and tension that a film of this kind needs to have and besides some cool scenes like the one where the main star was running away from the airplane there just wasn't enough for me to say that i really really enjoyed it as a film. (5/10)
This film is great. The acting performances were strong and the whole race against the clock aspect makes the story very entertaining. This film out does any Bond film I have ever scene. I am comparing this to bond because of the similarities i saw.
This film is probably where Hitchcock's genius rose to its greatest height. I have seen it several times over the years, and it keeps getting better and better. Now we have a Blu-ray remastered version, so I have seen it again, all crisp and new. A large part of the success of this film is due to Ernest Lehman, who wrote the screenplay. He was one of Hollywood's top screenwriters and his skills were crucial in making this story work. The film is gripping from the first scene to the last, and never loses its tension for a moment. Cary Grant's somewhat weird personality was perfect for the lead role in this tale of mysterious intrigue. The combination of his droll insouciance and dry humour with his expressions of continually surprised astonishment is just the right mix. I can't think of any other actor who could so perfectly have compounded the variegated tinctures of ambiguity into this sublime decoction of suspense. (What do you mean, that last sentence was affected?) As for Eva Marie Saint, never was she so glorious as in this picture. She has just the right mix as well. And those two mixes went well together, and are the very opposite of oil and water. Or to put it another way, everything gells. And then there is James Mason as the unctuous smoothie bad guy. He really knew how to be convincing at that, and the way he puts his hand on Eva Marie Saint's shoulder in the auction room, to say 'you are mine', is done so delicately but so emphatically. He was always the master of understatement, Every gesture, every grimace is perfectly planned and plotted. Hitchcock was passionate about story-boarding all his films, and this one is a living story-board. Not one thing is out of place, the film was perfectly executed according to plan. It ticks better than any Swiss watch in history. Tick, tick, tick, and the wheels go round and things happen relentlessly, all precisely timed. The most famous episode in this film is probably when Cary Grant gets off a bus in the middle of a corn field in absolutely nowhere and a crop-spraying plane comes after him, trying to kill him. Who says such things never happen? I saw it with my own eyes, in a Hitchcock film, so it must be true.