Classic Hitchcock

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2010)

'North By Northwest' opens as angularly-presented credits merge slickly into the facade of a modern office-block. The work sets a trend for Alfred Hitchcock's quirky and original thriller.
Cary Grant plays a perfectly normal, urbane (gosh; you can say that again) businessman who is mistaken for someone else. And if that isn't trouble enough; the someone else doesn't actually exist. He's a fictional front created by the secret service. But they've done such a good job that nothing this schmuck can say will convince the bad guys that he is who he claims to be, and not this mysterious nobody.
Hitchcock leads us through a wonderfully convoluted and suspenseful plot. Our hero survives his kidnap and attempted murder. He becomes a suspected murderer himself, and is pursued by authorities and traitors alike.
Eva Marie Saint plays an American agent femme-fatale (she's the sort of pretty blonde that Hitchcock couldn't keep his hands off). James Mason plays the master criminal with coldly-confident aplomb, whilst Martin Landau plays his sidekick with more than a hint of homosexual jealousy. Set pieces and locations are extremely imaginative, especially the showdown at Mount Rushmore. There is also a wonderfully unconventional house. And, of course, there's the crop-dusting plane.
I may be out of tune with popular opinion here, but if there is a single bum note in the whole movie it is the star himself. I have never understood the appeal of Cary Grant. His oleaginous features and strange whining voice seem completely unsuited to the role of action man. Frankly, I can't think of a less suitable choice. Gregory Peck would have given an equally suave turn whilst bringing some much-needed gravitas to the role. It is hard to imagine Grant not having a glass of bourbon in his hand throughout the movie.
Still a great - if dated - watch, but spoilt by the limp-wristed urbanity of its over-hyped star.