An almost perfect action thriller

Rating: Null/10 (4 September 2017)

Unlike most of the Hitchcock films that spend a lot of time on the build-ups, "North by Northwest" is intense from the start to the end.
In Act 1, Thornhill is mistaken for a CIA agent and is chased by foreign spies. The police think he kills a UN diplomat and also chase after him. In Act 2, Thornhill gets the help from Kendall and successfully avoids the police. In Act 3, Thornhill is almost killed by a crop duster plane, and knows that Kendall works for the foreign spies. In Act 4, Thornhill is told by the CIA that Kendall is actually an agent of CIA, and saves her from the foreign spies.
Of course, the final chase scene on Mount Rushmore is the most gripping one. But there are plenty of other action sequences before that. Most notably, the crop duster plane chase scene outside Chicago is quite thrilling.