Hitchcock and his favorite actor Grant have a field day in this cross country adventure of the wrong man!

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2009)

NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau.
The film is one of several Hitchcock movies with a film score by Bernard Herrmann and features a memorable opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass. This film is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits. Kinetic typography—the technical name for "moving text"—is an animation technique mixing motion and text.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a tale of mistaken identity like previous Hitchcock films; THE 39 STEPS, SABOTEUR, VERTIGO and of course THE WRONG MAN. It also contains two MacGuffins. A MacGuffin is a plot element that catches the viewers' attention and drives central focus of the film in the first act and by the end is nearly forgotten. Like the money that Janet Leigh steals in the beginning of PSYCHO.
Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill = He was Hitchcock's favorite leading man and they made four films together. Hitchcock thought of Cary Grant as an actor's actor — considerate, pleasant to work with and able to make creative innovations that improved the appeal of any movie. Hitch once commented to an interviewer, "...Look at me. Do you think I would have chosen to look like this. I would have preferred to have played a leading man in life. I would have been Cary Grant."
In 1986 I was lucky enough to meet Cary Grant in Cleveland Ohio at An Evening With Cary Grant which was a tour of personal appearances he made around the country... "Why is someone as famous and wealthy as Cary Grant traveling to different places speaking to audiences?" and he answered.... "To build my self-assurance."" I asked him two questions: first who would he want to play him in a biographical film on his life, and he said nobody would want to see a film about him. I then asked if he ever met Greta Garbo, and he was stunned, he said had never told that story to anyone... turns out he had met Garbo and it was one of the most embarrassing and charming moments of his life. He died while on tour 6 weeks later.
Eva Marie Saint appears as Eve Kendall = Eva Marie Saint (was born July 4, 1924) She won an Academy Award for her feature film debut in ON THE WATERFRONT.
James Mason plays sinister Phillip Vandamm (Mason was a British actor who is best known for David Lean's ODD MAN OUT (1947), the 1954 version of A STAR IS BORN & Stanley Kubrick's LOLITA. )
Leo G. Carroll appeared in 5 Hitchcock films, more than any other actor. After this film where he plays "the professor" he went on to TV's THE MAN FROM UNCLE playing a very similar role.)
Jessie Royce Landis plays Clara Thornhill. Landis, who played Thornhill's mother, was actually only eight years older than Grant. She also played his future mother-in-law in Hitchcock's TO CATCH A THIEF just 4 years earlier.
Martin Landau as Leonard (Martin Landau is now 78 years old, is perhaps best known for his roles in the television series Mission: Impossible for which he received a Golden Globe Award and two Emmy award nominations, it too could have been influenced by this film. In 1994 he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Bela Lugosi in ED WOOD.)
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In NORTH BY NORTHWEST it happens very early so he could get it out of the way and he could get back to telling the story. Script writer Ernest Lehman and Hitchcock worked very well together right from the start. When Lehman suggested they do the "Ultimate" Hitchcock film, Hitch said he always wanted to do a chase across Mount Rushmore. Some of the other ideas they came up with included a murder at a Detroit car plant, a man stranded in the middle of nowhere chased by a tornado, a murder at United Nations Headquarters and a final showdown in Alaska. Originally the story was to travel from New York to Alaska. That's where they came up with the original title of "IN A NORTHWESTERLY DIRECTION." Hitchcock wanted to call it "THE MAN IN LINCOLN'S NOSE."
The idea about the decoy secret agent was actually based on a true story, Otis C. Guernsey a reporter who sold the idea to Hitchcock. During World War II a couple of British secretaries created a fictitious agent and then watched as the Germans wasted time trying to follow him around. After the serious psychoanalysis of VERTIGO Hitchcock wanted to do something fun, light-hearted, and free of the symbolism permeating his other movies. What he created is a masterpiece of deception, the central theme is that of theater and play-acting, wherein everyone is playing a part, no one is who they seem -- even the lead character, Thornhill is a successful advertising executive (a man who makes his living by distorting reality and deceiving the public.)
FINALLY, there are two fun goofs to look for, one of Eva Marie Saint's lines in the dining car seduction scene was redubbed. So after Cary Grant says "Is that a proposition?" watch Eva Marie Saint's mouth carefully and you will see her say "I never make love on an empty stomach", but it was dubbed in post-production so you hear "I never discuss love on an empty stomach." It is said that the censors felt the original version was too risqué. Another goof is just before the shooting in the restaurant at Mt. Rushmore; watch the kid to the right of the post in the blue shirt