Combining that element of chase, espionage and sheer horror combined with action; North By Northwest is a winner.

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2009)

North by Northwest manages to cover just about every emotion you might feel during a good, old fashioned romp. There are scenes in the film of great, comic timing; there are sequences when you are frightened for the characters; there are times when you're frustrated or angry at certain occurrences and there are others when the film dips into potential romance and you experience the emotions that come with that. The whole film-watching experience is, of course, juxtaposed by Cary Grant's relaxed and somewhat methodical approach to everything – encouraging a certain ease on the audience, like a parent or guardian comforting a child with the words "it's only a movie" every so often.
North By Northwest reminded me of a film from 1945 named 'Detour', a short, sharp and quite brilliant little B-movie. But Hitchcock knows what he's doing here, shooting and constructing North by Northwest as the sort of film you mightn't expect many people to turn up for; shooting and constructing it like the sort of film that, if a lot of people did turn up, wouldn't expect an awful lot out of. Hitchcock throws caution to the wind, dabbling in and out of a couple of genres; twisting audience emotion and redefining film language all at once.
Very early on in the film, we are established to be on a busy New York street. Cary Grant's lead character named Roger Thornhill walks, talks and mingles with whoever he needs to as other pedestrians try to get the better of others on a minute scale by hogging the pavement as they get on with whatever they're doing. The opening establishes a few things, namely Roger's quick wit and ability to gauge scenarios in fast moving and bustling locations. This is put across via the incidence during which he manages to hail a cab amidst the chaos and acts as a precursor for things to come when his skills will be pushed to much further extremes. Incidentally, the beginning is supposed to get across this chaotic 'world' full of 'one-upmanship', in which the film will take place, further in which people exist to get the better of one another. The notion of a busy street on which you must keep your wits about you purely to be able to walk without hassle is Hitchcock fore-warning the themes of the film's narrative, a film in which there will be 'others' out looking to damage those un-alert, and it is Thornhill's own qualities that ultimately take him as far as he goes.
The set up involves mistaken identity and Thornhill getting snatched from a prior arrangement by some thugs to meet a certain Phillip Vandamm (Mason), who mistakes him for someone else named George Kaplan. Through one reason or another, and an early example of Hitchcock deliberately veering off into some sort of realm of horror, Thornhill is dumped and left for dead by the thugs, but takes it on himself to figure out who Kaplan really is. What follows is a framing for murder and a 'A 3000 MILE CHASE . . . That blazes a trail of TERROR to a gripping, spine-chilling climax!'; at least according to the tag-line – but you'd be pretty hard pressed not to agree with the statement anyway.
From here, North by Northwest doesn't really let up. Its countless inspirations since can range from anything from Three Days of the Condor, to the film THAT inspired ie; The Bourne Identity to a similarly easy-on-the-eye-and-mind 2004 B-Movie entitled Cellular. The cause and effect driven idea shoots from one location to another, incorporating all sorts of frightening but entertaining ideas and scenes. The film pauses for sexual tension, laughs and thrills in equal measure; never loosing sight of its Cold War era driven aura of espionage, politics, mistaken identity and chase.
Following the framing for murder, Thornhill travels to Chicago for what should be a meeting Kaplan was due to attend. It is on the train travelling to this destination he meets Eve Kendall (Saint), a character Hitchcock brilliantly sets up by having her recognise Thornhill as the man wanted by police but refrains from turning him in. The very dangerous persona that is set up for Eve is confirmed when, in addition to not particularly flinching when she discovers who Thornhill is, she quite easily lies to police regarding Thornhill's whereabouts by hiding him in a her train compartment.
As the film develops, particular narrative ideas to do with undercover agents and microfilms open up but I find it remarkable that this film, with all the elements of paranoia and mistaken identity with somewhat of a labyrinth of a narrative that opens up in due course, seems to be mostly remembered for its individual scenes: a crop dusting chase, an escape on Mount Rushmoor and a particularly eye-brow raising final shot. We all know about Psycho and the shower scene and who gets killed there and what the twist is; we all know about Rear Window and that a certain someone is in a helpless physical position as things tighten around them, but here, popular culture hasn't seemed to have ruined what is, essentially, a really well played out thriller with plot twists, turns and frightening set pieces. While always seemingly remembered for individual moments, North by Northwest is a truly wonderful picture that presents a genuinely likable lead; throws them into the firing line; develops other characters accordingly and rounds it all off with a brilliantly unravelled plot complete with current affairs for the day, surely one of Hitchcock's finest.