Roger Thornhill is James Bond's father

Rating: 9/10 (1 August 2003)

Watch this magnificent movie and see if you can spot the elements that were incorporated into the early Bond films. Even if you were a Bond fan before you saw North By Northwest (in the case of the reviewer) then it still emerges as superior. Cary Grant is very funny as Thornhill (the once mooted Jimmy Stewart would've been a more interesting choice though), while James Mason's slimy villain is memorable without resorting to gimmickry. Eve Marie Saint is wooden, sadly, but she's practically the only downer in a movie filled with fantastic set pieces (crop duster chase, the Mt Rushmore sequence), fantastic dialogue and a fantastic score by Bernard Herrmann. Hitchcock's best? Most definitely.