Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint "own" this movie

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2014)

A playful if not implausible story of mistaken identity, espionage, and romance. One of Alfred Hitchcock's best films and far easier to watch than "Psycho" or the nightmarish "The Birds". Both actors are in great shape for their roles, although Eva hardly looks as young as the 26-year-old temptress she portrays. The violence is quite restrained here and it's more of a chase movie than a bloody thriller. The plot is celebrated: a suave and sophisticated advertising man is mistaken for the fictional spy "George Kaplan" by a smuggling ring headed up by Philip Van Damm (James Mason). Whether Kaplan is supposed to be FBI or CIA is never quite explained by "The Professor" played by Leo G. Caroll in one of his best movie roles ever. (His worst: The mad scientist in "Tarantula"). Cary Grant's character almost dies by several playful methods: driving a runaway sports car off a cliff after Bourbon is poured down his throat, shot at by a machine gun from a crop dusting airplane, and falling off the side of Mount Rushmore. Eva's character as a "kept woman" and secret agent is not quite plausible but she is so "hot" it doesn't really matter. The Bernard Hermann musical score is outstanding. The Chinese idol concealing the microfilm is a thinly-disguised plot-devise borrowed from "The Maltese Falcon" and certainly not an original idea. Also, when Jame Mason falls to his death on Mount Rushmore, it looks matted in. The title refers to both Northwest Airlines and the direction the chase takes from Chicago to South Dakota. The somewhat predictable ending on the "20th Century Limited" is humorously punctuated by the train going into a dark tunnel, as Cary and Eve finally get together, for perhaps the 2nd time, in the finale. Most enjoyable to watch and beautifully photographed. Both the forest and Mt. Rushmore are, at times, movie sets! One of my favorite movies and the only one that Hitchcock made for MGM.