They sure as heck don't make 'em like this anymore!

Rating: 10/10 (6 September 2016)

This Hitchcock crowd-pleaser might well be the director's best film: it's certainly his most accessible, a roller-coaster ride of thrills and spills that includes just about every element you'd want in a thriller. There are exciting chase sequences, huge set-pieces, subterfuge, sinister villains, a romance with a femme fatale, and a dashing star playing an innocent man attempting to clear his name. In many ways this looks and feels like a Bond film, so much so that you could call it proto-Bond; our hero travels around, outwitting the bad guys yet remaining smooth and cool when it comes to the ladies. But this is far better than any of the Bond flicks!
Hitchcock is at the top of his game, delivering a movie in which the direction is flawless. Every scene counts and every scene plays out like a little movie in itself. Cary Grant clearly relishes the role and he's perfectly cast in it; Ernest Lehman's script never disappoints. Eva Marie Saint is more than effective as the icy yet fragile mystery woman and James Mason excels as a suave bad guy. I also enjoyed seeing Martin Landau's early turn as a henchman.
The crop-duster set-piece is rightly well-remembered, as it's the best part of the film: intensely exciting and perfectly directed. The finale at Mount Rushmore is fittingly thrilling, too, but before then we get many splendid moments: the cat and mouse games on the train, the bit at the station beforehand, the runaway car. It's hardly dated and has nothing in it I'd change; a quite wonderful movie. It's true when they say "they don't make 'em like this anymore!".