Suspense from Beginning to End

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 1999)

There is something comforting about a Hitchcock film. We know that no matter how serious the events are, there is a wonderfully complex plot, comic relief, and great actors to pull it all off. The spoiled, inebriated Roger Thornhill, like so many of the master's everymen, finds himself thrust into a world he must escape, while, at the same time, trying to figure it all out. His arrogance is what gets him deeper and deeper into trouble, but it is also what saves him. Cary Grant is the only actor I could think of who is so suave and yet so combative and self centered. As he realizes what is happening he must constantly face death, while being manipulated by the powers that be. He is being set up, he knows, but by whom? Enter Eva Marie Saint, but knowing Hitchcock, she is to be watched carefully as well. Most of Hitchcock's "victims" reach a point where they won't take any more. I love the way Thornhill has been put in a predicament where he has no confederates and must remain underground. Everyone back home thinks he is the irresponsible drunk he truly is. Even his mother isn't to surprised to find out he may be a murderer. The use of settings around Rapid City, Mount Rushmore, all the Hitchcock signatures, make this one of the best, if not the best, if all his films.