Hitchcock at the top of his game!

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2011)

I cannot believe it has taken me so long to watch this famous film by one of my favorite directors. It was never at the top of my 'to see' list, but I can say that this is another incredible film by Hitchcock.
The story of North by Northwest starts off pretty simple, but make no mistake, this is probably Hitchcock's most unpredictable film (apart from everyone knowing Psycho's big twist). There are so many twists and turns in the screenplay that I could barely keep up, and it's because Hitchcock doesn't let us breathe for one second. We think we know who the bad guy is, then we are wrong. Fantastic screenplay by Ernest Lehman, with fantastic performances from Cary Grant and James Mason. Every time I saw Eva Marie Saint on screen I thought it was Betty Draper (January Jones from Mad Men) running around with another man. I'm telling you, January Jones looks just like her. Now if they make a remake (hopefully not, but we never know) they know who to cast.
Overall, fantastic film. Probably a masterpiece in it's great story- telling, and possibly Hitchcock's 2nd best after Psycho.