Wow...how did I forget to review this great film?!

Rating: 10/10 (19 October 2010)

While I am sure that there is a lot of debate on this issue, but I'd say that this is Alfred Hitchcock's best film. It combines a marvelously original script with romance and wonderful location shooting to make a truly fabulous film.
I love how this film begins. Ordinary New Yorker Cary Grant (or at least as ordinary as any guy looking like that can be) goes out to mail a letter and, through a long string of mistakes, becomes entangled in an assassination plot! The problem is that at first the police don't believe him about some weird plot--then they assume HE is responsible for the killing! The film is chock full of crazy iconic scenes--such as Grant being pursued by an evil crop duster and Grant and Eva Marie Saint scaling down the faces on Mt. Rushmore to escape the killers. Along the way, Hitchcock goes crazy with very, very sexual Freudian imagery (the tunnel scene is a classic) and provides some wonderful moments using wonderful actors. Grant, as always, is great but I also liked Martin Landau's small role as a killer who REALLY likes his job and the rest of the cast is also stellar. This is a must-see film and one of the best films of the decade.
By the way, this film, despite being so wonderful also has one of my favorite film mistakes--and I am sure to watch for it every time. In the scene at the UN, pay very, very close attention when Grant tries to talk to the man he is pursuing. Although the man is shot dead unexpectedly right next to Grant, apparently one of the extras (a kid in the foreground) is anticipating the shooting before the gun has even been drawn. Look carefully--the kid is plugging his ears well before the shot occurs!!!