North by Northwest

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2007)

Number 24 in the list of top movies! An advertising agent Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a non-existent and virtual government agent George Kaplan and chased around the country by agents and he finds ways to survive them all with a bit of humor and an affair with another mysterious agent Eva Kendall (Eva Marie Saint).
This Alfred Hitchcock movie has the typical stamp of all Alfred Hitchcock movies. It is fast paced, it is set in urban areas, it has mystery and suspense, it has good humor and it has some good sets.
Some scenes are memorable, the first when Alfred makes his cameo in the beginning of the movie when he misses catching a city bus, the glider plane scene that comes to attack Cary Grant, and the final action against the backdrop of Statues of Great American Presidents. All of them make great viewing. I could imagine with Hitchcock and Cary in their prime popularity would have raked great reviews when the movie would had been released.
Today, after 48 years  the movie still remains watch-able, pleasant, and over-all a good cinematic experience; but surely it does not give the same amount of classic mastery feel that some other Hitchcockian movies has.
The drunken driving scene of Cary Grant is so poorly executed with Cary overacting to the hilt of affairs and looks so artificial, un-natural and over-dramatic. Otherwise Cary Grant has charming personality. Seeing Eva Marie Saint reminded me of Julia Roberts  Julia Roberts rise to fame must have to do with the type of looks she has  typical American Hollywood heroines.
The music as in all Hitchcock movie is very Jazz and Mozart type  especially in chase and action scenes.
A good movie, but I won't agree it being a great classic by the master.
(Stars 6.5 out of 10)