Suspense in its purest form

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2005)

This film is absolutely superb. A classic suspense thriller, with traces of romance and comedy, North by Northwest is a stylish and well executed film which doesn't seem at all dated or irrelevant despite its 46 year age tag.
Alfred Hitchcock was a past master at bringing us movies in which an innocent victim is caught in a web of intrigue and danger. The Thirty Nine Steps to name just one is a classic example of where the central 'Average Joe' character becomes a 'Rabbit in Headlights' as he tries to our run and out smart his would-be assassins. It is a formula so successful, that it is still being used today, more recently in films like 'Paycheck.'
North by Northwest, although similar takes Hitchcock's formula to a higher level, as innocent advertising executive Roger Thornhill runs into kidnappers, gunmen, knife wielding assassins, kamikaze crop dusting planes and a beautiful femme fatale, as he tries to piece together why his life has taken such a dramatic and dangerous turn and who is trying to kill him and why?
Cary Grant, is outstanding in the role of Thornhill and given to a lesser actor the film, I'm sure would not have achieved the iconic status or success that it did. It was obvious from the beginning that this was going to be Grant's shining hour.
Martin Landau, Grant's co- star once remarked as how it became completely un-necessary to introduce Grant's character in a any great detail, for as soon as the opening credits ended, and we saw Grant and his secretary depart from a Madison Avenue elevator, we knew exactly who he was. He was dapper and debonair Cary Grant and that was all there was to it.
I also like this film as it is probably the only film in his illustrious career, that we get to see ALL of Cary Grant's facets in the same film. We have wonderful comedic moments, like the drink driving scene and his subsequent arrest. Here we see Grant akin to the Grant of The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday. Then we have the action and suspense scenes, which bring to mind his performances in Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief and even Gunga Din, and of course we have the romantic leading man straight from An Affair to Remember. It is rare for Grant to show us so much in one film. We all know he was capable of making us laugh or cry in any given performance, but not all at once. It is this fact above all others that makes this film sensational.
Add strong support from the scene-stealing Bond-style villain James Mason, creepy evil henchman Martin Landau, a beautiful but deceitful Eva-Marie Saint and ruthless federal agent Leo G. Carroll, have them chase each other across middle America and Mount Rushmore add an unexpected twist or two and just a pinch of romance, you have one of the most exiting thrillers ever filmed.
This film is a tour de force, for Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock. It was the forth collaboration between them and undoubtedly their best.
Unmissable.