"Tease a man to death"

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2010)

North by Northwest, among the best-known of all Hitchcock pictures, was in fact begun with the specific intention of creating (in the words of its writer Ernest Lehman) "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures". And to this end it does seem to tour faithfully round all the familiar stops on the Hitchcockian trail – the falsely accused man, the espionage backdrop the exact details of which are not elucidated, the showdown on a famous monument, the dry wit and the sharp innuendo. This may make it the most archetypal, but does it make it the best? One thing that really stands out about North by Northwest is that it is one of Hich's more comedy-laced scripts. Or more accurately, the comedy is more tightly interwoven, rather than being kept as a standalone feature for certain scenes or characters. And while there are some good laughs here, such as Cary Grant's nonchalant wisecracking when he is first kidnapped (which really makes us warm to the character), it seems to be at the expense of the action. You see, although there are certainly a lot of speedy chases, narrow escapes and cunning getaways, not a single one of them is up to Hitch's best standard. The drunk-driving chase for example is more awkward than nailbiting. There is simply no material for Hitchcock to do some grand orchestration of suspense, like say the concert hall scene from The Man Who Knew Too Much or the finales of Rear Window and Psycho. All in all this wrong-manhunt seems more like a case of annoyance rather than something to inspire the old "it-could-happen-to-you" fear factor.
That is not to say there are not good things about North by Northwest. In fact there are plenty. Hitch's direction is on-the-ball as ever, with lots of set-ups where the characters are walking (or running) towards the camera, coupled with moving point-of-view shots, which places us somewhat forcibly within the action. This, coupled with a tight editing scheme, at least makes this 130-minute picture move at a considerable pace. Grant is perfectly suited to the resourceful but unassuming hero, and his laidback approach to comedy makes the most of the witty screenplay. It provides a great role for James Mason too, the suaveness and good looks that made him a desirable lead man in his youth now make him the perfect devilish villain in his middle age. Then there is the hard-hitting main theme by composer Bernard Hermann, the sparseness of which prefigures his stabbing strings for Psycho.
However the fact remains that, while this may be very much the tailor-made Hitchcock classic, the finished product is more of a Hitchcock mediocrity. It lacks the sense of showmanship, the shock value and the spiralling tension that really made his finest pictures stand out.