Adventure, mystery, excitement, suspense... A lot of fun from Hitchcock

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2009)

Like a James Bond movie with a twist: the hero is not the spy everyone thinks he is. He's an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary situations. The setup is full of comedic potential, but Alfred Hitchcock crafts it into a thoroughly enjoyable adventure mystery.
Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken by the "bad guys" to be George Kaplan, a government agent. Thornhill cannot convince them of the mix-up and, after narrowly escaping with his life, cannot convince anyone of what happened to him. He decides to find the REAL Kaplan and get to the bottom of things. On the run from the bad guys and the law, Thornhill becomes pretty good at the secret agent game.
More action-adventure-y than other Hitchcock films I've seen, this one still has plenty of suspense and is quite a bit of fun. Cary Grant brings humor to the lead, Bernard Herrmann's score is thrilling, and Hitchcock provides some iconic movie moments (not the least of which being the climactic chase sequence set at a national landmark). The scenes between Grant and Eva Marie Saint are full of innuendos.
Hitchcock's adventure thriller calls to mind the early James Bond movies, even though it predates those films by a few years. There are undercover agents, villainous henchmen, rather sophisticated antagonists, many different locations, exciting action sequences, twists and turns, and sexy romantic interests. Missing are the Bond films' flashy gadgets, over-the-top villains, grandiose world-domination schemes, and bikini-clad women.
What's interesting about Roger Thornhill's adventure is that he starts out as an advertising executive out to clear his name and set things straight. But when it becomes clear that the bad guys are always one step ahead of him he takes matters into his own hands and, really, becomes a spy.