North by Northwest Reviews

My favourite director, Alfred Hitchcock has directed many classics like Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo, and I will say that this deserves to be up there among his best. I absolutely loved it! The best aspect of this movie is the always charming Cary Grant in a brooding and entertaining performance as Roger Thornhill, a man wanted for the murder of a diplomat. Solidly supporting him all the way are the lovely Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendell and oily James Mason as the villainous Vandamme. They are further advantaged by some excellent camera-work and a wonderfully atmospheric music score. The script is focused and suspenseful, and Hitchcock's direction ensures the film rarely slips, even if some of the complicated plot does fly over people's heads. The climax though is simply the icing on the cake. Overall, a hugely enjoyable film, which I will give a 9.5/10. Bethany Cox

Wow! What an intense action-packed thrill ride this film turned out to be. It is a really fun adventure that takes you cross-country and finding different ways to survive. I just love cat-and-mouse aka films involving fugitives and hostages because they are really suspensful and they are always packed with entertainment. I loved pretty much everything about North By Northwest. It is an absolute masterpiece from a director and actor who have been really well remembered for this film. Once, the opening credits rolled in this film, I was literally glued to it for the rest of the film because it was so good and also because of the intense thrill ride that it was.


This was my first Cary Grant film that I saw and I am glad I saw him in North By Northwest first because I think it is his most famous film along with Arsenic And Old Lace, None But The Lonely Heart and Penny Serenade. Cary Grant was probably the best fit for this film especially with the classic image of him running in the countryside with a plane behind and rushing towards him which appears on my picture review. Eva Marie Saint has risen even higher after her Oscar winning performance in On The Waterfront and she was absolutely fantastic in this film which I was sort of expecting.


Hitchcock doesn't make North By Northwest as suspensful in a scary way as he has done with some of his films like Psycho and The Birds. It is probably just as tense as Rear Window, Rebecca and Vertigo but obviously in a different way because all of the stories are different. Hitchcock always uses suspense in his films that makes us feel the same way because they're thrillers but all of his films are different kinds of thrillers. Some are scary, some are funny and some are tense but neither scary nor funny. Because there have been a few Hitchcock remakes such as Rear Window and Psycho, I seriously hope that there won't be a remake of North By Northwest or Vertigo, Rebecca or Shadow Of A Doubt. There is a The Birds remake coming out which is bloody annoying but it is pretty predictable that it is going to be shite anyway. Two of my 5-star Hitchcock films are his two most underrated films because they don't earn as much credit as one of the late great directors best films like Psycho, Rear Window and Vertigo do.


It is my fourth favourite Hitchcock film after Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho. It is my favourite film of 1959 and that was a great year for a cinema from the very early past of the world of cinema. North By Northwest is one of the best thrillers ever made and it is one of the best films ever made as well. Masterpiece!!!

''In the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only expedient exaggeration.''

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

Cary Grant: Roger O. Thornhill

Alfred Hitchcock made North by Northwest at the height of his career and popularity, released 1959; his television show gave him the kind of exposure and face recognition usually reserved for only the biggest stars. Hitchcock always maintained that great films should also entertain, North by Northwest being presented here as our star witness to prove his assertion to be right on the money.



Cary Grant plays Roger O. Thornhill as the slick Madison Avenue advertising man who is mistaken to be George Kaplin, a spy hot on the trail of Phillip Vandamm, played masterfully by James Mason. All we really know about Thornhill is the statement he makes to Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) on the train from New York to Chicago that he has a mother, several bartenders and two ex-wives dependent upon his support. The "O" used to initial his middle name and his initials, equally have significance. These details are revealing and the scene is beautifully crafted; showing us the apparent emptiness of his life prior to this adventure. Ernst Lehman's script is loaded with these types of treasures throughout the story.
If you're really not into excellent dialogue and clever acting and prefer that the story accelerate at a fast pace, this also is the adventure for you, as it has two of the most memorable action sequences in film; Referring to the crop dusting sequence and the finale on top of Mount Rushmore. Those are enough to put North by Northwest near the top of anyones must see list.

Eve Kendall: Patience is a virtue.
Roger Thornhill: So is breathing.

Respect are also due to Leo G. Carroll in one of his best character roles as The Professor, who's humble appearance belies the fact that he is the one who is responsible for manipulating much of the action behind the scenes. A young Martin Landau, as Leonard, Vandamm's right hand man, shows us in the few scenes what a versatile actor he was. The music by the great Bernard Herrmann is one of the classic pieces that made him famous; beginning from the clever opening title sequence to it's thrilling conclusion.
The film's intense pace takes the form of a dream, a person that loses control of his life and then transforms to the person he's mistaken for. Roger Thornhill, half by accident and half by his own will transforms to spy decoy George Kaplan.
The board of government spy directors, led by the Professor, represents the forces that control destiny. They control both Eve Kendall's and Thornhill's fate. And they choose to dispatch with Thornhill altogether since he doesn't fit the general scheme of things. Thornhill gets entangled in a Kafka-esquire nightmare. Kendall, the femme fatale, is a government spy herself trying to uncover Vandamm by working closely on his side and being his lover. A Freudian labyrinth.

If we view this movie in its historical context of 1959, we see that it was made in the middle of the Cold War, and much of the suspense is reliant upon the audience's reality of living with the knowledge that everything could end with the press of a button (I know this is too simplistic, but many people's perception at this point in history was just that). The Professor, Vandamm, Ms. Kendall, Leonard and others are Cold Soldiers, and it is Thornhill's misfortune to become swept up in it's intrigues; but our very great fortune to be able to get swept up with him and let Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, be our guide in one of his masterworks.

Roger Thornhill: I don't like the games you play, professor.
The Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it's a cold one.

I have always been a big Alfred Hitchcock fan and "North by Northwest" was in my view his most entertaining and important film. It certainly rates a high position in my "Top Ten" films list!! This is a fast moving witty thriller that never lets up in its 130 minutes running time. The film is in beautiful Technicolor and Cary Grant gives the performance of a lifetime as Roger O. Thornhill being mistaken for government agent George Kaplan. He is thrust into one life threatening situation after another on the run from both the police and the bad guys! It's a roller coaster ride of thrills, suspense, comedy and romance skilfully put together with the expert Hitchcock touch. There are so many MEMORABLE LINES in this movie (brilliantly written by Ernest Lehman) that one hardly knows where to start in recalling favourite gems.
How about Jessie Royce Landis in the hotel elevator asking the would-be assassins: "You gentlemen aren't really trying to kill my son are you?".
Or when Grant meets James Mason for the first time: Mason: "Not what I expected - a little taller, a little more polished than the others". Grant: "I'm so glad you're pleased Mr Townsend". Mason: " ... but I'm afraid just as obvious". Grant: "Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then but I do have tickets to the theatre tonight and it was a show I was looking forward to and I get, well, kind of unreasonable about things like that". Mason: "With such expert play-acting you make this very room a theatre".
Grant (to group in Townsend's house): "What a performance!". Jessie Royce Landis (to Grant): "Roger ... pay the two dollars". Or Cary Grant trying to explain to Eva Marie Saint why the police are after him: "Seven parking tickets!". Grant introducing himself to Saint on the train: "Jack Phillips. Western sales manager of Kingby Electronics". Saint: "No you're not. You're Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue and you're wanted for murder on every front page in America. Don't be so modest!". Grant to Saint: "Why are you so good to me?". Malcolm Atterbury (to Grant on Highway 41): "That's funny, that plane's dusting crops where there ain't no crops". Grant to Mason: "Apparently the only performance that's going to satisfy you is when I play dead". Mason: "Your very next role. You will be quite convincing, I assure you". Grant (to Adam Williams): "Sorry old man. Too bad. Keep trying!". Grant (to Leo G. Carroll): "I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent on me and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself slightly killed. The answer is no". Mason discussing how to get rid of Saint: "This matter is best disposed of from a great height - over water!". And Mason again to a police officer: "That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets". "North by Northwest" was Cary Grant's fourth collaboration with legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and in my opinion was the best! Everything came together in this one - the acting by the principals was first class, the brilliant script by Ernest Lehman was packed with sparkling and witty dialogue and the music score by Bernard Hermann was outstanding. There were some fine supporting roles in the film - Jessie Royce Landis was excellent as Grant's mother (in reality she was only a few months older than him!). She had played Grace Kelly's mother in an earlier Hitchcock film "To Catch a Thief". Martin Landau (in his first screen role), Adam Williams and Robert Ellenstein were impressive as Mason's sinister and threatening confederates. Veteran actor Leo G. Carroll was making his sixth appearance for Hitchcock as the CIA/FBI agent known only as the "Professor". One of my favourite actresses Doreen Lang had the small part of Grant's secretary Maggie and can also be seen in other Hitchcock films such as "The Wrong Man" and "The Birds". "North by Northwest" returned to Hitchcock's favourite theme of the innocent man on the run from both the villains and the police and being trapped in one tight corner after another. There were some marvellous and professionally photographed Hitchcock set pieces in unusual locations such as the United Nations Building, New York's Grand Central Station, Mount Rushmore, and who can forget the famous crop dusting sequence at Prairie Stop on deserted Highway 41. (Incidentally, it was on this very same road that James Dean had his fatal car accident in 1955). Other Alfred Hitchcock films using the "man on the run" idea were notably "The 39 Steps" (1935) and "Saboteur" (1942). "North by Northwest" was one of Hitchcock's own favourites as he explained to me in a personal letter I received from him back in the sixties when he listed his own six favourite films. Surprisingly, "North by Northwest" did not win any Oscars and Hitchcock, Cary Grant and the film itself were not even nominated which in my opinion was a regrettable oversight! It is not generally known that James Stewart was very keen to play the part of Roger Thornhill in this film and constantly pestered Hitchcock for the role having starred in four of Hitchcock's previous films. Hitchcock had Cary Grant in mind from the very beginning but did not want to upset Stewart by refusing him outright! However, when James Stewart was cast in "Anatomy of a Murder" that gave Hitchcock the opportunity to sign Grant - the actor he had wanted all along - and who, in retrospect, was the ideal actor for the role. It had been said that Hitchcock thought that Stewart looked too old for the part but he was in actual fact four years younger than Grant!!
The following may contain SPOILERS so only read on if you have seen the film.
Although "North by Northwest" is one of my favourite Hitchcock films I have been baffled and amazed by the number of mistakes, errors and goofs that were allowed to get through in the finished print! For example at the very start of the film when Cary Grant and his secretary Maggie arrive at the Plaza Hotel in New York a car can be seen through the rear window of their taxi which is bright orange. When Grant leaves the taxi the car behind is a completely different make and colour. As the taxi pulls away the secretary has apparently disappeared from the back seat. When Grant and his mother are in Kaplan's hotel room the telephone has a coiled cord but when Grant uses the phone a couple of minutes later it is straight. In the stabbing scene at the United Nations Grant pulls the knife from Townsend's back with the blade pointing down but in the very next shot he is holding the knife upright. When Grant is photographed at the United Nations Building with the knife in his left hand he is holding a newspaper cutting in his right hand. Later when this photograph is seen at the ticket seller's office in Grand Central Station his right hand is empty. In the train dining car the flowers on the table change size and shape in each shot and when Grant picks up his wine glass it keeps jumping from his hand to the table. On Highway 41 when the bus picks up Malcolm Atterbury the bus driver slams the door in Grant's face before waiting to see if Grant was boarding the bus. In the crop dusting scene when Grant runs out of the cornfield dust can be seen on his shoulders but there is no dust on them when he falls under the truck. In Eva Marie Saint's hotel room she writes a message on a pad. After she leaves the room Grant rubs a pencil over the pad to reveal the message that had been on the next sheet. He rubs in a horizontal motion left to right but when the message is shown in close up the impression is vertical up and down. In the Chicago patrol car the policeman sitting next to Grant (Ken Lynch) forgets to lean as the car simulates a turn. Grant can be seen pushing him to one side. During the scene in the restaurant at Mount Rushmore one of the extras (a young boy) can be seen covering his ears BEFORE Eva Marie Saint fires the gun at Grant. He had his back to the camera but obviously knew there would be a loud bang from previous "takes". When Grant is taken away by ambulance at Mount Rushmore after the shooting the vehicle transporting him has only one rear opening door. When he arrives in the forest to meet Eva Marie Saint it has two doors. After escaping from the hospital at Rapid City Grant takes a taxi to James Mason's mountain hide-out. How did he know the address? He had never been there and it had not been mentioned before. At Mason's hide-out Grant is in Saint's room writing a message in a book of matches to warn her of danger. The matchbook is only half full of matches. When Saint picks up the matchbook and reads the message it is now completely full. Also Grant writes the message in three lines but when Saint reads it the message takes up four lines. In the final scenes on Mount Rushmore Saint slips and tears Grant's right back trouser pocket. In later scenes it is intact.
Having identified all these errors please let me assure you that "North by Northwest" still remains one of my favourite films of all time. I only pointed them out as a matter of interest and for your enjoyment in spotting them for yourself next time you see the film. I never caught on to any of these mistakes the first time I saw the film on the big screen. It is only through many repeated viewings on TV and on DVD that they became apparent.
There have been several good books written about Alfred Hitchcock (and I have many of them) but for a good read I can recommend "It's Only a Movie" by Charlotte Chandler and an excellent reference guide is "The A-Z of Hitchcock" by Howard Maxford.