North by Northwest

Seen this one a few times over the years and still is one of Hitchcock's best though personally Rear Window is still my favorite of his. Still, a great espionage thriller with solid performances from both Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint. **4.5/5**

"Thornhill" (Cary Grant) is your typically fast-talking advertising executive who is meeting some folks for a drink when he is mistaken for a "Mr. Caplan". Whisked off at gunpoint to meet "Vandamm" (James Mason) and his henchman "Leonard" (Martin Landau) his protestations of innocence just get him pumped full of booze and put behind the wheel of a car, the likely suspect of a murder investigation. He has to stay one step ahead of the pursuing police now as he tries to get his life back, a task made more difficult by his encounter with the charmingly enigmatic "Eve" (a rather static Eva Marie Saint) whom he is not entirely sure he can trust. What Hitchcock delivers now is a slowly unravelling adventure mystery with loads of red herrings, plenty of well written and executed humour from Grant and a gradually accruing sense of menace as we finally realise just what is going on. The photography is intimate one moment, all-encompassing the next, the crop dusting scene is the stuff of cinema legend and I challenge any non-American to name the fourth bloke atop Mount Rushmore at the end. To be fair, that denouement wasn't my favourite - it's a bit rushed and rather convenient, but this is still a stylishly produced thriller, with an exciting score from Bernard Herrmann that still stands the test of time.

Not one time did I think “This is good enough to deserve being on his (Hitchcock’s) filmography.