Customer Reviews

North by Northwest (Widescreen)

5 star:		(134)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

North by Northwest has always been my favourite Hitchcock flic, and seeing it on blu-ray is like seeing it as a new movie. The background detail is beautiful & this film looks gorgeous on blu-ray. Additionally, included in this 50th anniversary edition are these fantastic documentaries: The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style, Cary Grant: A Class Apart, North by Northwest: One for the Ages, & Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest. And more extras include: an audio commentary by writer Ernest Lehman, trailers, stills gallery, & music only audio track, as well as a 44 page in-case booklet. (Surprisingly with all the extras trading off disc space, the compressed audio is still fairly good.) Fans of this fun and suspenseful film, will no doubt appreciate the enhanced picture quality and bonus materials of the blu-ray (like me).

This film is not only a pure delight, but could arguably be said to be one of the greatest films of all time. The film oozes charisma. When you are watching it, it is like you are brought into another world of pure entertainment. You cannot take your eyes off of it. It is a mixture of charisma, suspense, action, eroticism, and comdedy that few films have ever been able to emulate.

Why is this film so good? Affred Hitchcock and Cary Grant. Hitchcock is on many a list as the greatest director in film history, and Cary Grant is on many a list as the greatest movie star in film history. When these two collaborate at their best, what you have is pure movie magic.

The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is a masterpiece of the genre, and the supporting cast is brilliant, especially James Mason, who is the epitomy of suave evil. Martin Landau is unbelievably menacing, and Eva Marie Saint is so intelligent and sexy as the femme fatale.

Whatever you do, see this film before you die.

Classic Hitchcock. One of his best. Super performance by Grant. Both he and Eva Marie Saint give you a performance of love and intrigue that is unsurpassed.

This film surprisingly precedes the "Bond" series by several years. Bond fans will find many of the same elements: characters on the fringe of good and evil, strong female characters, mistaken identity, espionage and intrigue. Though Hitchcock does have some errors in continuity, "North by Northwest" is surprisingly entertaining. Moreover, the "dull" Madison Avenue lifestyle of Thornhill quickly disappears when he is unwillingly pulled into an invisible world.
Though the film ends on a more positive note than some of Hitchcock's other films, there is a certainly a film noir undertone and has some similarities with Kafka's/Welles' "The Trial" and the groundwork for the Bond series is easily discernible. Well worth the viewing.

This has become a classic Alfred Hitchcock film, with film score by Bernard Herrmann. If the story is not remembered or commented on, everyone is familiar with the scene where Grant is getting attacked by a crop duster while standing in the middle of nowhere "North by Northwest".

Roger O. Thornhill <R.O.T> (Cary Grant), mild mannered advertising executive, raises his hand at the wrong time to send a telegram. The page boy is paging George Kaplan so Roger is mistaken for Kaplan (a shorter man with dandruff) and the fun begins. Turns out that Townsend/ Vandamm (James Mason) the bad guy is being dogged by Kaplan so Vandamm must do away with Kaplan.

Meanwhile back at the train Roger meats a cutie Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) that is apparently set on helping him.

I will not go into details as surprise and plot twisting is part of the suspense.

Will Roger get the girl?

Will Vandamm get Roger?

What is this all about?

Who is George Kaplan?

I know there are better movies out there, and I've seen them. However, whenever I'm asked what my favourite movie of all time is, I always come back to North by Northwest.

North by Northwest is the classic Alfred Hitchcock tale starring Cary Grant as Roger O. Thornhill, mistaken by enemy spies (led by James Mason) for a deep cover CIA agent. Thornhill, a run-of-the-mill advertising executive, finds his safe world swept out from under him. Running for his life not only from the spies but from American authorities who think he's a murderer, Thornhill races across America, barely able to keep his wits as he searches for the real CIA agent. He finds romance with Eve Marie Saint, a woman who might not be all that she seems.

I guess if you're going to choose a favourite movie, you can't do much better than something Hitchcock directed, can you? And North by Northwest is ranked up there with Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds and Rear Window, but I like North by Northwest more. Possibly because it's less about the scare and more about the romp. While Richard Thornhill is thrown out of his depth, I enjoy seeing how quickly he learns to swim. Cary Grant adds a suave air to him that's both comical and affirming. You don't get the sense that Richard Thornhill is in any real danger (unlike the entire cast of Psycho or The Birds), but that in no way detracts from the fun. It's like watching James Bond, (with the added benefit that Cary Grant is not James Bond) knowing that he's going to win, and enjoying how he does it.

And I like the fact that North by Northwest is part travelogue, as Richard Thornhill is literally taken aboard planes, trains and automobiles, making you feel like an accidental tourist as you watch him struggle to the bottom of the mystery. The movie never settles down, giving you a diversity of set pieces along with its diversity of settings. My favourite moment comes outside Chicago where Thornhill has been told to meet the government agent at a bus stop on a rural highway. It's a moment where the movie slows down. Hitchcock wonderfully conveys suspense through isolation as we're left alone with Cary Grant, with the wind blowing through the cornfields, and the sound of an occasional passing car. Then someone shows up, waits by the other side of the road, and Hitchcock captures the scene, Grant on one side, road on the middle, country man on the right, the long horizon stretching in the background in a tremendous wide shot. And we wait for something to happen. That's a magic moment. To my mind, it is the best movie visual I've ever seen.

It all culminates in (surely you all know this by now) a wonderful climactic scene with Grant and Saint Marie dangling from the faces of Mount Rushmore. Hitchcock directs with his usual aplomb, Grant is his usual slick self, Eve Saint Marie is sexy and James (I really do sound like God) Mason is suitably, suavely evil.

It may be a popcorn flick, but they don't come better than this.

It seems 2 me that Hitchcock sort of stole many elements from his pre-chaser-films and said: "Good-eeeeevening..... You think you have seen my best efforts, but I must unfortunately dissappoint you.....!"

Indeed this is a neurotic and clastraphobic chaser and suspenser - maybe the BEST EVER - thanks 2 the talents of Ernest Lehman, Hitchcock himself, his crew and the entire cast. There are numerous highlights from this film; I prefer NOT 2 single out any of them in favour of others. This film belongs IN EVERY HOME:-)

This movie is not only Hitchcock's best (just a tad behind 'Vertigo', in my opinion), but is one of the best movies ever made. Movies rarely have it all (story, acting, visuals, music, wit, action, suspense, 'hipness', and sexiness), but this movie has it all in spades.

Some of my favorite things about this movie:

1. Eva Marie Saint - Stunning...absolutely stunning. Everybody always thinks about Grace Kelly or Kim Novak in association with Hitchcock, but, for my money, Eva Marie Saint is the most drop-dead gorgeous of any leading lady.

2. The settings - The United Nations interior scenes are mouth wateringly rich. It really makes you want to go back in time to when everything 'modern' was new and exciting. We take so much for granted these days. The Cropduster scene is exciting and vastly more inventive than action movies being made today. Van Damm's House is the epitome of the promise that modern organic architecture once held. The scenes at Van Damm's house are even more amazing when you consider that the exterior settings are entirely fabricated, in a pre-CGI effects sort of way. They are more convincing than CGI scenes of today. Amazing.

This is one movie I never get tired of. Buy it and you won't be sorry.

This is arguably Cary Grants best film. Couple that with a terrific cast, dynamite story, immortal one-liners, some great scenes in actual locations, and classic Hitchcock editing and you have a shoe-in on any "best of all time list". This movie was made in 1958 and although it was current in it's day, it now is just as current as a period film set in 1958, keeping in mind of the political climate and cold war attitudes of the time. The costumes are very natural, having been bought in actual New York stores, and the set designs are beautifully designed. The set decoration is also first rate.

This DVD is a superb transfer. The color looks perfectly natural, the sound is full, low noise stereo and the widescreen is anamorphic. There is hardly any flaw in the print. Amazing. The menu is also animated to match the Saul Bass opening title and is wonderful. The "making of" film (30 minutes long) is superb and hosted by beautiful leading lady "Eve Marie Saint".

Finally, the score by Bernard Hermann adds to the high tension of the action. The orchestration and performance on this film is one of the very best of all time. I can't recommend this film enough for action, solid story and terrific action besides just being completely entertaining.

By far Alfred Hitchcock's best movie. About a man accidentally caught up in the world of spys. Cary Grant plays a man sitting in a restaurant with some friends, he has the misfortune of raising his hand to get a waiter at the same time some men call out another's name. He gets mistaken for a spy and is sent on a chase accross the country to 1.) avoid being caught 2.) Find out what the heck is going on and 3.) Fix what is going on. There are many classic scenes like the crop dusting plane not dusting any crops but chasing after him. And the Mount Rushmore chase scene.

Just a great spy movie with lots of action and twists up the backside. You should enjoy it if you like movies at all.