Review by Bishop Bettini

NORTH BY NORTHWEST -1959 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Rated: N/A

Nothing is perfect and few things are practically perfect, but along with THE TERMINATOR and ALIENS, I consider NORTH BY NORTHWEST a nearly flawless picture. With excellent direction, an intelligent and engaging script, a great score, and well-shaped characters, NORTH BY NORTHWEST has held up under scrutiny for 50 years and remains an enduring thriller masterpiece.

Within six minutes of the opening credits, dashing New York ad man Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant, nee Archibald Leach: SUSPICION, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, TO CATCH A THIEF, CHARADE) finds himself kidnapped at gunpoint after mistakenly answering a page for George Kaplan. Thornhill pleads his real identity to malevolent cold-war profiteer Phillip Vandamm (James Mason: CHARADE, FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY, MURDER BY DECREE, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, EVIL UNDER THE SUN) and his closet-gay secretary Leonard (Martin Landau: ALONE IN THE DARK, ED WOOD, THE X-FILES, SLEEPY HOLLOW), who disbelieve him and have clear plans to murder their Kaplan in a faked suicide. Thornhill escapes through a timely arrest but - in his quest to prove his innocence - ensnares himself in a chase across America by both Vandamm and the police. Alternately aiding and endangering Thornhill is the gorgeous double-agent Eve Kindall (Eva Marie Saint: THE CURSE OF KING TUT’S TOMB), who's torn between loyalty to her mission and her developing love for Thornhill.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST came 5 years after Eva Marie Saint's powerful On the Waterfront (for which she won an Oscar, back when an Oscar was something meaningful) and 7 years before Cary Grant retired (after 35 years of acting). These facts frame the acting power leading NORTH BY NORTHWEST. Eva Marie Saint defined herself as a Femme Fatale in On the Waterfront and brings an intelligent sex appeal to Eve Kendall's spy. Cary Grant leverages his comedic wit and flexes his athletic prowess for several unforgettable action sequences: at 55, Grant performed his own stunts, something rarely seen in today's Hollywood.

James Mason (who would later be nominated for a Saturn award for Heaven Can Wait) delivers a cool, sinister performance in characteristic fashion: powerful emotion seething from behind a dead calm facade. Martin Landau, still early in his career, exudes a villainous confidence that deftly supports James Mason's lead villain.

As for direction, Alfred Hitchcock (PSYCHO) alone makes some movies work: THE BIRDS and REAR WINDOW, for example, would likely fail in the hands of anyone else. But NORTH BY NORTHWEST stands so strongly on its own that you might barely notice this is a Hitchcock picture. I consider this to be Hitchcock at his finest - tight, brisk direction that doesn't waver from start to finish. Of course, watch for Hitchcock in the opening sequence.

The real gem is Ernest Lehman's (FAMILY PLOT, BLACK SUNDAY) script: clever, layered, and infused with double-entendres and sexually provocative dialog. The underlying thread is an action thriller, but carefully woven around that base is comedy enough to keep you grinning the whole way through. And while tame by today's standards, the foreplay banter between Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant in the dining car was positively shocking for 1959.

I give NORTH BY NORTHWEST an enthusiastic 5 Shriekgirls.

This review copyright 2008 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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