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Title: North by Northwest (1959)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Cary Grant | ... | Roger Thornhill | |
| Eva Marie Saint | ... | Eve Kendall | |
| James Mason | ... | Phillip Vandamm | |
| Jessie Royce Landis | ... | Clara Thornhill | |
| Leo G. Carroll | ... | The Professor | |
| Josephine Hutchinson | ... | Mrs. Townsend | |
| Philip Ober | ... | Lester Townsend | |
| Martin Landau | ... | Leonard | |
| Adam Williams | ... | Valerian | |
| Edward Platt | ... | Victor Larrabee | |
| Robert Ellenstein | ... | Licht | |
| Les Tremayne | ... | Auctioneer | |
| Philip Coolidge | ... | Dr. Cross | |
 |
Patrick McVey | ... | Sergeant Flamm |
| Edward Binns | ... | Captain Junket | |
Madison Avenue advertising man Roger Thornhill finds himself thrust into the world of spies when he is mistaken for a man by the name of George Kaplan. Foreign spy Philip Vandamm and his henchman Leonard try to eliminate him but when Thornhill tries to make sense of the case, he is framed for murder. Now on the run from the police, he manages to board the 20th Century Limited bound for Chicago where he meets a beautiful blond, Eve Kendall, who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside down yet again when he learns that Eve isn't the innocent bystander he thought she was. Not all is as it seems however, leading to a dramatic rescue and escape at the top of Mt. Rushmore. Written by garykmcd
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Its Hitch's most briskly entertaining movie, and one of his most comic, adventure-caper type movies, largely thanks to the persona of Cary Grant. But its also one of his most suspenseful - in the fact that Grant is being recognised as someone else, and that he may be put in jail for someone else's crime.
I've finally come to realise just how great North by Northwest is. The reason you should love Hitchcock is he put entertainment upfront. Hitchcock was not interested in whether this or that would happen in real life: he was interested in what would make the most entertaining scene for the movie. North by Northwest is a peak in this regard. The dialogue and situations intentionally throw reality to the wind - the double-entendre dialogue in the love scenes is not supposed to be the way people talk!
If you said to Hitchcock "as if he'd keep driving" or "as if she'd do that" - he would just laugh at you and say you've missed the point. This is 100% movieland, and once you get used to the fact, and that this is not a fault in the film, but done intentionally, you'll love it. Its expressionistic - everything happens in movie language: the people laughing at Grant in the elevator, the way he keeps driving drunk near the beginning, the way he grabs the knife and everyone stares at him after someone's been stabbed.
It flirts with the idea of identity. I thought it was interesting how Grant first is dismissing, then incredulous that people should be calling him by another name; then, as the tries to find out who this guy is, he enters the hotel room of this new identity, then he puts the suit on, and finally he identifies himself as George Kaplan.
A succession of fantastic, memorable scenes, a great leading man in Grant, and one of Hermann's essential Hitch scores make for a movie i can put on at any time.
10/10