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North By Northwest



Some things are just perfect.
Period.

Cary Grant and his wardrobe, for instance, are note perfect in Hitchcock’s great thriller.
(Where do you think Mad Men gets a lot of its visual inspiration?)

Grant as Roger Thornhill a New York ad man of the late 1950’s shimmers with self-satisfaction.
So does the city depicted by Hitchcock, with its surreptiously-shot UN building, auction houses,
nice places in the country, swank hotel bars , office building and hotel lobbies and elevators.

But a case of mistaken identity soon throws Thornhill’s smug world into a flight of
life or death.
We are along for the ride, as confused and in the dark as he is for a good half of the film.

There are some interesting online sources about the genesis of the script.
You will find a complete literal synopsis of the plot at IMDb but don’t read it before
you see the movie. Reading it is instructive though.
While all the factual details – ALL of them - are told in the synopsis, it can’t even begin
to match the finished product up on the screen.

Once in writer Ernest Lehman’s and Hitchcock's hands, the story hits the ground running and doesn’t let up.

Roger Thornhill is followed by henchmen, nagged by his jaunty mother (who only helps him when he pays her
$50), buzzed by crop dusting planes “dustin’ where there aint no crops”, is arrested and released – twice;
he’s seduced and abandoned, kidnapped, shot at, chased all over the face of Mount Rushmore and more…

He meets Eve Kendall, a seemingly sympathetic stranger on a train played by Eva Marie Saint.
She is not what she seems.
He meets the villainous VanDamm played by James Mason, whose legendary voice seems to
drip honey and thumb screws.
A callow yet malevolent Martin Landau plays a sidekick with "woman’s intuition”.

On and on I could go. This is just a wonderful film - great screenplay, sparkling dialogue, masterfully directed,
superbly cast and beautifully filmed.

Having reached it's 50th anniversary in 2009,North By Northwest has been duly named
to many, many "Best" lists over the years.
It is in my personal top ten…top 5…top 2!...is most probably my Favourite Hollywood Screenplay, ever.

A Must See for anyone interested in screenwriting.

Or Cary Grant.

Highest Recommendation.






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