From my favorite movies..

Excellent but underrated film

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Hitchcock is undoubtedly one of the greatest, more visionary and brilliant directors of all time, he had made films that are still admired and studied in schools for their incredible technical quality to say the least in the vanguard. Among the various cult that bear his signature one of the best known is this "North by Norhwest" a film that deserves to be remembered as such but which suffers, perhaps more than its other major films, of an aging fairly felt as far as it affects the rhythm and fluidity of it, unfortunately this affects the general vision, especially in our days when we are accustomed to extremely fast thrillers to appear almost exasperated. It is incredible, however, that despite this great obstacle due to its age (about sixty years) the film manages to transmit, in the first half in a more fluctuating manner and in the second in a more diluted and concrete way, a strong suspense, element that distinguishes virtually all movies of the master, which allows the whole story to be followed with great interest, fundamental aspect in a film of this kind. To make this possible is the excellent screenplay that, among ingenious narrative cues, sought-after twists and iconic and intelligent dialogues, makes everything an amiably elegant and fascinating package in full spy style that is still envious today. Also giving away the excellent characters interpreted in a particularly natural and credible way by names such as Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, which make them irresistible and absolutely pleasant to see. Hitchcock, in addition to its tasty initial cameo, gives the film an admirable direction: each shot is chosen with great attention to detail, especially those concerning the environment, each functional and peculiar, and shows a genius in always choosing the 'angle that can enhance the scene at best. Unfortunately, as I said the film is not light, although this is really subjective as an aspect, and because of this it fails to reach its full potential and losing a bit of its charisma and character that would make it a film easier to remember and, in a sense, to be seen; but one thing is certain any cinephile should see it just to learn something more about the cinema.

There are so many iconic elements to North by Northwest, from Bernard Herrmann's complicated score, to the chase scene between Cary Grant and an airplane, to Eva Marie Saint's come-on, "I don't particularly like the book I'm reading," to the location of the end action scene. While everyone has their favorite parts to the movie, mine are not the most famous. My favorite scene is when Cary Grant drunkenly phones his mother from the police station. It's easily the funniest scene in the film, and I happen to adore Cary when he's in his humorous element. My favorite line in the film has become a frequently used household phrase of my family's: James Mason, in one of his iconic villainous roles, smirks at Cary and asks, "Games . . . must we?" in his imitable accent. It's hilarious, and we frequently say, "James . . . must we?" instead when we joke about him or his movies.I don't really like North by Northwest, even though I've seen it over a dozen times. It's one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous films, and everyone in my family really likes it, so it was one of the classics I was raised on as a kid. In general, I find Hitchcock's movies to be a little slow, and I don't think Eva Marie Saint is as appealing as her role necessitates. If it weren't for Cary and James, I'd probably never watch this movie, but their energies together are great fun to watch. They were friends in real life, and when they verbally spar, it almost feels like they're playing a-dare I say it?-game.The plot is always a very intriguing one: an innocent misunderstanding leads certain people to believe Cary Grant has a different name, and he becomes implicated in a very dangerous situation. Since Cary's entirely innocent, it's easy to root for him, but since James is so charming and funny, it's incredibly easy to root for him, too. Aren't the best stories the ones where you're torn between rooting for the bad and good guys? If you think so, you'll probably really like North by Northwest. If you don't end up liking it, then you can ask the screen, "James . . . must we?"

Cary Grant shines in his part as Roger Thornhill as he get mistaken for a government spy by the name of George Kaplan. Thornhill is a very interesting character as he tries to make sense of what the says do and are up too. The film is very exciting with thrills from beginning to end. Alfred Hitchcock knocked it out of the park with this film. The scenes when they were in the cars at times were quite funny though, because they were so clearly sitting in a non-moving car with green screens around them. Other then that the film is brilliantly made, and this film was one of my favorites I have seen all year

Unlike most of the Hitchcock films that spend a lot of time on the build-ups, "North by Northwest" is intense from the start to the end. In Act 1, Thornhill is mistaken for a CIA agent and is chased by foreign spies. The police think he kills a UN diplomat and also chase after him. In Act 2, Thornhill gets the help from Kendall and successfully avoids the police. In Act 3, Thornhill is almost killed by a crop duster plane, and knows that Kendall works for the foreign spies. In Act 4, Thornhill is told by the CIA that Kendall is actually an agent of CIA, and saves her from the foreign spies. Of course, the final chase scene on Mount Rushmore is the most gripping one. But there are plenty of other action sequences before that. Most notably, the crop duster plane chase scene outside Chicago is quite thrilling.