Film

North By Northwest

Cert: PG

Description: Advertising guru Roger Thornhill is the victim of mistaken identity perpetrated by the US Secret Service to protect one of its undercover operatives. Consequently, the mysterious and menacing Phillip Vandamm targets Roger and the debonair ladies man finds himself framed for a crime he did not commit, with seemingly no option but to run for his life. En route, he hooks up with the alluring Eve Kendall but her motives are far from clear.

Derek Malcolm's rating

Reader rating

Your rating

Click on a star to rate

Dir: Alfred Hitchcock.

Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau, Leo G Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis

Country: US.

Year: 1959.

Duration: 136mins

Pure entertainment in North by Northwest

Cary Grant: a hapless New York advertising executive

By Derek Malcolm
19 Jun 2009

If you want to confirm what an extraordinary director Alfred Hitchcock was, and what an exceptional star Cary Grant was, too, there�s nothing much better for pure entertainment than this re-released chase thriller.

There are some obvious mistakes, one of which was the fact that Grant was exactly the same age as actress Jesse Royce Landis when they did the film in 1959, and she appears as his mother.

Otherwise, the poor New York advertising executive (Grant), who is mistaken for a crook and chased half way across America, has a terrible time, with Hitch clearly smirking in the background as he devises ever more spectacular tropes, the chief of which is the crop-dusting sequence.