North by Northwest

A delicious example of mid-century Hollywood cinema cooked to absolute perfection, North by Northwest is Alfred Hitchcock at his most entertainingly effervescent, in a romantic comedy/thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. It’s a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: the ever-suave, ever-unflappable Grant is Roger O. Thornhill, an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a mysterious blonde Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most intricately-choreographed kisses in screen history.  In short order, our hero is variously chased, abducted, framed for murder, and, in the film’s famous signature set-piece, crop-dusted.  All roads eventually lead to the thrilling cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mt. Rushmore that will literally leave you breathless.  But that’s not all!  In addition to a sparkling Ernest Lehman script and a pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score, North by Northwest is also a veritable jackpot of fabulous mid-century modern architecture and design.  What moviegoer could ask for more? (Dir. by Alfred Hitchcock, 1959, USA, 136 mins., Not Rated)