North by North West (1959)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock | 136 minutes | thriller, comedy, romance, crime | Actors: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G. Carroll, Philip Ober, Martin Landau, Adam Williams, Robert Ellenstein

‘North by Northwest’ may not be as well known as ‘Psycho’ or ‘Vertigo’, but none the less Hitchcock at his best. Very accessible, humorous and yet layered. A film that can make you nostalgic, but also a timeless one. After seeing this film, you will also not be surprised where the makers of the early James Bonds got the mustard: charming conversationalists with a double identity (Grant), the explosive cocktail of sex and imminent danger (Eva Marie Saint) and the proverbial action (plane chase; final at Mount Rushmore) topped off with a dash of classic British mockery.

Hitchcock and Welshman Cary Grant did it for their compatriots and with such playful ease that it becomes gallery play. While all the elements that made Hitchcock great are widely available – chiaroscuro and symmetrical shots; the dominant mother and the femme fatale; the dream state and a perfected plot in ‘North by Northwest’ has a role for humor that we have not seen before. Cary Grant is the sympathetic anti-hero Roger O. Thornhill, a vain man whose matchbook initials form the word ROT. When he goes in search of the crooks who are making his life miserable, his mother is allowed to accompany him. He then asks the creeps in a crowded elevator if they really want to kill her son. They burst out laughing, lighting up the rest of the elevator passengers, including Mother Thornhill; even she doesn’t believe Roger anymore.

We can go on like this for a while. You have to dare in a thriller, but Hitchcock proves that it works. Thornhill’s search for the thief of his identity captivates for two hours and never becomes heavy-handed. The Grant-Saint couple is a delight and what the old master puts in their mouths all the more so. The hypothermic yet girlish Eva Marie Saint even surpasses the mysterious Madeleine (Kim Novak) from ‘Vertigo’ in ghostly beauty. Saint’s Eve Kendall is a double agent, but of course also wants to know from Thornhill why he got divorced twice (to which this one replies: my wives divorced me). Also nice is the contrast between the warm Grant and the cold James Mason. We see Mason whisper to Grant that he is overacting in his double role. ‘Apparently the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead’, Grant replies; Oscar Wilde hadn’t done it for him.

As said: gallery play and every now and then you get the idea that it is too well thought out. Yet Hitchcock maintains the balance, partly due to his sophisticated and charming cast. If he’s ever been god in his own universe, that certainly applies to ‘North by Northwest’.