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North By Northwest [1959]
![North By Northwest [1959]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41AP2QB3AEL._SL160_.jpg)
On the DVD: This wide-screen print of the movie looks remarkably fresh, preserving the vivid depth of the original's VistaVision cinematography. The main extra feature is a new and entertaining 40-minute documentary hosted by Eva Marie Saint in which most of the surviving cast and crew give their insights into the making of the picture (we learn for example that canny Cary Grant charged 15 cents per autograph). Screenwriter Ernest Lehman provides an audio commentary and on a separate audio-only track Bernard Herrmann's masterful score can be heard in its entirety. There's also a stills gallery and trailers. --Mark Walker
RRP: £13.99
Our Price: £2.70 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
A strong candidate for possibly the most entertaining and enjoyable film ever made by a Hollywood studio, North by Northwest is positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo (1958) and the stark horror of Psycho (1960). In the corpus of Alfred Hitchcock films it shows the director at his most effervescent in a romantic comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite". It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a US 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 sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history. And of course there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a pedestrian has no place to hide) and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. With its sparkling Ernest Lehman script and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score, what more could a filmgoer possibly desire? --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
cary grant at his epitome
Review date: 2008-04-16 Rating: 10 out of 10
there is nothing bad i could say about this film. Cary Grant is as usual fantastic, suave and sophisticated and humourous to boot. This film involves everything that makes a great film, twisted story, comic moments, a stunning yet mysterious woman, and a wrongly accused man who has to defy the odds to get away. It's brilliant, has some fantastic actors in it and is a real treat for anyone who can appreciate a cleverly mastered film!!
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- Rear Window [1954]
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- Notorious [1946] (Alfred Hitchcock)
Reviews
I'm an advertising man, not a red herring
Review date: 2008-03-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
The sheer magic of this film is down to Cary Grant at his most suave and handsome, quite something for a man of 54. Hitchcock kept him in the dark about the plot even as they filmed so his reactions remained spontaneous, but perhaps also because the writers were still scratching their heads over an ending.
JFK would ring Grant just to hear his unique voice and the audience visits NNW again and again to do the same, outclassing as it does even the silken tone of James Mason.
The plot of course is ludicrous: why would they take over a UN official's house when he was away? Why would Van Damm question the Rapid City hotel booking, when that information can only have come from him? How come the security services were not spotted planting Kaplan's clothes in his room?
To offset this there are the one-liners: Games, Mr Kaplan, must we?/What does the O stand for? - Nothing/I'm not letting you out of my sight, sweetheart and so on.
All in all a film right up there with The Third Man and Sound of Music at the top of people's `best-ever' lists.
THE PERFECT ACTION THRILLER
Review date: 2007-12-11 Rating: 10 out of 10
VERTIGO did nothing to advance Hitchcock's career in 1957 when he released it, and it's actually not a shame: the following year he decided to go completely against the slow-moving erotic thriller genre and do something shamelessly commercial, escapist and single-handedly create the spy movie. Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, states he based his character on the physical characteristics and the suave personality of Cary Grant, as an added note. This could well amount to be the first James Bond film -- a dangerous villain complete with a sidekick, an alluring woman with a dubious nature and an enigmatic "boss," a dashing hero, lush locales setting the scene for powerful chases and escalating danger.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST has one crucial difference to any James Bond film, though: Alfred Hitchcock. While the Bond films have been seen as quintessential action fluff (although fluff of the better kind until the franchise ran out of gas in the 80s), Hitchcock, always the master of subtext as well as suspense, creates memorable scenes that balance sexual tension, sexual innuendo, comedy, and mounting suspense seamlessly. There is never the feeling of being bored as there is too much going on, especially with the sizzling chemistry of Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant, by now a Hitchcock veteran. When they're on screen, dialog crackles and so much more is said with so little gesture -- she closes the lid on her Ice Goddess role, but gives it a nice, cheeky, knowing wink. He of course evolves from the sort of man who while looking and being slightly clumsy and under his mother's thumb -- once it becomes clear he's been marked and is a target for a sinister plot that only later becomes clear -- becomes more assertive in taking matters into his own hands. A quintessential Hitchcock Everyman, Grant has his stamp all over his role. No one can imagine anyone else running away from that crop duster in one of the movies many standout sequences, or saying the reassuring last words to Eva Marie Saint as they cuddle together in the train. When one thinks of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, one thinks Cary Grant.
Easily one of Hitchcock's best films, made while he was at the peak of his career in the bracket formed with THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and MARNIE. Great supporting performances are all over the map, from Jesse Royce Landis as Grant's mother, James Mason as Phillip Vandamm, Martin Landau as Vandamm's protégée who might be a little more than that, and Leo G Carroll as The Professor. Doreen Lang appears early in the movie as Grant's secretary; she would of course be remembered as the woman who shrieks at Tippi Hedren in THE BIRDS and gets slapped by her as the camera holds itself tight on her face.
First-rate Hitchcock, plus Grant and Mason. Let's hope Lincoln doesn't sneeze
Review date: 2007-11-04 Rating: 10 out of 10
It's one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, even if the plot makes less sense than usual. There's nice chemistry between Grant and Saint; the set pieces are unusual, especially the crop dusting; Grant's mom, Jessie Royce Landis, has sardonic style and it's pleasant to realize that they were both born in the same year. Leonard (Martin Landau) with a crush on Mason is also great. The train through the tunnel at the end is an excellent example of how Hitchcock could be naughty without being explicit.
Most of all, in my view, Hitchcock and Grant have a worthy adversary in James Mason. The man was a superb actor, a genuine heavy-weight. Mason brings cool style and menace to the part. I think he easily matches Grant in the suave department.
perfect blend of sheer entertainment with subtextual moral relativism
Review date: 2007-10-17 Rating: 10 out of 10
During a span of 51 years, Alfred Hitchcock made 57 feature films, from "The Pleasure Garden (1925)" to "Family Plot (1976)". I've watched nearly one-third of them and should say that "North by Northwest" is the fastest, funniest and most beautiful of his caper/thrillers.
Actually, the premise for "North by Northwest" is nothing new: a case of mistaken identity. An "ordinary man" accused of a murder he did not commit, and he must clear his name by assuming different identities. "The 39 Steps", "Young and Innocent", "The Wrong Man" and "Saboteur" were based on a similar theme. But what makes "North by Northwest" so special is its rarity in combining a twisted plot with a dazzling cast, great action, ingenious direction to create a yummy blend of suspense, adventure, deceit and Hitchcockian style of wry humor. If any movie shall be called "true cult classic", it is "North by Northwest".
Along with lots of deadly one-liners, the film hosts a bunch of the most memorable scenes in motion picture history: the murder in the lobby of the UN building, Thornhill's witty escape in the auction house, the attack of mysterious crop-duster in the middle of nowhere, all scenes on the train, and the climatic chase atop Mt. Rushmore. Hitchcock proves here again he was master of substitution of the language of the camera for words. Take the crop-duster scene. Without any music or special effects, no other director can afford to create such a claustrophobia on an open space in broad daylight just using natural sounds and complex suspense elements in the rhythm of events and cutting.
The film has a strong subtextual ideologic base too. Far ahead of its time in that it captures the political zeitgeist of late 1950s perfectly: moral relativism dominating the Cold War era. Very good epitome of how the State sacrifices the "ordinary man" for secretive causes involving the national interests.
Last word: pure, plain and vibrant. Despite 50 years have passed since its making, it is still fresh and highly watchable.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Martin Landau
Cary Grant
Eva Marie Saint
James Mason
Leo G. Carroll
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900650168
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2006-06-01
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 130 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1959-12-18
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Dubbed)