North by Northwest (1959)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenwriters: Ernest Lehman
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G. Carroll, Philip Ober, Martin Landau, Adam Williams
Director Alfred Hitchcock, after over three decades of film directing, had helmed many kinds of motion picture by the time 1959 rolled around. Some were complete disasters (Waltzes in Vienna, a kind of pseudomusical with a historical setting, is incredibly forgettable), whilst others were masterpieces from the second they were released. After many years of experimenting, Hitchcock found himself most comfortable in the crime and thriller genres, and it would be here that he would carve out his career and legacy. Films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Thirty-Nine Steps, Rope, Notorious, Rear Window, Vertigo… the list goes on. If you wanted paranoia, criminal intent, and a massive helping of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock was your man.
When North by Northwest was released in 1959, something seemed to have solidified in his filmmaking. Ernest Lehman claims he wanted to write the ultimate Hitchcock picture and, with the director’s guiding hand, it seems that’s exactly what they made. After advertising-man Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant, in his fourth collaboration with Hitchcock) is mistaken for an undercover agent, a group of criminals led by the sinister Philip Vandamm (James Mason) try to get the information from him, then kill him by getting him drunk and driving him off a cliff. Thornhill miraculously, and hilariously, survives, and in the aftermath, framed by Vandamm’s men for the murder of a prominent politician, Roger must go on the run across the country in an attempt to clear his name.
The crowning jewel of Hitchcock’s spy films, North by Northwest takes everything the genre had been building on for decades prior and bundles it into one package. The wrongly-accused man, the secret operatives, the macguffin, the femme fatale, the Hitchcock Blonde, the wisecracks, the secret messages, the big set pieces, the suit; everything is here, ready and waiting to play its part. Years later Hitchcock would be asked to direct the first of the James Bond films, Dr No, to which he replied, ‘I’ve already made that film, it was North by Northwest.’ In many ways, he was telling the truth, as the Bond films would lift many elements from Hitchcock’s works for their own ends.
Known by many for darker, more sinister films, the humour here is present in almost every moment, including the ending which offers one of the greatest visual gags ever devised. It borders on a send-up parody of the genre so far, of novels by John Buchan and Dennis Wheatley, and even his own films. Cary Grant’s wisecracking, dry-humoured Roger Thornhill is the archetypal unwilling action hero, spurred across the country with nothing more than his wits, luck, and a bit of knowledge of psychology from his advertising days. Constantly agitated and fidgeting, he is the perfect counterpart to James Mason’s Philip Vandamm, who is cool and calm and perfectly smooth in his iconic, memorable accent. The play-off between the two of them, set up early on and then pervading the rest of the film, is the perfect playground for some of Hitchcock’s best moments. There is a fine line between humour and suspense, and waiting for a gunshot is as good as waiting for a punchline. Sometimes the two combine, and it’s impossible to watch without feeling the immense amount of fun exuding from each and every frame.
With those moments of big suspense and action, Hitchcock and Lehman work exquisitely together to craft some of the greatest, most memorable scenes ever put to screen. The famous crop-duster scene has been the subject of several forests worth of analysis, inspiring countless imitations and parodies. Despite this over-exposure to the general public, it still works as a thrilling piece of filmmaking. The scene plays out for so long before it, in big open spaces where there’s nowhere to hide, bringing the tension higher and higher until its unbearable, before unleashing one of the most famous images in the entirety of cinema. Likewise, the escape across the face of Mount Rushmore instantly puts it in that pantheon of the greatest film climaxes; something so audacious and ridiculous, yet fitting. Where else would you have the final fight of criminals and saviours of the country than across the immortalisation of four of its leaders writ large in stone across a mountaintop?
North by Northwest is a glorious mishmash of parody and paranoia. It is sublimely written, larger than life, a blockbuster behemoth before the invention of that brand of spectacle. It has lasted not just because of its stellar cast, or the name of its director. It remains one of the all-time greats for the simple reason that it is one of the all-time greats. With wonderful acting, thrilling sequences, jaw-dropping visuals, incredible twists and turns, and of course one of the best suits in the world, North by Northwest might well be the greatest spy thriller ever made, coming through the trials of the years much like Cary Grant’s iconic suit; impeccably.
Score: 24/24
Recommended for you: Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant: Cinema’s Greatest Collaborations
