"That's funny, that plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops," observes the guy at the prairie bus stop to dapper Cary Grant in North by Northwest, granddaddy of the modern action flick, at the top of a sequence in which a DDT-spewing plane attempts to fumigate the Manhattan adman mistaken for a CIA agent. N by NW (its title borrowed from Hamlet -- "I am but mad north-northwest: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw") will celebrate its 50th anniversary in November with reissues on DVD and Blu-Ray.
N by NW may not be Alfred Hitchcock's best film, but it is something better. It is one of those movies -- including Casablanca, Rear Window, The Magnificent Seven, The Man Who Would Be King and the Sean Connery James Bond films -- that are cinematic best friends. You're always happy to see them and you see something new every time you visit. Most would nominate N by NW, a Cold War film travelogue that zips from Manhattan's Plaza Hotel to the United Nations to Chicago's Union Station to an Iowa cornfield to Mt. Rushmore as the most purely entertaining film ever made.
Legend has it that James Bond creator Ian Fleming was so smitten with the film and Grant's performance as the imperturbable, well-tailored figure at its center that it inspired his conception of James Bond. What is definitely true is that Fleming wanted Grant to star as Bond. Grant demurred.
There is much to recommend in the mistaken-identity Cold War thriller apart from Grant's high-comic performance. James Mason is suave and slithery as a Communist operative, Martin Landau shifty as his henchman and Eva Marie Saint seductive as an intellectual who may be playing both for Communism and Democracy. It also has a memorable score by Bernard Herrmann (subject of a Turner Classic Movies tribute this month), a snappy screenplay by Ernest Lehman and influential art direction by Robert Boyle. You might be interested in this post about James Mason's modernist house seen in the film.
Where does N by NW rank in your Hitchcock pantheon? What other movies do you include among your film best friends?
When it comes to Hitchcock, I find people most people who adore REAR WINDOW are cool to VERTIGO and vice versa. (For the record, there's no topping VERTIGO for me. Sorry for the pun). However, NXNW (along with PSYCHO) are two films that everyone appreciates as classics/masterpieces, even though I think they fall along the same divide. NXNW is an enjoyable romp tightly constructed and marvelously acted/written; PSYCHO is a thinking person's thriller that reveals new layers of brillance each time you watch it. I enjoy NXNW, but I prefer Hitchcock's heavier fare. Oh, and my favorite bit of NXNW trivia is that Jesse Royce Landis was only a year older than Cary Grant in the film, even though she played his mother.— garyk- N by NW is below Vertigo in my Hitch pantheon. How he made Jimmy look dark and obsessed, how he made Kim so gorgeous, and that score is definitely Hermann's masterpiece. The whole thing is haunting.— berniemcc
- NbyNW, Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window...hard to call which one is tops for me. North by NW is the original 'Bond' movie. Next time you rent the DVD, watch it with the commentary by Ernie Lehman, it's great to hear details of filming it.— pootershow
- I'm a sucker for Hitchcock. Love the way he mixed psychological depth with pure entertainment with such ease and craftsmanship. "Vertigo," "Marnie," "Rear Window" and "Strangers on a Train" remain my favorites, but "North by Northwest" is the one Hitchcock title that grows in my mind each time I see. The others, as great as they are, were on a high plain for me to begin with, and have remained there, but NbyNW goes higher and higher each time. It seems limitless to me.— Pash
- The 39 Steps, Secret Agent, Sabotage, Saboteur, Spellbound, Psycho, Strangers On A Train, Dial M For Murder, Foreign Correspondent.— ccjroberts
- I never get tired of watching this movie. Maybe it wasn't 'scary' enough to be considered one of Hitchcock's best, or that it's "tongue-in-cheek" approach was too light.But this is a thrill ride of a flick. I had seen so many parodies of the crop duster scene that when I finally saw the film that scene didn't resonate -- at first. The humor in this movie is great, especially when Grant spoofs his own image (a woman says at first, "Stop," then turns on the lights, sees that it's cary grant, and says, pleadingly, "stoppppp" and Grant replies, "uh-uh-uh...")— jonc
- I am glad other film fans love this movie! when you watch it on dvd on a hd tv, it looks really gorgeous. Cary's metallic tan, modeled after Douglas Fairbanks Sr., to Eve Marie's platinum blonde and the real scene stealers: Mt Rushmore, The UN building and Cary's suit. Remember Hitchcock always made his characters either criminals or heros and made you wait to see if they were good or bad, or both.— beneben
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