North by Northwest (1959)

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Tell Me What you Feel

 North by Northwest (1959)

 

8/10

Starring

Cary Grant
Eva Marie Saint
James Mason
Jessie Royce Landis

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Distributed by MGM

 

North by Northwest is an Alfred Hitchcock movie that is filled with twist and turns and counter twist that if you are not concentrating you will miss it all, it is known as one of his best mysteries.

This classic 1959 American thriller film is directed by the mystery/thriller man himself Alfred Hitchcock.It was set to originally star James Stewart (Vertigo, Rear Window) as Thornhill, but as Hitchcock developed the script, he decided that Thornhill was more a Cary Grant type.

The movie is based on a sixty page write up by a journalist named Guernsey. Hitchcock bought the write up for $ 10,000. He and Ernest Lehman worked on the script and Ernest Lehman further went ahead to develop the screenplay.

What is so exceptional about this movie is that you never know what you will get or what’s ahead; this movie will keep you guessing and wanting to see how it will end.

The movie plot is centred on a man named George Kaplan. A certain Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) was mistaken for George Kaplan, and for that he was almost killed and spent the night in jail.

Things took a turn for the worse when Roger could not prove to the police that he was kidnapped, drugged and was about to be killed. It didn’t get any better when he became a murder suspect, for stabbing a man in the UN.

Now Roger must find a way to prove his innocence and save the woman he loves.

This movie is known for its scenes which have become popular, one of which is the cropdusting scene, where a Naval Aircraft Factory N3N Canary chased Thornhill, that scene was named the best scene of all time in the August issue in 2009 of the British magazine Empire in their "1001 Greatest Movie Moments" of all time.

The second popular scene is the shootout on Mount Rushmore at the end of the film which was filmed on a replica.

The movie did introduce new trends, as fashion experts convened in the 2006 GQ rated the gray suit worn by Cary Grant throughout almost the entire film as the best suit in film history, and the most influential on men's style.

The movie is ranked fourth in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, behind Psycho (1960), Jaws (1975) and The exorcist (1973). North by Northwest was nominated for three Academy Awards, which were Film Editing, Art Direction and Original Screenplay (Ernest Lehman) but lost it all to Ben Hur.

This is a nice mystery, true and true one you will enjoy.