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North by northwest

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Movie propaganda

The master of suspense presents a 5000-kilometre chase across America!

Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is a successful advertising executive in New York city whose life takes a dramatic twist one day when he meets some business associates for drinks at the Plaza Hotel. He is mistaken for a man named "George Kaplan" and kidnapped by a couple of criminals who spirit him away to a country estate that bears the name of "Townsend".

At the estate, Roger meets Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), who, convinced that "Kaplan" isn't going to co-operate, has his minions get Roger drunk, put behind the wheel of a car and sent careening down a dangerous mountain road. Roger somehow manages to negotiate his way down the road, but he is arrested for drunk driving. No-one, including his mother, believes his story, and while tying to solve the mystery by himself, he is entangled in the proceedings of a murder at the United Nations, in a way that makes everybody think he committed it.

Also starring Eva Marie saint as Eve Kendall, Jessie Royce Landis as Clara Thornhill, Leo G Carroll as the professor, Josephine Hutchinson as Mrs Townsend, Philip Ober as Lester Townsend, Martin Landau as Leonard, Adam Williams as Valerian, Edward Platt as Victor Larrabee, Robert Ellenstein as Licht and Philip Coolidge as Doctor Cross. Written by Ernest Lehman, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Cinematic intelligence sources

Studios and distributors:

Warner Bros * Roadshow Films

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Wow.

North by northwest is the classic and ultimate case of mistaken identity. Cary Grant is excellent as the poor Joe who knows less than everyone he meets, blending guilt, innocence, arrogance, anger and frustration like a master DJ, while Eva Marie Saint plays the ingenuous femme fatale fabulously.

Alfred Hitchcock's direction is breathtaking: the cropdusting scene is a piece of cinematic perfection. For eight minutes there is no dialogue, just a man standing on the side of the road. Outstanding!

Of course, Alfred is not from the USA, which explains his ability to create such scenes of pure genius. Hollywood says that art and cinema don't mix but the rest of the world proves them wrong. Rule Britannia!

Even if you have no interest in old movies, I recommend North by northwest on the strength of its cast, script, direction and production values: it actually gets dark at night! This is one DVD you really need to see.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Audio: Soundtrack: 5.1 - English: 5.1 - Italian: 1.0
Disc: Dual layer
Picture: Widescreen
Languages: English, Italian
Subtitles: English, German, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, Italian (captions), English (captions)
Audio commentary by Ernest Lehman
Destination Hitchcock: the making of "North by northwest"
TV spot
Production stills gallery
Music-only track