Review of North by Northwest (55)

Plot
In a case of mistaken identity, a gang of spies thinks advertising executive Roger Thornhill is actually CIA agent George Kaplan. Thornhill then finds himself being pursued across the United States by both the spies and the government as he sets out to find the real Kaplan.

Jason's Thoughts
I have seen a few Alfred Hitchcock movies in my time, and I know there are a few more coming up on this list (Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo), but all of them, including the ones I haven't seen, have to be better than North by Northwest.  Seeing how I have liked all of the Hitchcock movies I have seen up to this point, I really thought that I would enjoy this one, but it didn't do much for me.

I'm not sure why North by Northwest is held in such high regards as a classic movie.  My guess is that it may have been great when it was released, but it hasn't stood the test of time.  I can think of several spy/mistaken identity movies that I have seen that easily tops this one.  North by Northwest just seems to drags on most of the time and is lacking any type of energy whatsoever.  It's a shame to, considering that this movie came from the "Master of Suspense" and it actually featured very little of it.

I have seen two of the three upcoming Hitchcock movies and very much enjoyed them both.  I have yet to see Vertigo, but there is no way it can be any worse than this movie, especially since it is ranked in the top 10 of all time.  Hopefully North by Northwest is the Hitchcock mulligan, a spot that would have been better used if it was for The Birds.   

Crystal's Thoughts
As I sit here trying to recall this movie, I wonder if it is due to having to start it twice or that it simply isn’t memorable.  We initially sat down one Sunday to watch it and only got about ten minutes into it when our plans had to change.  The second time, I think we were perhaps almost half way through, and the DVD we had rented from Cash Wise Video failed us.  It would simply not go any further than the point we had gotten.  But we learned that the library has some films on DVD to check out for free and that are in pretty good condition.  So we started the movie again yet another few nights later.  And no, we didn’t start over.  I’ve seen the crop duster scene more times than I care to remember.

Unfortunately, the crop duster scene isn’t all that great.  My guess is this was supposed to be a suspenseful, but it was far from it.  To me it seemed almost like the scene was to be humorous but failed.  I seemed to think that throughout the movie.  What was supposed to be a thrilling Hitchcock film turned into scenes of humor gone wrong.  The movie also seemed to drag on at times, another determent for any thrills that we were perhaps supposed to be viewing at the edge of our seats.

I did enjoy that some of the filming was done on location.  In a quick lookup online, I learned that parts of the United Nations Building scenes were done on location (not the lobby itself though), the scene at Grand Central Station in New York City was done on scene and my favorite, scenes in South Dakota, particularly the exterior of Mt. Rushmore, were done there as well.  I enjoy it when filmmakers take the initiative to do real scene filming.  Of course, the very unreal takes on Mt. Rushmore made me laugh to myself.  I am not even sure how the producers thought that audiences would even believe that were true if it were possible.  I guess though people do; I am just not one of them.

For me, Alfred Hitchcock has a lot of making up to do for me in regards to his films.  This was only the second I’ve ever seen, and while it certainly wasn’t bad, the suspense I was expecting wasn’t there.  Sorry Al.

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