North by Northwest

Over the years I have been working to see all of Hitchcock's films and I've slowly been accumulating the collection. So far I've seen Rebecca, Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window. I noticed that TCM was having a small Hitchcock marathon and the first movie they were showing was North by Northwest. I found the plot interesting and I can see how this movie has influenced many of today's films like Eagle Eye. Roger Thornhill gets mistaken for government agent George Kaplan and almost gets killed by the spies that Kaplan is after. In an attempt to understand whats going on Thornhill attempts to find Kaplan but ends up just getting in deeper.

I managed to find two reviews from 1959 when it originally came out and both praise the film for it's upbeat feel. The first on from Variety and loves the mixture that Hitchcock creates in the film. From his use of Cary Grant to provide endless wit to filming the scenes of the movie in the actual locations the review proclaims that North by Northwest would be a top box office hit. The second one from the New York Times is a little more negative about the film but still believes that it was a success. They felt that the film was really just looking to be a good time and loses the mysterious aspect of the film. After reading both of these reviews I have to agree with the New York Times review. The film looks to be funny and doesn't have that suspense that many of his other films have. So while I enjoyed the film, it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. After seeing the films that I have I was expecting North by Northwest to be much more suspenseful than it really was. I think I'll enjoy it a lot more than I did this first time now that I know that it isn't meant to be taken too seriously.