One Paragraph Movie Review: North by Northwest

Four hundred and eighth film: North by Northwest. Not my favourite Hitchcock so far but not bad, this is the acceptably ridiculous story of an advertising executive who is mistaken for a secret agent by an evil spy, and the cross-country chase ensuing… forthwith? Thereafter? Then? Anyway, Cary Grant is the hero, James Mason and his unbelievably smooth voice is the villain, and even though there’s a figurine with a bit of espionage-y microfilm in it, Eva Marie Saint is the impossibly elegant MacGuffin, driving the other characters’ motivations and providing terrible pick-up lines on a Chicago-bound train. Obscenely improbable and heaps elegant, there are a hundred scenarios that make you scoff with barely-suspended disbelief, and as many opportunities to forgive them for the sake of good double-agent fun. A thrown dagger murder at the United Nations! A crop-dusting biplane as a potential murder weapon! An on-foot chase scene down the faces of multiple presidents on Mount Rushmore! It’s silly, it’s long, and it’s good. Three sexy sexy in-transit trout dinners out of five.