365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 177 - Triple Feature: North By Northwest

It rained all day Sunday so there was not much to do but stay in and watch movies!!. First up was the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray of Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest.

North By North West is the quintessential Hitchcock film. When screenwriter Ernest Lehman started the project he wanted to write the Hitchcock film to out do all Hitchcock films. It features the classic wrong man accused theme; big Hollywood stars including Cary Grant, James mason and Eva Marie Saint; it also has set pieces at two of America's biggest places, the United Nations and Mount Rushmore.

The movie is based on an original idea by journalist Otis C. Guernsey, who had created the idea of a fictitious spy. He got the idea from activities of the British Secret Service during WWII. Lehman and Hitchcock took that nugget and created the ultimate chase movie with one of the most iconic scenes ever created for movies; the attempted murder by crop dusting plane.

Cary Grant played Roger O. Thornhill a Madison Avenue advertising man, who gets mistaken for secret agent George Kaplin. He is kidnapped by Mr. Vandam (James Mason) a foreign agent who attempts to murder him by driving him off a cliff, after he has been forcibly intoxicated. Later while trying to clear his name, he is framed for the murder of a Untied Nations diplomat. On the run he crosses paths with Eve Kendall (Eve Marie Saint), the coolest Hitchcock blond there ever was.

From Saul Bass's opening credits, featuring Bernard Hermann's amazing score the film takes you for a thrill ride of suspense, comedy and murder. It is the most accessible of all Hitchcock's films and probably the most entertaining. The picture and sound on the Blu-ray disc are superb.

North by Northwest is the second part of a trilogy that absolutely defines Hitchcock as a filmmaker. Vertigo (1958) North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960).

At the Movie House rating **** stars.