North By Northwest (1959)

This 1959 movie has been eluding me for a long time. Been trying to get my hands on it, and just as Vertigo this always seems to give me the slip (i'm a lazy guy and prefer things online). Nonetheless, I finally found myself watching it in small parts, spread out at Stanford and with Kams in San Diego. It was a long day when i watched it in SD, and I slept through after the first half with a beer in hand. But this was more because of the long tiring day over at LA and not because the movie was a drag. Well, it was a drag compared to modern adventure. Its not exactly fast paced, and its got scenes that you've seen abused in Bollywood cinemas. But then you try pondering over why some call it Hitchcock's best, and then you realise the best of tricks and mix of adventure, chase and romance.

There was a particular style which I did like a lot in the movie. Movie writers use some styles to create the suspense and thrill of movies. One is to give the viewer more knowledge about whats happening around the protagonist, and thus edging him/her to do something else. Another is to give the protagonist knowledge of something that the viewer's dont: keeps you guessing. There was this distinct part in the movie where Thornhill et all device a plan to end the story of Kaplan over at Mt. Rushmore . Its amazing how in a few minutes, we the viewers moved from knowing a lot more about the story around the protagonist to knowing nothing of whats coming up. Gotta love Hitchcock.

Great movie to watch to get educated. Not so much if you are actually looking for an adventure of modern type.

An interesting trivia: Cary Grant appears on the left side of the screen for almost the entire movie :-)