Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
A strong candidate for the most sheerly entertaining and enjoyable movie ever made by a Hollywood studio (with Citizen Kane, Only Angels Have Wings and Trouble in Paradise running neck and neck). Positioned between the much heavier and more profoundly disturbing Vertigo (1958) and the stark horror of Psycho (1960), North by Northwest (1959) is Alfred Hitchcock at his most effervescent in a romantic comedy-thriller that also features one of the definitive Cary Grant performances. Which is not to say that this is just "Hitchcock Lite"; seminal Hitchcock critic Robin Wood (in his book Hitchcock's Films Revisited) makes an airtight case for this glossy MGM production as one of The Master's "unbroken series of masterpieces from Vertigo to Marnie." It's a classic Hitchcock Wrong Man scenario: Grant is Roger O. Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint), with whom he engages in one of the longest, most convolutedly choreographed kisses in screen history. And, of course, there are the famous set pieces: the stabbing at the United Nations, the crop-duster plane attack in the cornfield (where a pedestrian has no place to hide), and the cliffhanger finale atop the stone faces of Mount Rushmore. Plus a sparkling Ernest Lehman script and that pulse-quickening Bernard Herrmann score. What more could a moviegoer possibly desire? --Jim Emerson

I'll be very brief because if you're buying the movie on Blu Ray you probably
have seen this mutiple times. The bottom line is, if you like the movie you
will be vey happy with the Blu Ray. The PQ quality is excellent, no grain.
Sharpness could be a little better but still good. Add this one to your collection.

Average Rating:

Rating: - Great Movie
I'll be very brief because if you're buying the movie on Blu Ray you probably
have seen this mutiple times. The bottom line is, if you like the movie you
will be vey happy with the Blu Ray. The PQ quality is excellent, no grain.
Sharpness could be a little better but still good. Add this one to your collection.

Rating: - off topic
Years ago I owned the full screen version of this movie on laserdisc. When the widescreen version of the movie came out on laserdisc I bought that. I decided to do an A/B comparison of the 2 and to my surprise quickly realized that the wide screen version of the movie was just the full screen version with the top and bottom blanked out, and in fact the full screen version actually had more information on it (although nothing useful, just more fore ground and background). I have never seen this on another movie, usually you see all the extra pans necessary to keep the action on the screen. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this and if there are other similar movies out there.

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Rating: - Careless travesty of a masterpiece
This new Blu-Ray of "North by Northwest" is actually worse than the standard DVD.
It is far too dark. Grant's face becomes uglily brown. Generally skin tones are disastrous.
furthermore the famous VistaVision high definition (equivalent to 70mm) which we should expect to excel on Blu-Ray is nowhere to be seen.
The effect is that the light charm and the beauty of the film have disappeared. It has become heavy and ugly, something it never was before.
How can those who are responsible ruin such an important film while promising to improve on DVD? The old DVD was slightly too light but it was not ugly and its definition was much as we see in the Blu-Ray. Clearly Warners have simply transfered the master of the old DVD (which was indeed good) to Blu-Ray without going back to the celluloid master (a pointless exercise if you are making a Blu-Ray from VistaVision) and then they overdid the darkening. They must put unqualified people in charge of these crucial tasks.
This travesty of a masterpiece has been produced to exploit the Christmas market. I shall stow my copy and carry on with the old standard DVD.
yours sincerely,
Charles Rees

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Rating: - Sir Alfred
My favorite blu-rays are the classics. This one is very high on my list. Looks great. Buy it. We need to encourage the release of the rest of Sir Alfred's work on blu-ray. The only down-side is the fact that some of the supplements are not in high def.

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Rating: - "...We're In The Business Of Expedient Exaggeration..."
*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE 2009 50th Anniversary "BLU RAY" VERSION ***

As you watch the title credits of Hitch's 1959 masterpiece "North By Northwest" roll up on screen in all their resplendent VistaVision Technicolor - the shiny, cold and aloof glass panelling of a New York skyscraper act as their backdrop.

It's a brilliant touch, because combined with Bernard Herrmann's staccato score it ratchets up the tension and also subliminally suggests to the viewer that some poor John Doe is about to get rightly and royally screwed by big business and big Government - or both. And of course, mistaken for a UN diplomat called George Caplin - our hapless hero George Thornhill (played by Cary Grant) - does just that.

Then when the credits end and Cary exits the lift with his secretary (Doreen Lang), all suited-n-booted and looking dapper enough to lick - another element kicks in - the picture quality...

The print is just BEAUTIFUL - featuring as it does state-of-the art frame-by-frame restoration. In fact, I raved in an Amazon UK Listmania list some 3 years ago about how good the DVD looked - well this BLU RAY is better - and at times just jaw dropping to look at.

Icing on the cake is that this 50th Anniversary BLU RAY reissue also adds on some superlative new features which are just as good as the film itself (nearly 3 hours of viewable features).

Here's the full list:

1. Commentary by Ernest Lehman (Original Script-Writer)
2. New 2009 Documentary "The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style" (over 50 minutes - featuring comments from directors Martin Scorsese, Curtis Hanson, Francis Lawrence, Guillermo del Toro and many more)
3. Previously seen, but superlative feature-length profile "Cary Grant: A Class Apart" (over 1 1/2 hours)
4. New 2009 feature called "North By Northwest: One For The Ages" examining the movies innovations and influences
5. Feature called "The Making Of North By Northwest" from 2000 hosted by Eva Marie Saint
6. Music Only Audio Track
7. Stills Gallery (black & white stills of the stars and Hitchcock - both on set and on location)
8. Theatrical Trailers & TV Spots
9. Internet link to Warner Brothers

A whole bunch of things combine to make NBN work - a great story by Ernest Lehman, superb night and day locations, immaculate period clothes, the bulbous gas-guzzling cars, the art-deco buildings, the interiors of wealthy homes and the deeply luxurious dining cars of long-distance 1950's trains. And to top all of that, you get genuine old-school Hollywood star power in the form of James Mason, Martin Landau, Leo Carroll and the luminous love interest Eva Marie Saint. And of course the effortlessly suave and charming Cary Grant - arguably the best leading man Tinseltown ever produced. Throw in the tension, wit and camera angles of Hitchcock at the helm - and you're on a winner.

But your eyes keep coming back to how this BLU RAY shines. There are so many little scenes that now look sumptuous - Alfred missing the bus just at the end of the opening credits in his famous cameo scene - the garish colors of Fifties New York taxis, the marble of the Plaza hotel lobby as Cary walks through to meet clients in in the bar. Then there's the Townsend home and gardens as the villains motor up the gravel driveway to the front door, the three dapper suits of the boys as they parry in the library room inside (Mason, Landau and Grant) and the clarity of the night scene where they put a drunk Cary in a stolen car and try to drive him off a cliff. Further on there's the color of the fields in the legendary crop-duster scene, hanging off the Mount Rushmore monument by your fingernails - even Eva Saint Marie's beautiful red dress in the hotel room as she stands by the door while Cary showers in the bathroom... I could go on!

If I was to point out one genuine downside, it's the focus. Some scenes quite deliberately have Grant and Saint with an almost halo-like shine around them (soft focus to make them look better) and can at times make the print look just a teeny bit soft, but other than that the whole shebang is a joy to behold...

Up there with "The Italian Job", "Zulu", "Goldfinger", "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", "2001" A Space Odyssey" and "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" in terms of top quality restoration (see my reviews for each) - "North By Northwest" is a triumph on BLU RAY. And the superb additional extras only make you feel that Warners are to be praised for a job well done...

Roll on "To Catch A Thief" on the BLU RAY format - another beautiful Hitchcock/Grant restoration currently being raved about (the "Centennial Collection" double DVD set)...

see more

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