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| Cary
Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau, Leo G. Carroll |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Roger
Thornhill: I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a
job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent
upon me. And I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself
slightly killed.
A
New York advertising executive is mistaken for a secret agent and chased
across America.
 North
by Northwest manages to combine all of Hitchcock's most entertaining
themes, tricks, obsessions and mannerisms into a picture so purely entertaining,
it's still hard to beat more than forty years onward. More accomplished
than The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps, and much more
lively than Vertigo and Rear Window, the movie's fast
pace, bold-faced plot twists and impeccable wit help make it the one
movie of Hitchcock's that has dated the least over the years. The entire
cast is perfect, the set-pieces are all classics, the screenplay is
tongue-in-cheek, well aware of its own preposterousness and revelling
in it, and the timing is exceptional even for Hitchcock. And bringing
it all together is Bernard Herrmanns' majestic score that combines some
of the best musical cues he ever wrote.
It's easy to see why Hitchcock was so upset about the incredible commercial
success of the James Bond movies, which are clearly meager, facile rip-offs
of North by Northwest. The twists and turns of the plot and the
sheer nerve of having Cary Grant stand by a dirt road for over six silent
minutes simply to build up tension for the immortal crop duster sequence
put even the better 007 movies to shame. By comparison, they seem heavy-handed,
badly dated, and incredibly dull. |
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Currently
only available for Region 1.
The
Vistavision cinematography is accurately reproduced in an anamorphic
widescreen transfer framed at 1.77:1. The picture has been carefully
restored and is rendered absolutely flawlessly, without a hint of graininess,
artifacting or visual noise. It is hard to believe that the source print
of a movie from 1959 can look this good today, and this is a transfer
that must be seen to be appreciated.
The sound mix has also been redone, and is presented here in a new Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix that finally does justice to Hermann's magnificent score,
which is given a deep and resonant sound field across the surround field.
Sound effects are also spread across the full sound field for an immersive
and sometimes strongly directional effect.
A
decent amount of supplementary material is included on this fantastic
release. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman is still alive and has provided
a laid-back and incisive audio commentary that gives plenty of first-hand
comments and anecdotes on the movie's development and production history.
A specially produced 40-minute documentary hosted by Eva Marie Saint
also features all the other cast and crew members that are still alive.
It's an entertaining feature that also provides plenty of information
on the movie's production. Rounding off the extra features are some
minimal cast and crew biographies and two great trailers: the original
trailer hosted by Hitchcock himself and presented like a commercial
for a 'vacation from all your troubles', and the re-release trailer
which is almost as good. Both trailers are presented in fine-quality
anamorphic widescreen. The
animated menus have been designed in the style of 1950s Saul Bass credits,
with the theme from the movie playing in the background and some cut-out
images drifting around the background. The animated introduction to the
main menu screen can be skipped if you can't wait to get to the options
by pressing the 'menu' key. Navigation is clear and straightforward.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on North
by Northwest.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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