Of all Alfred Hitchcock’s films, North by Northwest (1959) isn’t the best, but it’s my favorite by a country mile.  It has its flaws (Cary Grant’s drunken car drive) but as an entertaining mystery-comedy-thriller it has no peer.

From the dynamic opening credits designed by Saul Bass accompanied by the suspenseful Bernard Herrmann music to the brilliantly staged climax on top of Mount Rushmore’s statuary (wonderfully enhanced by Herrmann’s ominous scoring), North by Northwest is an absolutely delightful thrill ride.

The sexual tension between ad executive Cary Grant and mysterious blonde Eva Marie Saint smolders with latent heat, especially on their train ride toward Chicago.  And though the movie veers from its northwesterly course at that point, what a brilliant diversion it takes.  Grant finds himself in an Indiana cornfield dodging bullets as a crop duster attacks him from above.  This is just one of several classic sequences that Hitchcock provides in the film; others include the United Nations assassination, Grant’s boorish escape from the auction, his staged death at the Mount Rushmore visitor’s center (watch for the kid who covers his ears before he sees and hears Grant being shot) and, of course, the great climax on Mount Rushmore itself.

Yet perhaps the finest rewards are little moments, as when Saint asks Grant what the “O” in his initials indicates.  “Nothing,” he replies.  Or when Grant tries to explain to his mother over the phone that two men just tried to kill him by pouring a bottle of Scotch into him.  She asks him a question.  “No, they didn’t give me a chaser!”  Such droll wit sparks what is already a spectacular script, ensuring that the resulting film will burn brightly.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.  (10:4).