North By Northwest

North by Northwest is my favourite Hitchcock. Close runner up would be The 39 Steps. Though, separated by decades, both movies have the famous Hitchcock touches -

• The McGuffin.
• Man on the Run
  
• Mistaken Identity
• Blonde woman embroiled in espionage

When I first heard of the McGuffin touch, I thought it was all jolly clever of Hitchcock. The whole movie/plot revolves around this "McGuffin" (which could be an idea/plot/secret/person). But its inconsequential to the movie, what this McGuffin is. What is important is the drama that results around the McGuffin. For example, in The 39 Steps, the whole film revolves around this quest to uncover what The 39 Steps is by the hero, but what the 39 Steps is ultimately unimportant to the plot. What happens in the hero's quest is essential to the movie.

Hitchcock also can be terribly original. Take certain chilling scenes of North by Northwest - he revelutionised the thriller genre. Think about this, when we talk about horror/thriller scenes, we conjure up dark, dimly litted scene, closed/enclosed spaces/corridors/rooms, shadows etc etc, innit? Now, take the legendry Crop Duster scene in N by NW. It's a chilling scene. But everything about it is contrary to the usual features. It's set in the praires of Illinois, in the vast wheat fields. in the afternoon. no shadows, no corners. no enclosed spaces. In fact the hero has no where to run for cover. And yet the first time you watch it, you grip the cushion in anxiety. I thought it was all remarkably original for 1959.

Plus, Cary Grant's  one liners are chuckle worthy. His character, Roger Thronhill, is a fast talking, acerbit wit. The dialogues are so witty! Especially, those when he first meets the stupendously charming villain, played by James Mason.
Some dialogues below (thanks to IMDB) -

Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant): And what the devil is all this about? Why was I brought here?
Phillip Vandamm (James Mason): Games, must we?
Roger Thornhill: Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then, but I have tickets for the theater this evening, to a show I was looking forward to and I get, well, kind of *unreasonable* about things like that.
Phillip Vandamm: With such expert playacting, you make this very room a theater.

.
Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant): Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself "slightly" killed.

Watch it!