NORTH BY NORTHWEST

US, 1959, 136 minutes, Colour.
Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G. Carroll.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

North by Northwest is deceptive Hitchcock. It has a light even a flippant touch which deceives people into thinking that this is not quite good enough for Hitchcock, and yet some critics have seen it as one of his best films.

It is certainly enjoyable. Cary Grant gives his easy-going charm to suspenseful situations, wrong identities, murder risks and espionage. Some of the desperate situations are handled quite amusingly, especially in the auction sequence. In fact, there are many laughs and a sense of exaggeration. The film can be linked with a number of other Hitchcock films - The Man Who Knew Too Much; Torn Curtain - with their suspenseful mixtures of murder and espionage. Perhaps this film relates most closely through Gary Grant, a deceptive heroine and suave villain, with the 1946 Notorious.

North By Northwest should be seen to gauge Hitchcock's skill in entertaining and making successful suspense films with interesting themes.

1. What did the title suggest? The allusion to Hamlet and madness? Comment on the credit sequences and the printing of the titles etc.

2. How enjoyable was this film? What were the principal thrilling ingredients Hitchcock used and how amusing was the film? How did the comedy help the thriller aspects?

3. Comment on the presentation of the ordinary man - at work, in the city, the pressures, threat to his identity, the accidents and changing of his life, questions of conscience?

4. Was Roger a sympathetic hero as portrayed by Cary Grant? Was he superficial, busy, selfish, dominated by his mother, broken marriages, a man of the world, and yet he is the one who is threatened and achieves something?

5. How did the audience identify with Roger? How involved did the audience become during the first part of. the film?

6. The importance of the death sequence at the United Nations? The film becoming a serious thriller? Comment on Hitchcock's use of escape techniques?

7. Response to the attitudes of the Intelligence people - casual planning, regard and disregard for human lives?

8. Introduction of Eve into the film - implications of her name? Suspense in the train as it was being searched? Irony and sexual overtones of the encounter between Eve and Roger? Were you surprised she was one of the villains?

9. Importance of the countryside sequence? Comment on the plane-chasing scene. Why was it so effective and exciting?

10. What kind of villain was Van Dan? Eve's association with him? Did you suspect she was a Government agent?

11. Importance of the auction scene? The humour and ingeniousness in escaping from the auction room safely?

12. How important was the final plot, and Eve? Were you relieved when the professor explained everything to Roger? Why did Roger agree to go on?

13. Was the final suspense successful?

14. How humorous did you find the ending?

15. Critics commented that this was one of Hitchcock's best films. Would you agree? Why?