Blu-Ray Review: NORTH BY NORTHWEST

The Movie:
“You know, we’re not making a movie. We’re constructing an organ…the kind of organ that you see in the theatre. And we press this chord and now the audience laughs, we press that chord and they gasp, and we press these notes and they chuckle.” – Alfred Hitchcock to NORTH BY NORTHWEST screenwriter Ernest Lehman.

You know the scenes. You know the music.  You know every one-liner and suave expression from Cary Grant’s debonair face.  There isn’t much that hasn’t already been said about NORTH BY NORTHWEST.  Easily Alfred Hitchcock’s most noted “mistaken identity” thriller and, arguably, his greatest achievement in movie making, it lives up to the hype and holds its own against any film of the like that comes out today.  Fifty years after its release, it remains the crowning achievement of the Hitchcock thrillers, and it does so much better in its attempt to lure the audience into its adventurous hold than most films that have come before or since.

Hitchcock’s camera stages and Grant’s persona shines in this film about Roger Thornhill, an advertising exec who is mistaken for a government agent by some nefarious gentlemen, among them screen legend James Mason.  It’s a classic MacGuffin in the truest sense, and it serves to set in motion Thornhill’s venture cross country where he encounters a provocative and secretive blonde, played by Eva Marie Saint, dodges a charging biplane in the corn fields of Illinois, and fends for his life atop the rocky faces of Mount Rushmore.

Nearly every scene in Hitchcock’s classic (a phrase that seems quite redundant, when you think about it) is either staggeringly suspenseful or full of wit and charm, and each one of these scenes are just as iconic as the previous.  With NORTH BY NORTHWEST, Lehman, working in the thriller genre for the first time, was often quoted as saying he wanted to create “the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures.”  It certainly makes a go of it, injecting as many thrills and chills as it is does laughs and affection into its audience.  Lehman would work with Hitchcock only once more for FAMILY PLOT, released in 1976 and the final film of Hitchcock’s directing pantheon.

It’s a futile attempt to picture anyone in the lead role of NORTH BY NORTHWEST other than Grant, who had worked with Hitchcock three times before (SUSPICION in 1941, NOTORIOUS in 1946, and TO CATCH A THIEF in 1955).  Initially, James Stewart, who had previously worked with Hitchcock on some of Hitchcock’s most popular films at that time, wanted the role of Roger Thornhill.  Hitchcock, never one to mind his own words, said their last collaboration, VERTIGO, had failed financially because Stewart “looked too old.”  Never minding Grant’s actual age (he was four years older than Stewart), Hitchcock cast him.

With his role in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, Grant had to do something Hitchcock had never asked him to do, play a character who is not fully in control of his situation.  As the mistaken Thornhill, Grant has no choice but to keep moving forward towards whatever fate this path has in store for him, a path he has not chosen for himself.  Grant, urbane in even the most trifling of predicaments, does an impeccable job making believers out of everyone of the danger he is in and the fear that comes with it.  As sultry as Saint is, devilishly cool as Mason is, and even strangely foreboding as Martin Landau is as one of Mason’s henchmen, they all take a back seat to Grant who is only overshadowed in the film by Hitchcock’s perfection in story telling.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a masterpiece, one of those films that, 200 years in the future, when people go to theaters to actually live in motion pictures and 9 out of every 10 film is completely forgotten about, will hold its interest in the world.  Books have been written about the film and even more books could be written, as it remains as one of the greatest pieces of filmmaking created by one of the industries true patrons of the arts.

The Blu-Ray:
After witnessing the transfer done with the audio and video for this film, it’s a wonder we could have ever watched it any other way.  This is true perfection in color correction and sound polishing.  Hitchcock’s vibrant Technicolor shots pierce through the screen.  Everything is incredibly sharp.  Never before was I able to notice the different shades of color in something so trivial as the books on James Mason’s character’s bookshelves.

With NORTH BY NORTHWEST, Warner Home Video has taken the film’s original VistaVision negative and has scanned it at 8K resolution.  No grain.  No specks.  Just pure, polished, glorious craft and color that puts you right in the middle of possibly the greatest chase film in film history.

The expansion to Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound does wonders for every, audio aspect of the film, not the least of which is Bernard Herrmann’s glorious and unforgettable score.

The Features:
To start off with the special features of this package, we need to touch on the 43-page booklet that includes essays, biographies on each of the key players, a number of movie stills including many of the film’s original posters, and a frame-by-frame collection of many of the shots that make the biplane/corn field scene such a memorable scene.  In an age where we are lucky to get a slip that features chapter titles, this package is  extravagantly  flawless.  The disc itself is, in a word, loaded.

Feature Film Commentary by Screenwriter Ernest Lehman (2:16:25)

Cary Grant: A Class Apart (1:27:10) – This feature-length documentary on the actor’s life initially ran on PBS in 2004.  Narrated by Helen Mirren and Jeremy Northam, who reads from Grant’s own, autobiographical essay, the doc covers the actor’s entire life going film-by-film and showing how the man who was born Archibald Leach became Cary Grant.  The documentary also features floating head interviews from friends, film historians, and other Hollywood notables.  Though you should watch the thing from beginning to end, one minor flaw is in the choice of chapter breaks, some of which seem to cut even into the middle of sentences.

The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style (57:32) – Going through each element that made a Hitchcock film a Hitchcock film, this incredible documentary is loaded with interviews from such noted directors as Guillermo Del Toro, William Friedkin, John Carpenter, and Martin Scorsese.  This is truly a shrine devoted to a master craftsman, and it even finds time to show plenty of Hitchcock himself.  If for nothing else, you should check it out for Hitchcock’s explanation of his Bomb Theory, which is stunningly simple and brilliant even after hearing it as many times as I have.

Destination Hitchcock: The Making of NORTH BY NORTHWEST (39:27) – This feature is a chronological look at how NORTH BY NORTHWEST came to be.  Hosted by Eva Marie Saint, it treks through Hitchcock and Lehman’s brief attempt to make THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE before venturing off onto a project of their own.  It is loaded with interviews from people who worked on the film, giving first-hand accounts of the trials the film went through to make it to the silver screen.  Particularly interesting is the day-one law breaking Hitchcock delved to to get his shots.  If there is a flaw with this documentary (or the 43-page booklet), it is in the discrepancies between it and the booklet that comes with the Blu-Ray.  They are minor differences, like the age difference between Grant and Jessie Royce Landis who plays his mother, but noticeable, nonetheless.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST: One For the Ages (25:29) – This documentary features notable filmmakers talking about the elements found within Hitchcock’s most famous “mistaken identity” thriller.  Del Toro, Friedkin, Curtis Hanson, Christopher McQuarrie, and Francis Lawrence all give talking-head performances here.

Stills Gallery (5:52) – 45 shots from the film’s production.

TV Spot (1:02)

A Guided Tour With Alfred Hitchcock (3:14)

Theatrical Trailer (2:13)

Score Track (2:16:25) – Watch the entire film with only Herrmann’s incredible score bouncing off your audio senses.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5