Retrospective: North by Northwest (Patreon)

Some time ago I wrote something about Hitchcock failing to stick the landing with his endings. I think I was talking out of my ass; he's quite capable of ending a movie the right away. Sure, Psycho and Shadow of a Doubt suffer from having their best scenes in the middle of their run times, but Vertigo's ending will live in your head rent-free, and Notorious has a lovely and poignant final shot.

Hitchcock is all about those shots, those moments that remain in your head forever. He sometimes plays fast and loose with plot logic in the process; it's a price he's willing to pay for at least three great sequences per film. Nowhere is this more clear than North by Northwest, a perfectly daft spy thriller that falls apart if you think about its plot for a few seconds. The film is constructed to inject Cary Grant into various great setpieces, navigating from one moment of suspense to the next. We're supposed to be swept along with Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint as they bounce from New York to Chicago to Rapid City. If you're not willing to put your qualms about making sense aside, you're going to be left at the station.

The thing is... the plot holes really, really do not matter in this film. The sheer stupidity of the characters' plans is irrelevant. This is a spy story about a babushka doll of conspiracies, an endless parade of honey traps, various plans careening without any regard for the stupid bullshit at the center of the story. It's as true a spy story as has been told on film. North by Northwest is as much a comedy as a thriller; a setpiece-driven piece where its stars get to be magnificent, culminating in a fight on Mount Rushmore. Stupid movies are never this cool anymore.