Film Forum

U.S., 1959
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
Approx. 136 min. DCP.

“Crop dustin’ where there ain’t no crops,” the Mount Rushmore duel, the train going into the tunnel. Classic Hitchcock set-pieces just keep coming as Cary Grant’s Roger O. Thornhill (initials ROT) finds a simple case of mistaken identity snowballing into a breakneck chase across the country, menaced by James Mason and his goon squad, and aided, teased, and thwarted by Eva Marie Saint’s double (or triple?) agent. Music by Bernard Herrmann. “Hitchcock’s sleek, wry, paranoid thriller caught the 50s zeitgeist perfectly: Cold War shadiness, secret agents of power, urbane modernism, the ant like bustle of city life, and a hint of dread behind the sharp suits of affluence.” – Time Out

Reviews

“ONE OF HITCHCOCK’S MOST ENTERTAINING AMERICAN THRILLERS.”
– Pauline Kael

“A GREAT FILM, AND CERTAINLY ONE OF THE MOST ENTERTAINING MOVIES EVER MADE!”
– Dave Kehr