North By Northwest (4K UHD + Digital)

This is one of my all time favorite movies, every aspect of this movie is great! The acting is superb, excellent cinematography, just a great story presentation by Hitchcock! The 4K version of this movie is outstanding, well worth the upgrade from 1080p in my opinion.

One of my all-time favorite movies! I first saw this in my high school film ed class, and learned about the camera angles, visual storytelling, and so much more. I already loved old movies, but this one and "Suspicion" made me a Hitchcock fan.They don't make movies like this anymore, sadly.

Outstanding quality!

This new 50th anniversary restoration on blu-ray is spectacular.One of the disadvantages of living with a beloved movie for 4 decades, in the movie theater and on home video, is that it becomes so familiar that you know everything by heart and anticipate every next step. The script is brilliant, so, like most Hitchcock, it is enjoyable to watch repeatedly, even if familiar with the story. The great thing with Hitchcock is, that the suspense and excitement of the story have nothing to do with the revelation of a twist.Were I new to this film, I would be ecstatic with the previous DVD, which remains excellent.But such is the new clarity in this new restoration, that to me it was like seeing a different film, because I saw so many details that I had overlooked before, as in the interior of the dining car, or the lobby of the Plaza Hotel. It was, as if I were transported into the 1950s, being present in the very locations, not just watching them in a film. Textures become tactile, I can feel the cold of the steel fixtures in the dining car, the warmth of velvet, the surface of the rose patterned taffeta dress. For the first time, the metallic telephones at the lobby of the Plaza Hotel felt appropriately rich, crafted of real metal, befitting the exclusive surroundings. Before I always thought they looked out of place, common plastic phones covered with cheap metallic paint. It makes much more sense now.This newfound immediacy went so far, that sometimes I had the feeling of being on the set while this movie was being filmed. Being present with the actors. However I didn't find it distracting, but let me enjoy the movie in a new dimension.In this (and only this) film, Eva Marie Saint always reminded me of a stunningly beautiful pure-bred creature, desireable and expensive, and too synthetic to be a real woman, which I'm sure was intended by the director and appropriate to the story. Actually that look is not unlike Kim Kardashian's look today, a beautiful, perfect but synthetic mask.In this new 50th anniversary restoration, the character Eva Marie Saint plays is suddenly a woman of flesh and blood. The mask of concealer makeup which Hitchcock placed over her face is still extreme, but no longer opaque enough to cover the freshness and human warmth, sensitivity and vulnerability I normally connect this favorite actress with. It is a revelation to now be able to see the subtle emotions in her face, like in the scene when she sends Cary Grant to the his doom in the crop fields. Her emotional conflict is very moving.The love scene in the train compartment is stylized as ever; they kiss, but their embrace feels synthetic, with her barely touching his neck and his hands strangely hovering behind her hair, not lovingly, nor careful of messing up her superb hair (which gets messed up nonetheless by the wall), but as if something unappealing were back there. Her featherlight hesitant tenderness is appropriate to the story --- but his hand's gestures have always irritated me. I'm sure both actors were following Hitchock's exact directions. And maybe it was Cary Grant's own style of touching his partner during romantic moments, because I've seen him do it in other films as well.However, this new transfer with its focus on light and dark, makes this love scene much more intimate, by partially obscuring graphic details, which the previous transfer offered --- dvdbeaver.com (*) link below) did a comparison of the previous dvd with the blu-ray, and in the screenshot of this love scene, you can see every detail in Cary Grant's hair on the dvd, whereas the blu-ray bathes it in shadow. I'm not sure why this happened, and I read that some reviewers were bothered by the darker image because it dampens the romantic mood. I like the new transfer better, because it makes the scene more convincing and natural, and appropriately ominous.In any case, the sublime music which underscores this scene is the loveliest music I've ever heard in any film, and what the lovers avoid doing, the music does for them: it touches and embraces them (and us) with supreme tenderness and longing.I very much recommend you watch this classic movie in this stunning new restauration; it's likely you will experience it anew, as I did.My guess is, the new DVD edition of this 50th anniversary restoration will also be excellent, giving similar improvements over the previous DVD. I think the revelation lies in the restauration itself.(*)[...]

Fast delivery, video quality was amazing, and I also loved the show!!

Good clarity and sound.

Still as fascinating as when it first came out. One of my most favorite movies of all times.

I have always liked this film. Hitchcock's script is deliciously written with Grant's character Roger O. Thornhill being mistaken for an undercover agent named George Kaplan. Given Thornhill's position as an executive one would think that the sinister James Mason and his equally sinister aide Martin Landau would check into Thornhill's claim that he is not George Kaplan, but I guess they figured "bird in hand"... Jessie Royce Landis role as Grant's mother is lovely and amazing given that she and Grant were about the same age at the time this film was made. I am not sure which scene I find most breathtaking and heart stopping - when Grant is chased by a crop duster plane on open fields or when he is trying to make his way across and upon Mount Rushmore with Eva Marie Saint. I have been to Mount Rushmore and know that I would not want to make an attempt to climb it and especially at night. I confess that I am surprised that the National Parks Service would allow anyone to climb Mount Rushmore, but this scene adds hugely to the suspense. The musical score adds to the atmosphere of the cat and mouse game being played. I own a copy of this film on DVD, but it wasn't until the 1990's that I finally could place part of the score. I kept thinking that part of the musical score had been reused for another film. Then when I purchased a copy of "V" {the first miniseries} I made the connection. The part of the score used in the crop dusting scene was reused in part of this science fiction miniseries and was just as suspenseful as in "North By Northwest". This film is one of Hitchcock's greatest achievements in movie making. I have to admit that his "Rear Window" is my most favorite of Hitchcock's films, but "North By Northwest is next in line. Grant manages to inject his own zany humor when he talks about his various ex-wives who depend upon his earnings and when he is trying to convince the police that he was not drunk, but taken to a big house only to discover that the staff at the big house has changed and no one remembers seeing Grant. I have always wondered if the police were in on this deal or if the 'respectable' people at the house were so convincing that it was thought that Grant had been drunk instead of drugged. The scenes between Grant and Eva Marie Saint on the train are delightful. This is a film that calls for the phone being turned off, the door bell ignored and home made popcorn.