"North by Northwest" landed in the middle of Hitchcock's winning streak, his purple patch that lasted from 1956 to 1963. It's the only film that I have ever seen as many as seven times.
We are talking unbroken streak here, for of course there were masterpieces prior to that, like "Rear Window".
What you get in 1959 is the master at the top of his game. "North by Northwest" is the summation of Hitchcock's work and his technical craftsmanship. He had a good team working for him:
Writer: Ernest Lehman
Cinematographer: Robert Burks
Editor: George Tomasini
Music: Bernard Herrmann
And of course that title sequence by Saul Bass, with the grid pattern set against a canvas of forest green, cleverly dissolving into the reflective façade of the C.I.T. Building in Manhattan.
The title sequence is the best thing about the film, and sets the stage for a jolly good ride lasting 136 minutes. This was unusual for Alfred Hitchcock, but point me out some slow or boring parts and I will eat crow.
When I was in my early twenties and a starry-eyed film school student, I sometimes fantasized about having a small altar with candles and all, reverently built in front of the cinema screen, but that would have been a fire hazard and after further contemplation, I thought also a bit immature of me.
What more can I say about this stone cold classic? I am not going to bore you with plot, I hate those things.
But how about the cast, then? Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and my favorite actor in the whole wide world, James Mason. He was the classic urbane character and the epitome of elegant evil. Admit it, all the best villains are English.
My neighbor in my student hostel in Odense, Denmark, once quipped, "I only want to see films with James Mason in them."
) I agree with you. I 
