North by Northwest (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Nov 18, 2024
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Alfred HitchcockRelease Date(s)
1959 (November 19, 2024)Studio(s)
MGM (MGM/Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: A
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: B+
Review
Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant, His Girl Friday) is a New York City advertising executive, who’s attempting to live a more glamorous lifestyle after being dumped by two ex-wives for being too boring. Little does he know that he’s about to be thrust into the world of international espionage and intrigue. While taking a meeting over drinks at the Plaza Hotel, he’s nabbed at gunpoint and whisked off in a sedan by two heavies. Soon he finds himself facing off with the sophisticated and villainous Phillip Vandamm (James Mason, Lolita), and his henchman Leonard (Martin Landau, Mission: Impossible), who have mistaken him for a man named George Kaplan. When they don’t believe his claims to the contrary, Leonard and the heavies fill Thornhill with whiskey and dump him behind the wheel of a car on an oceanside cliff, so as to do away with him. But Thornhill manages to survive and be caught by the police.
Thornhill returns Vandamm’s mansion with police detectives the next day, but all trace of the villain and his presence have been cleaned away—and Thornhill is being framed. Setting out to clear his name, Thornhill returns to the Plaza to find the real Kaplan. But it turns out that he doesn’t exist: He’s a creation of the United States Intelligence Agency, designed to protect the identity of their real undercover agent in Vandamm’s organization. And they can’t bail Thornhill out of his troubles without revealing their involvement. So they can only watch as Thornhill begins to follow Kaplan’s trail across the country, first to the United Nations in NYC and then by train to Chicago. It’s here that Thornhill meets the glamorous and mysterious Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint, On the Waterfront), and soon gets himself deeper and deeper into trouble.
North by Northwest is in many ways the culmination of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s career, featuring many of the classic hallmarks of the director’s work—an innocent man framed or otherwise out of his depth, the platinum blonde, an overbearing mother figure, the use of famous locations, meetings on a train, etc—not to mention Hitchcock’s many cinematic tension-building techniques. The project evolved out of another that Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman had been set to make for MGM, an adaptation of Hammond Innes’ 1956 novel The Wreck of the Mary Deare. But Lehman couldn’t crack that script, so Hitchcock started pitching him other ideas, leading to what is essentially a spy film. And that’s one of the things that makes North by Northwest so interesting—not only is it one of Hitchcock’s best and most iconic works, it’s also essentially the cinematic prototype for every Bond film ever made starting with Dr. No (which was released three years later), including the male lead’s dry wit, glamorous locales, a sophisticated villain, and the classic “getaway with the girl” ending. Indeed, Ian Fleming was reportedly quite taken with the film, its crop-duster scene ultimately inspiring a similar chase in From Russia with Love.
Not only does North by Northwest feature a taut script and effective direction—with Hitchcock carefully planning every shot in advance via storyboards—it offers one of composer Bernard Hermann’s finest scores, not to mention incredibly efficient editing by George Tomasini and the cinematography of Robert Burks (Vertigo, The Birds, The Music Man), all three of whom would become Hitchcock regulars. Saul Bass’ opening credit sequence is a masterpiece of understated design. And the cast is absolutely fantastic. Grant inhabits the lead role to perfection, mixing charm, understated humor, and just the right about anxiety—a perfect example is the scene in which he drunkenly escapes behind the wheel of the car meant to kill him, and then interacts with the police officers after his arrest. Another fine moment features a fast-thinking Thornhill improvising a disruption at an art auction to escape the bad guys. Saint provides the perfect female foil for Thornhill, and it’s hard to imagine a more effortlessly elegant yet dangerous villain than Mason’s. Points also for appearances by Leo G. Carroll (The Man from UNCLE) and Edward Platt (Get Smart). And it’s truly impressive the way Hitchcock conjures the film’s climax on Mount Rushmore out of essentially smoke and mirrors, using every visual effects trick in the arsenal at the time—process shots, rear projection, forced perspective, matte paintings, and more.
North by Northwest was shot on 8-perf 35mm film in VistaVision horizontal format by Burks using a Mitchell VistaVision camera (later used to produce visual effects for Star Wars) with spherical lenses (including 35, 50, and 75mm). It was finished photochemically with color by Technicolor and released in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio for theaters. For the film’s 65th anniversary release on 4K Ultra HD, Warner Motion Picture Imaging scanned the original 8-perf 35mm VistaVision camera negative in 13K (technically, each half of the negative was scanned in 6.5K and it was stitched together digitally) with all restoration work completed in 6.5K.
Colorist Sheri Eisenberg handled much of this work, which included dealing with “Vista flicker” (caused by subtle differences in the way parts of the larger VistaVision frame age and fade differently—both within individual frames and from frame to frame in the negative—a problem compounded by the different film elements needed to produce optically-composited shots effects), as well as color dye instability issues (specifically, extreme fading in the blue-yellow channel), and an abnormal amount of film shrinkage (particularly in the final act’s forest locations near Mount Rushmore). An IB Technicolor print from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives was used as a reference with restoring the color and grading the image for high dynamic range (available here in HDR10), and the completed restoration was approved by the Film Foundation.
The result is essentially spectacular (with one minor issue that I’ll get to in a moment). There’s a truly remarkable amount of detail visible in the negative, save for select close up shots in which a bit of netting material was employed to intentionally soften the image. Overall detail is absolutely exquisite—take a look at the marbled pillars in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel, the fine weave pattern of Thornhll’s linen suit and tie, skin and hair textures, matte painting detail, etc. Contrast is very pleasing, with truly bright highlights and ink-like shadows. Colors are boldly saturated and natural looking (it’s hard to take your eyes off Kendall’s emerald green pendant, or her velvet red-black dress), with remarkable nuance in subtle shadings. Light photochemical grain is in evidence nearly always. Really the only issue that prevents this 4K image from receiving the highest possible marks is that you can still tell they’ve had to deal with film shrinkage in a few shots. You can particularly see it in Chapter 36 (starting at 1:46:19 and continuing intermittently until about 1:51:40). But all things considered, this is a minor issue. For the vast majority of the film, the restored 4K image is truly gorgeous, and it’s been encoded on a 100 GB disc to allow for maximum data rates. I’ve certainly never seen this film looking so good, and I doubt anyone else has either—not since it was first released.
On the audio side of things, sound mixer Doug Mountain at Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services has created a new English Dolby Atmos mix from the original mono stems. And while it’s certainly not comparable to modern surround mixes, it’s remarkably full sounding. There’s lovely object placement and movement across the front of the soundstage. The surround channels are well employed for music and atmospherics (train clatter, for example), with subtle panning during Thornhill’s drunken escape down a winding mountain road, and more aggressive panning helping to make the crop-dusting biplane attack more immersive. (The Atmos height channels enhance this set piece nicely.) Dialogue is largely clean and discernible, and the Herrmann score is thrilling and rendered in marvelous lossless fidelity. For film purists, the Original Theatrical English audio is also included (in DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono), as are additional audio options in French, German, Italian, Castilian Spanish, and Latin Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono). Subtitles are available in English (for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing), French, German for the Hearing Impaired, Italian for the Deaf, Castilian Spanish, Dutch, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Latin Spanish.
Warner’s new 4K release features the restored film on Ultra HD only—no Blu-ray is included in the Amaray package. (The 4K is also available in Steelbook packaging). The UHD disc includes the following special features:
- Audio Commentary by Ernest Lehman
- North by Northwest: Cinematography, Score, and the Art of the Edit (HD – 23:06)
- Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest (Upsampled SD – 39:26)
- The Master’s Touch: Hitchcock’s Signature Style (Upsampled SD – 57:31)
- North by Northwest: One for the Ages (Upsampled SD – 25:30)
- A Guided Tour with Alfred Hitchcock (Upsampled SD – 3:16)
The audio commentary by screenwriter Ernest Lehman is excellent, featuring behind-the-scenes anecdotes on the genesis of the film, the origins of the story, and the production. It’s carried over here from the 2009 50th anniversary Blu-ray. Also included from that release is Michael Brosnan’s Cinematography, Score, and the Art of the Edit, which was produced in HD. Gary Leva’s fine The Master’s Touch and One for the Ages documentaries are also here in SD. And from the original 2000 DVD release, you get Peter Fitzgerald’s Destination Hitchcock TCM special.
Sadly missing from those discs are the Music-Only Audio Track (in 5.1 Dolby Digital), a Stills Gallery (HD – 5:52), the film’s Theatrical Trailer (SD – 2:13), and a TV Spot (SD – 1:01). The package does at least include a Movies Anywhere Digital code on a paper insert.
North by Northwest is probably my favorite of Hitchcock’s films, along with Vertigo (1958), Notorious (1946), and Strangers on a Train (1951). It’s just a terrific piece of work, featuring the director and his cinematic A-team of technicians operating at their very best. Warner’s new 4K restoration is absolutely gorgeous and worth every penny of its ridiculously cheap $30 SRP (it would be worth your money at nearly twice that price). If you’re a fan of classic cinema, this UHD release is simply not to be missed.
- Bill Hunt
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