The classic spy thriller, and a movie that was described by one Oscar-winning filmmaker as the “most perfect action film ever made,” has now taken the top spot on free streaming. Released way back in the before times of 1959, and the so-called “Golden Age of Hollywood,” North by Northwest tells the tale of advertising executive Roger Thornhill, played by acting icon Cary Grant
, who finds himself the target of the police and spies after a case of mistaken identity.
Directed and produced by another icon, director Alfred Hitchcock
, from a script written by Ernest Lehman, North by Northwest stars Eva Marie Saint and James Mason (the movie arguably has too many iconic names attached to it) alongside Grant, and has now taken the #1 spot on free streaming platform, Tubi
, as audiences lock and load up this bona fide cinematic classic.
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Tubi offers a whole host of movies from across all manner of genres and eras, with North by Northwest leading the pack, while the likes of Bernie, Flowers in the Attic, Matchstick Men, My Sister’s Keeper, and Big Stan make up some of the rest of the platform’s top 10. You can check out the official synopsis for North by Northwest below.
“This classic suspense film finds New York City ad executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) pursued by ruthless spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) after Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent. Hunted relentlessly by Vandamm’s associates, the harried Thornhill ends up on a cross-country journey, meeting the beautiful and mysterious Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) along the way. Soon Vandamm’s henchmen close in on Thornhill, resulting in a number of iconic action sequences.”
‘North by Northwest’ Is a “James Bond Film Before There Was a James Bond Film”
The greatness of North by Northwest is reflected in one of modern cinema’s most divisive measurements: the Tomatometer. The spy thriller holds a near-perfect score of 97% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside 94% from audiences on the Popcornmeter, with North by Northwest clearly remaining just as gripping and effective as it was when it debuted more than 60 years ago. “Gripping, suspenseful, and visually iconic, this late-period Hitchcock classic laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow,” the critic’s consensus reads.
A big fan of North by Northwest is Academy Award-winning director and the filmmaker behind the likes of Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Pacific Rim, and The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro, who recently called the action thriller the “most perfect action film ever made in my opinion” and even compared it to the likes of James Bond.
“The thing with North by Northwest is that it’s a very modern film, not only in its color and design, and the fact that it’s almost a musical without music, done very pointedly for MGM in VistaVision. But also by the fact that his action is diagrammatic and as crisp and as clean as anything that anyone can direct now or ever. This makes the movie painterly but cinematic. It never stops. And it prefigures a James Bond film before there was a James Bond film. This is one of the canonical films of Alfred Hitchcock. The most perfect action film ever made in my opinion.”
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