It has its merits, but older James Bond films from the sixties are preferable. When a Manhattan advertising executive (Gary Cooper) is wrongly identified as a government agent by spies (James Mason and others), he becomes a fugitive on a train to Chicago, where he encounters a woman who seems interested in him (Eva Marie Saint). Following a strange incident involving an airplane, events lead to Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. "North by Northwest" (1959) is a Hitchcock adventure/thriller with considerable renown. It’s clear that it had an impact on the James Bond movies of the sixties, which began three years later with “Dr. No” (1962), but it feels much calmer because the central character isn't a trained intelligence operative. The film is enjoyable up to a certain point, though it also seems seriously inflated due to some noticeable issues… Jessie Royce Landis portrays the protagonist’s mother when she was only slightly more than seven years older than Cooper, and that’s quite apparent; the narrative feels slow during this section (when he's with his mother); the accidental meeting with a significant character on the train (Saint) is too convenient; their romantic moments feel rushed, unconvincing, and frankly boring; what occurs to the airplane is baffling; the crop dusting sequence supposedly takes place in rural Indiana but it’s obviously not anywhere near there (it was actually filmed in California's Central Valley, outside of Bakersfield); furthermore, the geography feels very artificial: for example, during the drunk driving scene, those cliffs don’t exist on Long Island (the footage was shot in Potrero Valley, Thousand Oaks, CA, and it shows). Despite these flaws, there is enough quality to appreciate if you like Hitchcock's work and the performances, and don't mind older movies. The film has a running time of 2 hours, 15 minutes (which feels longer than necessary). GRADE: B-/C+

Source on TMDB