“Director Alfred Hitchcock and a covey of willing and able traveling companions have made North by Northwest, which was unveiled at the Music Hall yesterday, a suspenseful and delightful Cook’s Tour of some of the more photogenic spots in these United States. Although they are involved in lightning-fast romance and some loose intrigue, it is all done in brisk, genuinely witty and sophisticated style . . .   The director and Ernest Lehman, his scenarist, are not, to put a fine point on it, really serious about their mystery. With a tongue-in-cheek attitude and a breezy sense of humor, they are off in high gear right at the beginning as they spin the somewhat improbable yarn of a successful, handsome Madison Avenue executive, who is mistaken for a Federal intelligence man by foreign agents and forcibly pushed into a succession of macabre situations that shock, amaze, perplex, and anger our once-debonair hero.”  New York Times 1959

“Hitchcock obviously loves telling the absurd story with such brazen confidence. It’s fast-paced, funny and surprising. It’s a nonsense, but when the storytelling is this good it doesn’t matter. Simply, hang on tight and don’t question the improbabilities of the Meccano-set plot.  This has been the model for suspense thrillers to follow for 50 years and fully deserving of its restoration and re-release.”  Eye for Film 2009