North by Northwest
(1959)
I revise my longtime complaint about a factual error: it's not Lake Erie we're implausibly supposed to be looking at on portside of a westbound train; it's the Hudson River that we're seeing for an implausibly long stretch of time. (I've never taken a train upstate from NYC, so I don't know whether the Hudson is really to the west, but I'm willing to stipulate that.)Also, as he's preparing to get on the plane, Vandamm (James Mason) gives Leonard (Martin Landau) a message for "your knife-throwing friend" (Adam Williams), who is standing right there.
But hey, might as well complain that that Indiana farmer Thornhill (Cary Grant) meets at the bus stop has an inexplicable New England accent or that Eva Marie Saint can't actually act. A few imperfections don't keep this from being Hitchcock's most nearly perfect film, right down to the song playing when Roger first enters the Plaza (listen for it).
Oh, but it didn't have a perfect trailer: I had that on while opening my wine and getting my pizza ready, and I noticed that it gives away the mystery of George Kaplan, which you're not supposed to find out about until 40 minutes in.
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