5. North by Northwest (1959)
One of Hitchcock's more exciting films, Cary Grant is Roger Thornhill, a man who has somehow gotten himself mistook for a secret Government agent and now he is being chased cross country by a shadowy group of international spies. The film is a good, exciting caper from beginning to end. Hitchcock managed to create the Spy genre with this film. James Bond was based on the debonair Cary Grant. There is terrific dialogue and sexual tension between Cary Grant and female lead Eva Marie Saint. It manages to have some pretty amazing action sequences at Mount Rushmore. In fact the whole affair has a little bit for everyone - sizzling dialogue, comedy, romance, action, suspense. Hitchcock puts you firmly in Cary Grant's place - a non entity Mummy's boy who suddenly becomes an action hero and we willingly swallow this from the start, such is Cary Grant's charm. Hitchcock at his most entertaining but not at his greatest.