Expert Bit Of Film-Making FROM OUR FILM CRITIC A new Hitchcock film is not, perhaps, to-day the occasion it once was. The formula of flight and pursuit. of nis- taken identity, of suspense artfully pro- longed, will nevet entirely lose its appeal in the cinema, but it has nothiig fresh to say, and, as 1he hero and thos;e in full cry after him can proclaim when all is over, the run has been long. North Bv NTorthwest, in Vistavision and Techni- color and now to be seen at the Empire Cinema, is an expert bit of film-making. a smooth and not unsubtle picce of entertainment, but it is difficult to throw off the impression that we have seen it before. And, in a sense, we have. There is much in the story itsclf that recalls Mr. Hitch- cock's free and curious version of The 39 Steps, and. while another film of his ended with a chase up and down, round and about. the Statue of Liberty. Northl By Northwest reaches its eventual climax-it runs for 136 minutes-with similar goings-on staged this time at Mount Rushmore, a national monu- ment to America's dead Presidents. Yet, set down in cold blood, all this seems ungrateful, for Nortil By Northwest remains consistently exciting and enjoyable. and Mr. Hitchcock proves that he has still a few nfw tricks to shake down from his capacious sleeve. Take, for instance, the sequence at the bus stop. Roger (Mr. Cary Grant), a blameless advertising executive, is mistaken for a government agent by the head of a spy ring, a part played by Mr. James Mason with a nice mingling of the suave and the sinister. Pursued, like Richard Hannay. by both the police and the villains, Roger finds himself, through a series of circumstances too complex to explain, stranded in the middle of a vast, open, desolate countryside on which a main road lies like a sword. An aircraft is to be seen in the distance apparently spraying crops, and the only other being in sight. a local who soon departs on a bus. remarks that that is odd since there are no crops to spray. No sooner have the local and the bus gone than the aircraft comes swoop- ing down to machine-gun a wretched Roger lost in a waste of loneliness. And that. Mr. Hitchcock sccms to be saying, is the point- Roger is never safe whether solitary in the country or jostled by crowds at Grand Central station. The bits of sophisticated comedy in between are beautifullW managed by Mr. Grant and Miss Eva Marie Saint as a cool and self-possessed, if somewhat equivocal, young person. " I need sophisticated actors and elegant actresses." Mr. Hitchcock is reported as sayins "they make a kind of counterpoint to the bizarre." It is easy to see what he means. and in Mr. Grant and Miss Saint he has them. EXPERT BIT OF FILM-MAKING HrICHCOCK'S NORTH BY NORTH-WEST