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This year marks the 60th anniversary of the release of North by Northwest. Here's what Mark had to say about this classic film a few years ago: Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest contains what I think of as the all-time great strangers-on-a-train scene, and one I always recall if I'm in the dining car of an at least potentially exotic choo-choo - the Eurostar, say - and a glamorous femme comes sashaying down the aisle, even if she does park herself at some other guy's table. In a lifetime's travel, everyone should have a North by Northwest moment: on a...

Alfred Hitchcock is more than just the master of suspense. Throughout his career, the legendary director transformed cinema as we know it today through his unique visual eye, masterful storytelling, and incredible showmanship. In celebration of his birthday on Sunday, we look back on his most memorable works -- ranging from the crowd-pleasing "Psycho" to a movie regarded as one of the best ever made, "Vertigo." Here are the 13 Alfred Hitchcock movies you need to watch in your lifetime:

TCM is continuing its weekend of great movies by following their present airing on "Ben-Hur" with MGM's other big hit of 1959: Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest"- One of my 2 favorite Hitchcock films("Vertigo" is the other) and my favorite of his 4 with Mr. Grant.

Sunday, January 3rd at 2 PM Pacific / 3 PM Mountain / 4 PM Central / 5 PM Eastern, Classical KUSC presents a rebroadcast of “On Dangerous Ground: A Tribute to Bernard Herrmann.” This two-hour sound portrait of one of cinema’s greatest composers will be hosted by Jon Burlingame, author, USC professor, and a writer on film music for Variety. The program includes rarely heard interviews with Herrmann himself, and excerpts from his concert music as well as dozens of his great film scores, from Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver. Herrmann’s legendary partnership with Alfred Hitchcock will be showcased with...

Barack Obama seems to know as much about movies as he does foreign policy: [Obama] did express curiosity about the filming of a chase scene in “North by Northwest,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint that included a death-defying scramble over Rushmore’s presidential faces. “How did they get up there in the first place?” he asked ranger Wesley Jensen. “They didn’t. It was a movie set,” Jensen told him. Methinks the park ranger deserves a merit award for not using the word, “duh.” Five Feet of Fury has other Obama questions about the movies:...

After two days of intense legal questioning, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts finally addressed a subject most Americans could relate to: His favorite movies are "Doctor Zhivago" and "North by Northwest." Frustrated by Roberts' answers, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested on Wednesday that if he dared to ask the nominee his favorite films, he would get a discussion of cinematography and why "Casablanca" is considered one of the greatest. Instead, Roberts answered flat out, bringing laughter from the audience and senators alike. "North by Northwest," Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic, starred Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and Martin Landau,...

Ernest Lehman, a noted Hollywood screenwriter whose work included classic films of the 1950's and 60's like "North by Northwest," "Sweet Smell of Success" and "The Sound of Music," died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 89 and lived in Los Angeles.The apparent cause was a heart attack, his wife, Laurie, said.One of the best-known screenwriters in Hollywood in the postwar years, Mr. Lehman worked with many of the most prominent directors of the period, including Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder. A master of adaptation, he wrote or was a co-writer of film scripts for several Broadway musicals, including...