Every film I watch only gets so much of my suspension of disbelief. A coincidence here or there? No problem. A convenient meeting of two characters at just the right time? Sure, I’ll go with it! Too much, though, and it feels like lazy writing. The happy chances stack up and cross a line and lose me.

North by Northwest blasts through its disbelief budget in the first 10 minutes. The plot hinges on so much flimsy serendipity that the film strains credulity. At no point in this film does James Mason even say “hey given this nationwide manhunt for Roger Kaplan, maybe my dopey henchman’s dopey plan didn’t identify the right guy”. And the film just keeps rolling with it. On to the next “and it JUST SO HAPPENS that…” until you find yourself in a house just two minutes down the road from the top of Mount Rushmore. Riiiiiight.

And yet! AND YET! Honestly, who needs credulity when you’ve got stars like this? North by Northwest perfectly demonstrates that, sometimes, megawatt charisma really can carry a movie.