If I am not wrong, if you playback PAL on a NTSC TV, you'll get the stutter effect very similar to playing back film (24 frames) on NTSC TV. Probably this 'film effect' is what drives NTSC-landers to buy PAL machines, for the film-look.

Yes, indeed. PAL footage for NTSC for that 25P film look.

Locally sold PAL cams here in Vancouver are no more expensive than their NTSC counterparts---actually cheaper usually, but the PAL selection is slim, because they're missing 5 frames per second.