North by North West

North by Northwest

By Alfred Hitchcock

An advertising executive has been mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies and he is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to stay alive.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: Ernest Lehman.       

Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

Main scenes: The kidnap of Rodger Thornhill.

 The attempted assassination of Rodger Thornhill.

Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. He gets involved in a series of misadventures and is pursued across the States by both the spies and the government whilst being helped by a beautiful blonde.

Cary Grant handles the twisted expressions of his face, his astonished look, his impulsive smile with professional self-assurance and charm while taking us right in the middle of confusion on a breathless 2000-mile cross-country chase which has its gripping showdown across the giant faces of the presidents sculptured on Mount Rushmore high above Rapid City, South Dakota.

Grant plays Roger Thornhill, a stylish publicist, mistaken for a fictitious Federal agent, plunged into a world of crime and intrigue, hunted down by villains who want to eliminate him because he seems to be on their dishonest dealings.

When questioned by bland Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), Thornhill is unable to convince him that he is a victim of a mistaken identity. His three thugs fill him with bourbon, and place him in a stolen car expecting him to have a drunken accident. After narrowly escaping death, no one believes his story including, obviously, his sceptical mother (Jessie Royce Landis).

In an effort to discover the agent he is being confused with, and using the clues he collected, Thornhill returns to the United Nations Headquarter looking for George Kaplan. There, somebody falls into his arms and unthinkingly, Thornhill draws the blade out of the victim's back and is photographed holding the weapon in mid-air. And thus became a fugitive from justice, pursued by the cops and had to skip by boarding a train to Chicago.

While on the run, he is caught by a provocative platinum blonde (Eva Marie Saint), who comes out as a glamorous woman and a delightful charmer.

James Mason, a polished mastermind spy showed too well to be threatening. His menacing henchman, Martin Landau is also convincingly hurtful.

In his fifth Hitchcock picture, Leo G. Carroll is suave and calm as the devoted intelligence chief.

Directed by a genius behind the camera, "North by Northwest" remains a genuinely exciting film for the dangerous world of spies and counterspies.