North by Northwest is a 1959 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets (a classic MacGuffin).
Author and journalist Nick Clooney praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".
This is one of several Hitchcock movies with a music score by Bernard Herrmann and features a memorable opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass. This film is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.
The world premiere took place at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Plot
A Madison Avenue advertising executive, Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), is mistaken for a Mr. George Kaplan and kidnapped by thugs Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht (Robert Ellenstein). He is taken to the house of Lester Townsend on Long Island. There he is interrogated by a man he assumes to be Townsend, but who is really Phillip Vandamm (James Mason). When Thornhill repeatedly denies he is Kaplan and refuses to cooperate, Vandamm orders his right-hand man Leonard (Martin Landau) to get rid of him.
Thornhill is forced to drink bourbon in an attempt to stage a fatal accident. However, after a car chase on a perilous road, he is rear-ended by a police patrol car and apprehended. He is charged with drunken driving. He is unable to get the police, the judge or even his mother (Jessie Royce Landis) to believe what happened to him, especially when a woman at Townsend's residence claims he got drunk at a dinner party; she also informs them that Townsend is a United Nations diplomat.
Thornhill and his mother go to Kaplan's hotel room, but cannot find anyone at the hotel who has seen him.
Narrowly avoiding recapture, Thornhill takes a taxi to the General Assembly building of the United Nations, where Townsend is due to deliver a speech. Thornhill meets Townsend face to face and is surprised to find that the diplomat is not the man who interrogated him. Then Valerian throws a knife that strikes Townsend in the back. He falls forward, dead, into Thornhill's arms. Unthinkingly, Thornhill removes the knife, making it appear to witnesses that he is the killer, forcing him to flee.
Knowing that Kaplan has a reservation at a Chicago hotel the next day (Vandamm mentioned it), Thornhill goes to Grand Central Terminal and sneaks onto the 20th Century Limited train. On board, he meets the seductive Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who helps Thornhill evade policemen searching the train by hiding him twice—once in the overhead fold-up bunk in her sleeping car compartment. She asks about his personalized matchbooks with the initials ROT; he says the O stands for nothing.
Unbeknownst to Thornhill, Eve is working with Vandamm and Leonard, who are in another compartment. Upon arriving at Chicago's LaSalle Street Station, Thornhill borrows the uniform of one of the porters and carries Eve's luggage through the crowd, eluding police. Eve (who is Vandamm's lover) lies to Thornhill, telling him she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan. She gives him directions to the place.
In an iconic sequence, Thornhill travels by bus to an isolated crossroads, with flat countryside all around and nobody in sight. Another man finally arrives, but then takes the next bus. Before he leaves, the puzzled stranger observes that a biplane is "dusting crops where there ain't no crops." Without warning, the plane flies towards Thornhill and the pilot begins shooting at him. He flees to the only cover, a cornfield, but the plane dusts it with pesticide, forcing him out. Desperate for help, Thornhill steps in front of a speeding gasoline tank truck, which stops barely in time. The plane crashes into it and explodes. When passing drivers stop to see what is going on, Thornhill steals a pickup truck and flees.
Thornhill returns to the Chicago hotel, where he is surprised to learn that Kaplan had already checked out when Eve claimed to have spoken to him. A suspicious Thornhill goes to Eve's room. She allows him to get his suit cleaned and use the shower as she leaves. From the impression of a message written on a notepad, Thornhill learns her destination: an art auction.
There, he finds Vandamn, Leonard, and Eve. Vandamm purchases a pre-Columbian Tarascan statue and leaves. Thornhill tries to follow, only to find all exits covered by Vandamm's men. Thinking quickly, he begins placing nonsensical bids, making such a nuisance of himself that the police have to be called to remove him.
Thornhill identifies himself as a wanted fugitive, but en route to the police station, the officers are ordered to take him instead to the airport (where a gate for Northwest Airlines is seen, playing on the film's title). There, he meets the Professor (Leo G. Carroll), a spymaster who is after Vandamm. The Professor reveals that George Kaplan does not exist; he was invented to distract Vandamm from the real government agent—Eve, whose life is now in danger. To protect her, Thornhill agrees to help the Professor.
They fly to Rapid City, South Dakota, where Thornhill (now pretending to be Kaplan) meets Eve and Vandamm in a crowded cafeteria at the base of Mount Rushmore. He offers to let Vandamm leave the country unhindered in exchange for Eve, but is turned down. When he tries to keep her from leaving, Eve shoots Thornhill and flees. He is taken away in an ambulance. At a secluded spot, however, he emerges unharmed, having been shot with blanks. To his dismay, he learns that, having proven her loyalty, she will accompany Vandamm. To keep him from interfering further, Thornhill is locked in a hospital room by the Professor.
Thornhill manages to escape. He goes to Vandamm's mountainside home, scales the exterior and slips inside undetected. He learns that the microfilm has been put inside the Tarascan statue. While Eve is out of the room, Leonard fires the gun she used at Vandamm, demonstrating how the shooting was faked. Vandamm decides to throw Eve out of the airplane once they are airborne. Thornhill manages to warn her by writing a note inside one of his distinctive matchbooks and dropping it where she can find it.
On the way to the airplane, Eve grabs the statue and joins Thornhill. Leonard and Valerian chase them across the Mount Rushmore monument. When Valerian tries to ambush the pair, he instead falls to his death. Eve slips and clings desperately to the steep mountainside. Thornhill grabs her hand, while precariously holding on with his other hand. Leonard appears and starts grinding his heel on Thornhill's hand. They are saved when the Professor directs a police marksman to shoot Leonard. Vandamm is taken into custody.
The scene transitions from Thornhill pulling Eve to safety on Mount Rushmore to him pulling her (the new Mrs. Thornhill) up onto an overhead train bunk. The final shot shows their train speeding into a tunnel.
Cast
- Cary Grant as Roger O. Thornhill
- Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall
- James Mason as Phillip Vandamm
- Leo G. Carroll as The Professor
- Jessie Royce Landis as Thornhill's Mother
- Martin Landau as Leonard
- Philip Ober as Lester Townsend
- Josephine Hutchinson as Mrs. Townsend
- Adam Williams as Valerian
- Patrick McVey as Sergeant Flamm
Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In North by Northwest he can be seen missing a bus at the end of the opening credits.
Landis, who played Thornhill's mother, was only eight years older than Grant. She also played his future mother-in-law in To Catch a Thief .
It is rumored James Stewart was the original choice to play Thornhill, and that Hitchcock replaced him with Grant after the poor box office performance of Vertigo , which Hitchcock supposedly blamed on Stewart looking too old to still attract audiences. This was untrue, as Hitchcock was planning to reunite with Stewart during his next film, The Blind Man .
MGM wanted Cyd Charisse for the role played by Eva Marie Saint. Hitchcock stood by his choice.
Origins
John Russell Taylor's official biography of Hitchcock, Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock (1978), suggests that the story originated after a spell of writer's block during the scripting of another movie project:
Alfred Hitchcock had agreed to do a film for MGM, and they
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