North by Northwest

North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".

The box-office hit film is one of the most entertaining movies ever made and one of Hitchcock's most famous suspense/mystery stories in his entire career.

As with many of Hitchcock's films, there were Academy Award nominations, but no Oscars. This film was nominated for three awards: Best Story and Screenplay (Ernest Lehman), Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Film Editing (George Tomasini). The film also included a superb score by Bernard Herrmann. However, there were no nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, or Best Score, to name only a few.

Although much of the film was made in the studio, Hitchcock chose three prominent locales for brief segments of the photogenic film:

• the United Nations Building (New York City) (a hidden camera filmed the hero's entrance up the steps into the building, but the UN lobby was a recreation)
• Grand Central Station (New York City)
• Mount Rushmore (in South Dakota) (there are shots of the exterior of the park's monument, but the actors crawled next to a reproduction of the Presidential faces)

North by Northwest - Original Theatrical Trailer

Plot

Roger O. Thornhill (played by Grant) is a successful advertising executive who, while having lunch at the Plaza Hotel, is mistaken for another man and kidnapped in broad daylight. He is taken to an opulent home on the outskirts of New York City, where he meets Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), a charismatic aristocrat who believes Thornhill is George Kaplan and demands certain information. After repeatedly denying that he is Kaplan, Thornhill is forcibly intoxicated and sent off in his car, presumably to drive to his death in a fatal accident. Instead, the staggeringly drunk Thornhill is arrested by the local police. In trying to determine what has happened to him, Thornhill is led to Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), a UN diplomat. Just as Thornhill meets him, however, Townsend is murdered, leaving Thornhill as the prime suspect. He flees on a train to Chicago and avoids capture with the help of Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), a vivacious blonde who not only shelters Thornhill in her cabin but also seduces him.

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest

Upon arriving in Chicago, Kendall informs Thornhill that Kaplan will meet him at a remote rural bus stop. Once there, however, Thornhill discovers that he has been lured into a trap and barely avoids being killed by a crop duster. He returns to Chicago and trails Kendall to an auction house, where he discovers that she is Vandamm’s mistress. In a tense confrontation, Thornhill is arrested by police but is then taken to the airport, where he is met by the Professor (Leo G. Carroll), a U.S. intelligence official who informs Thornhill that Kendall is actually an agent working for him, and her assignment is to find out how Vandamm’s operation is smuggling secret information out of the United States. The Professor also tells Thornhill that there never was a George Kaplan; he is a fictional character made up to deceive Vandamm and his men. The Professor and Thornhill trail Vandamm and Kendall to Rapid City, South Dakota, where Kendall pretends to shoot Thornhill in order to maintain her cover. However, when Thornhill secretly goes to Vandamm’s house, he overhears a conversation that makes it clear Vandamm and his men know Kendall is a spy. Thornhill and Kendall escape, ending up atop Mount Rushmore. As the couple navigates the perilous climb down, Thornhill tangles with Vandamm’s henchmen. Just as it appears all is lost, the police arrive, and Thornhill and Kendall are saved.