North by Northwest (1959)

In Alfred Hitchcock's suspenseful and masterful spy-thriller caper involving mistaken identity - it was one of Hitchcock's most common themes, derived from a script by famous American screenwriter Ernest Lehman. It was a moderately successful film - on a budget of $4.3 million, it made box-office revenue (domestic) of $9.8 million.

In the entertaining plot, a successful Manhattan advertising executive was suddenly totally vulnerable, isolated, and caught up in an unexplainable series of events; after an abduction (when he was victimized and mistaken for a government undercover Federal agent by a group of foreign spies), he also found himself on the run as an implicated murder suspect (after being framed for a UN official's murder in NYC's UN building); he was pursued cross-country by a seeming conspiratorial group of spies, the police, and the FBI.

The American (Cary Grant in his fourth and final film for Hitchcock) was eventually forced to assume another man's identity (George Kaplan, a non-existent US agent), while confronted with murder, mayhem, a world of spies and counterspies, a domineering and unbelieving mother, and an untrustworthy, mysterious blonde, femme fatale lover (Eva Marie Saint). His final salvation occurred on the Presidential faces carved on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota - the most modern and iconic American image of all.

There were a number of famous set-pieces - the steamy seduction scenes during the cross-country train ride on the 20th Century Limited (from Grand Central Station in NYC to Chicago), the seven-minute bi-plane crop-duster attack scene near a Midwest cornfield, the auction scene, and the dangling finale at Mount Rushmore. There were two MacGuffins: (1) the existence of CIA agent "George Kaplan" who was being chased by spies, but didn't really exist and had been created by the government as a distraction, and (2) the "government secrets" on microfilm hidden in a Pre-Columbian statue that was being smuggled out of the country.

This film was nominated for three Academy Awards (with no wins): 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.

• the memorable Saul Bass opening credits sequence was set to composer Bernard Herrmann's lively score; it began with an unnatural, pale green screen that was shot across with upper-right to lower-left diagonal lines and vertical lines - gridlines that appeared to make the green surface look like the gridwork of graph paper; the major credits sliced across the criss-cross pattern of lines, before the gridwork was soon transformed (or dissolved) into the side of a tall New York City skyscraper - a glass-surfaced building that diagonally filled the screen from the lower left to upper right at an angle; on the huge wall of glass were distorted reflections of midtown Manhattan from below, with yellow taxis at rush hour moving back and forth
• Hitchcock's customary cameo appeared immediately after the title screen: "Directed by ALFRED HITCHCOCK" - when the director in bustling NYC missed getting on a green-and-yellow city bus as its doors slammed on him

Saul Bass' Opening Title Credits

• debonair New York adman Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) in a gray flannel suit was rushing in a taxi to attend a business luncheon with his associates at the Plaza Hotel Oak Room; as he was about to send a telegram-wire to his mother Clara (Jessie Royce Landis), he inadvertently signaled to a bellhop (Ralph Reed) paging for a "George Kaplan" [a ruse to convince spies that government agent Kaplan actually existed]; he was overheard, and mistaken for double agent 'Kaplan' by two sinister-looking, strong-armed henchmen in the lobby: Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht (Robert Ellenstein); as Thornhill left the bar area, he was kidnapped and forced into an awaiting Cadillac limousine outside, and driven to the private home of UN diplomat Lester 'Townsend' in Glen Cove, Long Island

Thornhill Abducted in Lobby of Park Hotel by Two Henchmen and Driven to the 'Townsend' Estate in Glen Cove, Long Island

• there, in the country estate, he was ushered into a locked library and questioned by a distinguished, smooth-talking gentleman he presumed was 'Lester Townsend' and 'Townsend's' assistant, with a brief appearance by 'Mrs. Townsend' (Josephine Hutchinson) who mentioned she was hosting a dinner party
• Roger claimed that he wasn't Kaplan and had none of the information that they were demanding; however, the two espionage agents believed he was a federal agent named 'George Kaplan' who was pursuing them, and elusively moved from city to city and hotel to hotel; in two days, he was destined to travel to Chicago (staying at the Ambassador East Hotel), and then to Rapid City, South Dakota (at the Sheraton Johnson Hotel); currently, he was staying in the Plaza Hotel (Room #796)
• [Note: Spoiler - in fact, Thornhill was a victim of mistaken identity and was talking to lead foreign spy Philip Vandamm (James Mason) and his henchman Leonard (Martin Landau) who were dealing in American gov't secrets, and had finally caught up to their alleged adversary; Vandamm had briefly taken over the vacated home of Townsend, a UN diplomat]
• the three thugs were ordered to force-feed Thornhill large quantities of bourbon, and then he was drunkenly placed in the driver's seat of a Mercedes roadster convertible later that night to drive on a dark, winding ocean cliff road where he was expected to become the victim of a fatal, drunk-driving accident

A Near-Fatal Drunk-Driving Accident - Thornhill Was Taken to the Glen Cove Police Station to Phone His Mother Clara

• miraculously, he survived the trip, but his out-of-control driving attracted a police car that chased after him and arrested him (after accidentally rear-ending his car), and then a third vehicle rear-ended the police car; he was taken to the Glen Cove Police Station where the car he was driving was listed as stolen; Thornhill phoned his doting, socialite mother Clara to contact his lawyer and bail him out the next morning
• the next day when arraigned for drunk driving in court, Roger and his lawyer claimed he was abducted and almost murdered; the case was referred for investigation to county detectives; a group of officers revisited the 'Townsend' estate with Roger and his mother, but there was no evidence of any kidnapping or foul play; the woman who said she was 'Mrs. Townsend' told how the party the previous evening (a fabricated story) led to "Mr. Kaplan" getting drunk; when Thornhill asked to see her husband, she claimed that Lester Townsend was addressing the General Assembly at the United Nations in the afternoon; the detectives were unconvinced about Roger's claims of a kidnapping and murder plot
• Roger returned to the city with his mother, determined to learn more about the alleged "Mr. Kaplan" who he was told had been booked for two days in the Plaza Hotel; during a visit to Kaplan's #796 room, they learned that the maid Elsie (Maudie Prickett) and the valet (James McCallion) hadn't seen him, but they assumed that Thornhill was "Kaplan"; in Kaplan's room, Roger found a photograph of 'Townsend' (Vandamm); Thornhill began to wonder about Kaplan's actual existence: "I'm beginning to think that no one in the hotel has actually seen Kaplan"; as they were returning back to the lobby in the hotel elevator, they were pursued by Roger's two strong-armed enemy assassins, Valerian and Licht, who had followed them into the crowded elevator space; Clara naively asked them: "You gentlemen aren't really trying to kill my son, are you?", causing nervous laughter

Revisiting Park Hotel Room #796 and Speaking to the Maid Elsie

Thornhill to Clara: "I'm beginning to think that no one in the hotel has actually seen Kaplan."

In Plaza Hotel Elevator - Clara Asked: "You gentlemen aren't really trying to kill my son, are you?"

• after racing out of the hotel and taking a taxi to the United Nations building in NYC, Roger (who was now identifying himself as "Mr. Kaplan") asked to speak with Lester Townsend, and was perplexed and confused to meet the real Lester Townsend (Philip Ober) - not the phony Townsend at the estate; to his shock, Townsend explained how his Glen Cove estate had been empty for a month while he was staying in a Manhattan apartment due to his UN work; he also mentioned how his wife had been dead for a number of years
• as Thornhill showed him the photograph of 'Townsend' (Vandamm) taken from Kaplan's hotel room, the real Townsend gasped as he was struck by a knife hurled at his back by Valerian; suddenly, Kaplan realized Townsend had been assassinated when he crumpled over into his arms; it was the 2nd assassination attempt that had failed to kill Thornhill; after pulling the knife out of Townsend's back, Thornhill held the knife in mid-air and was photographed by a journalist; someone shouted: "He's got a knife, look out!"; Roger blurted out: "Listen to me. I had nothing to do with this"- but it was assumed by the crowd that Roger had killed the UN diplomat; in a panic after dropping the knife, he rushed out of the hall; he ran outside onto a long sidewalk and got into an awaiting yellow cab (filmed from high above the UN, making him look like a tiny object being examined under a microscope)

US Intelligence Agency Chief - The Professor (Leo G. Carroll)

• later that day, in a conference room of the United States Intelligence Agency, Thornhill's case was being discussed after being headlined in The Evening Star newspaper (Tuesday, November 25, 1958): "DIPLOMAT SLAIN AT U.N."; in a room full of agents, a paternalistic agency chief known as the Professor (Leo G. Carroll) presided over a discussion of the recent headlines-making incidents - Townsend’s murder and Thornhill's alleged guilt and fugitive status; then, the film surprisingly revealed that the intelligence representatives knew all along that Kaplan was an imaginary, secret, mythical and fictional agent who "doesn't even exist" as part of a covert government operation
• when asked what to do about the dilemma, the Professor suggested that the government must do "nothing" and take advantage of their "good fortune" by continuing to use Thornhill as a fictitious decoy, to mislead foreign spies (and smugglers) such as Philip Vandamm from discovering the identities of real agents; they needed to protect a second undercover agent who could then safely catch Vandamm selling government secrets: "We didn't invent our non-existent man and give him the name of George Kaplan, establish elaborate behavior patterns for him, move his prop belongings in and out of hotel rooms for our own private amusement. We created George Kaplan and labored successfully to convince Vandamm that this was our own agent hot on his trail for a desperately important reason...If we make the slightest move to suggest that there is no such agent as George Kaplan, give any hint to Vandamm that he's pursuing a decoy instead of our own agent, then our agent working right under Vandamm's very nose will immediately face suspicion, exposure and assassination, like the two others who went before"; in an overhead shot, the only woman in the group, Mrs. Finlay (Madge Kennedy), expressed sympathy for Thornhill's plight and doom: "Good-bye, Mr. Thornhill, wherever you are"
• in a crowded Grand Central Station swarming with police, the fugitive Thornhill realized that he must follow Kaplan's expected 'north by northwest' trajectory to find George Kaplan and clear his own name; he had learned from the Plaza Hotel that Kaplan had checked out; he would board a cross-country railroad train at 6 pm - the Twentieth Century Limited from NYC to Chicago, and then check in at the Hotel Ambassador East [Note: The train trip of 960 miles normally takes 16 hours of travel time]
• after nervously attempting to purchase a ticket and believing that he had been recognized at a ticket counter, Thornhill ran to the track platform and boarded the train without a ticket; once onboard, he bumped into a cool, untrustworthy, mysterious, platinum blonde in the corridor, who helped him evade and mislead the police; afterwards as the train journey began, he hid in a public toilet to avoid ticket-takers, and found himself at a dining table sitting across from the blonde; she admitted that she had tipped the steward $5 dollars to seat him with her; she introduced herself as 26 year-old unmarried Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), an industrial designer, and then also admitted that she knew he was Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue who was charged with Townsend's murder; she promised she wouldn't "say a word," and then asked about the initials "R O T" on his personalized matchbook - he told her that the O stood for nothing
• due to their flirtatious manner with each other, he was hoping to be invited into her compartment after confessing that he didn't have a ticket; she suggested that she liked him and might be willing to help him, after she noticed state police entering the train at an unscheduled stop to search the train; she invited him to share her large drawing room, and helped conceal him in her empty upper bunk when two state police officers entered and questioned her
• in one of the film's most seductive and sizzling romantic scenes, she then encouraged him in a playful manner to kiss her in her train compartment; at the same time, he was led to believe that Eve was going to help him, by allowing him to possibly stay in her hotel room in Chicago, and to phone Kaplan and arrange an urgent meeting with him; she surrendered entirely to his hands around her head as they bantered together, even though he was basically a stranger to her; after a porter interrupted their seduction and made up the berth's one and only bed, she cautioned Thornhill: "It means you're going to sleep on the floor"; however, below the surface, she was beginning to fall in love with him

A Cross-Country Train Romance Between Thornhill and Eve Kendall

• at the same time, reflecting her troubled and conflicted position as a femme fatale, she wrote a note that was delivered by the porter to a nearby sleeping car room, occupied by Leonard and the fake 'Townsend' (Vandamm); the handwritten note stated: "What do I do with him in the morning? Eve"
• after the train arrived in Chicago at 9 am (Central Time Zone), Thornhill disguised himself as Eve's luggage porter to evade state police (he had paid off a red-capped porter to give him his uniform); while he changed clothes in the men's room of the station, she went to a phone booth to call - not Kaplan but Leonard, who was at the end of the adjoining block of phone booths
• when she met up with Thornhill a few moments later, Eve told him that the mysterious Kaplan had agreed to meet him at the Prairie bus stop at a Highway 41 crossroads about 1 1/2 hours Greyhound Bus ride from Chicago enroute to Indianapolis; he was told to wait by the side of the road for Kaplan's arrival at 3:30 pm. [Note: however, the treacherous Eve had actually lied to him about a conversation with Kaplan - in fact, she had arranged for an attempt on his life.]

At Rural Indiana Crossroads: "That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops!"

• in the bright hot sunlight of the mid-afternoon (it's late November!), Thornhill (still wearing his neat gray flannel suit) arrived by bus at a deserted Highway 41 crossroads (in neighboring Indiana) in the flat countryside where he had been lured by enemy spies on the pretext of meeting and connecting with the fabled Kaplan - his non-existent double; it was one of the most famous and beloved set pieces ever filmed; a stranger was dropped off and stood across the road from him (in widescreen), awaiting a bus; he wondered about a strange, nearby crop-dusting plane: "That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops!"; the man soon boarded a bus and left, leaving Thornhill alone once again

The Famous Crop-Duster Plane Attack

• during a seven minute pursuit-attack sequence by a deadly crop-dusting bi-plane in the open, flat and desolate Midwest, Thornhill was shocked that the bi-plane was targeting him and firing shots at him; he sought protection in a dried-up cornfield; the plane dusted the cornfield with a white powdery pesticide, bringing him back out into the open; on the road, he flagged down an approaching semi-trailer Magnum Oil truck and narrowly avoided being hit; he emerged from under the truck's front bumper and watched, in a dramatically-edited and suspenseful sequence, when the strafing plane crashed into the truck's gas tank; he was able to race from the flaming truck before there was a violent explosion; Thornhill drove away in one of the vacated pickup trucks left by bystanders-onlookers, and returned to Chicago
• in the Ambassador East Hotel, he learned from the desk clerk that Kaplan had already checked out early that morning at 7:10 am on his way to Rapid City, SD (to check into the Sheraton Johnson Hotel) - almost two hours before Eve allegedly claimed to have talked to him at the train station; Eve was also checked into the hotel, and he followed her to her 4th floor room; she was startled that he was still alive but also secretly relieved; he did not reciprocate her hug; he noticed the latest headlines about the lethal crop-duster tragedy and hinted that she had set him up to die; and then after she received a phone call and was directed to an unspecified address that she wrote on a notepad and placed in her purse (with a concealed gun), she ordered him to leave immediately and never to see her again, but then accepted a dinner invitation
• while his clothes were being cleaned and he pretended to take a shower, Eve snuck away; he determined her location by rubbing a pencil on a pad of paper to reveal her address; he followed her to a crowded art auction held at a chic, 1212 North Michigan Avenue address in Chicago; he located Eve with her supposed lover - the fake 'Townsend' (Vandamm) and his henchman Leonard; Vandamm was still convinced that Thornhill was Mr. Kaplan; Thornhill learned 'Townsend's' real name - and noticed he was bidding to win a Pre-Columbian art object (to be used later to hide microfilmed secrets); it was evident that The Professor was also seated in the audience watching their heated discussion; Leonard notified his other henchman Valerian to cover the exits, and after watching Eve leave with Vandamm, Thornhill cleverly began to make erratic low bids, question the authenticity of the art works, and heckle the auctioneer so that the police would arrest him (and he could safely escape from the evil spies)
• as Thornhill was being driven away to Chicago's 42nd Precinct, the police were instructed by carphone to take him instead to Chicago's Midway Airport, where he was met by the Professor in the Northwest terminal; Thornhill was told to board a plane to Rapid City, SD, to follow Vandamm and his mistress (a "treacherous little tramp"), as the spies were trying to take microfilmed government secrets out of the country
• Thornhill was told by the Professor that George Kaplan never existed and that he was only a decoy created by the American intelligence agency to divert attention away from a real CIA agent; Roger was then asked to play out the character of Kaplan for another 24 hours, until Vandamm could be apprehended trying to leave the country; he was to fully 'become' the person he had inadvertently given flesh-and-blood status to - in order to help save the life of another endangered agent; Thornhill stressed that he was an innocent man on the run, and refused to be a decoy: "I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent upon me"
• then, in the film's starting plot twist, to keep Thornhill on the job, the Professor revealed that Eve was a double agent working undercover ("She's one of our agents"), and posing as Vandamm's moll/mistress (a case of sexual exploitation), in order to protect her identity; Thornhill reluctantly agreed to proceed to Rapid City SD, follow Vandamm, and pretend to be Kaplan in order to save Eve's life
• the next morning, Vandamm (with Eve) had agreed to meet with Thornhill, who had finally resigned himself to be George Kaplan; at the Mount Rushmore Monument cafeteria (at the base of the monument), Roger privately proposed to Vandamm that he would let the master spy leave the country without interference in exchange for Eve: ("I want the girl"); in a staged argument with Thornhill, he grabbed Eve and pulled her towards him; Eve shockingly pulled out a gun (loaded with blanks) from her handbag and fired two shots at Thornhill - appearing to critically wound him, so that her jealous lover Vandamm wouldn't suspect that she was working against him; as everyone fled, Thornhill collapsed - apparently hurt - and was aided by the Professor; he was carried by stretcher to a green US Department of the Interior station wagon

A Staged Argument Between Eve and Thornhill - A Faked Shooting in Mount Rushmore's Cafeteria

• afterwards, the Park Ranger vehicle (with the Professor) was driven into a cool forest setting filled with ponderosa pines, where Thornhill (unhurt) and Eve were romantically reunited and they kissed passionately; she confirmed her true identity (as a double agent), and apologized about lying to him; however, Thornhill then learned that the Professor had duped him - and she would still be 'prostituting' herself in the "dirty business" - her duty to the government demanded that she leave America that evening with Vandamm and fly away with him on his plane; when Eve rushed off to her car to leave, Thornhill protested, but was knocked unconscious by a ranger's punch
• to avoid suspicion, the betrayed and angered Thornhill was confined with police custody in a locked hospital room in Rapid City; that night, Thornhill escaped, took a taxi to Vandamm’s modernistic, cliff-side, glassed-in retreat (set near a small concealed airplane runway), climbed up onto the home's beams, and watched as Vandamm and Leonard discussed their plans to leave shortly (after their plane's landing in 10 minutes)
• he overheard Leonard privately express his distrustful suspicions about Eve to Vandamm - and asked why he hadn't trusted her enough to tell her about their microfilmed gov't secrets hidden in their art object that they were planning to smuggle out of the country that evening; to prove his assertions, he revealed blanks in Eve's gun by harmlessly shooting at Vandamm; Vandamm was horrified by the revelation, but plotted to kill Eve by throwing her from their departing plane
• Thornhill realized he must save Eve, and attempted to alert her in the living room of his presence (with a message on his monogrammed ROT matchbook: "They're onto you - I'm in your room"); he was able to warn her of her endangered life as the spies' private plane landed; after some delays in his escape plan due to Vandamm's housekeeper Anna, Roger was able to rendezvous with Eve (with the snatched art figure) at the runway and they fled and drove off together in Valerian's stolen car; at the locked driveway gate to the estate, they abandoned the car and proceeded on foot, while being pursued by Leonard and Vandamm through the woods
• they realized that they were at the top of Mount Rushmore, where they peered over the massive tops of the heads of the Presidents - directly atop Thomas Jefferson
• in the film's concluding cliff-dangling episode at the Mount Rushmore monument, they were forced to climb down the monument, and found themselves clinging for their lives from the carved rock with Presidential faces, when Roger lightly quipped: "They (two previous wives) said I led too dull a life"; Roger fought off Valerian wielding a knife and tossed him off the mountain
• meanwhile, Leonard snatched the art figure from Eve and threw her down the rock wall, where she precariously dangled from the rock cliff as Thornhill attempted to save her; Leonard was grinding his shoe into Thornhill's hand when a shot rang out; the statue dropped and shattered (revealing the microfilm inside), and Leonard fell to his death from a Sergeant's bullet; they were both rescued by the Professor and the police, and Vandamm was arrested

The Chase Across Mount Rushmore, Including Cliff-Dangling and Fighting Off Thugs

• in the film's final, clever transition, Thornhill tugged on Eve (hanging on the immense carved stone face) and - CUT - pulled her up into an upper berth in the interior of a Pullman sleeping car (that headed into a tunnel, a blatantly phallic image); Thornhill and Eve were on their return train trip to NYC; the couple were last seen on their honeymoon as they bedded down for the night in their private double-bedded train compartment

'Naughty' and Mischievous Ending Transition: Thornhill Pulling Eve Up to a Train Bunk