North By Northwest (1959)

Star Rating- 3

Length of Film- 136 minutes
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Cast- Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G. Carroll, Josephine Hutchinson, Philip Ober, Martin Landau, Adam Williams, Edward Platt, Robert Ellenstein, Les Tremayne, Philip Coolidge, Patrick McVey, & Ed Binns
Oscar Nominations- Ernest Lehman (screenplay), William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace, Frank R. McKelvy (art direction), & George Tomasini (editing)



 

You probably wondered, what does the title “North by Northwest” mean? Our main character Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) was told by CIA agent the professor (Leo G. Carroll) told Roger to get on a plane, Northwest Airlines and go north of South Dakota.

Roger Thornhill is an advertising man who accidently got mistaken for George Kaplan a spy who was the suspected murderer of a U.N. diplomat, who we later find out, never existed. Thornhill was taken in by the villainous Phillip Vandamm. Trying to get information out of Thornhill, he resorted to torture. Forcing him to drink whole bottle of hard liquor, and put him in a stolen car, and sent him to drive to hopefully crash and kill himself. He ended up wrecking and going to jail.

Thornhill makes a promise to himself that will figure out who this Kaplan is, but as soon as he gets close to clues, the police and Vandamm’s goons are after him. He jumps on a train where he meets the beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Maria Saint). She invites him to have dinner with her, then after endless flirting, she invites him back to her room. “So much of the plot spins on what appears to be a one-night stand initiated by a cool blonde with an itch for anonymous encounters.”-The Greatest Movies Ever: The Ultimate Ranked List of The 101 Best Films of all Time! The romantic kiss scene on the train, between Thornhill and Kendall are really close-uncomfortably close. Even though we don’t see it (it was 1959) we know they hooked up and had sex.

Of course, as always, the leading lady isn’t who she said she is. It wasn’t on accident that she befriends Thornhill…

One of the great scenes in this movie was when Thornhill was set on a wild goose chase to the Midwest. He got off the Greyhound on a dusty farm road where he waits for a “mysterious connection”. He waits and waits. 8 minutes goes by, no music, complete stillness; then in the distance, a crop duster. Thornhill ignores it at first, and then realizes that the plane is aiming for him! He’s been set up, but where does it hide? A lonely cornfield is his only hope to survive. Deadly poison spews from the plane. OH NO!!!!

 

Watch the movie, and make your own opinion about it. It’s not the stereotypical Alfred Hitchcock type movie, but it’s what movies are supposed to be, entertaining.

 

MOVIE MISTAKE! Here’s the scene where Eve has a gun pointed to Thornhill, in the background, on the right, you will see a little boy preparing for the shot by already having his ears covered. HA!

 

 

 

At 0:02:09 minutes into the movie, you get a glimpse of Alfred Hitchcock making his cameo into the movie. He misses the bus, and is just after his credit passes off screen during the title sequence.