A bus drops a well-dressed man at a remote stop surrounded by cornfields. The man expects to meet someone there but the few people who pass by do not appear to be the person he is meeting. In the distance, he can hear a plane engine as a crop duster treats the fields. When he is finally alone, the plane becomes louder and he realizes that it is coming directly toward him. He dives to the ground to avoid being struck by it. It is one of the most memorable scenes in movie history but it is one of many thrills and narrow escapes by Cary Grant in North by Northwest.

When North by Northwest begins, we meet Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive in New York City.  Thornhill, who we later learn has “a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon” him, is enjoying drinks with some friends when he is abducted at gunpoint by two men.  Taken to a mansion outside the city, his captors name him as Mr. Kaplan.  He insists that he is not Kaplan as his captors tell him a great deal about the man.  After some questioning, they decide there is nothing to learn from him and they begin forcing him to drink bourbon.  He narrowly escapes an attempt on his life when they put him behind the wheel of a car.  Arrested for drunk driving, he tries to explain himself despite the disbelief of the police and his mother.  However, he won’t give up and, eventually, makes his way to the United Nations where a Mr. Townsend, who owns the house Thornhill was taken to, is killed.  A reporter snaps a picture of Thornhill holding the knife.  Now, both the mysterious villains and the police are on his trail. 

In a cutaway scene that takes place in Washington, we learn that George Kaplan does not exist.  He is a fiction created by a government agency designed to catch the very people who kidnapped Thornhill.  We also learn that the agency is perfectly fine with Thornhill being mistaken for Kaplan as long as the case of mistaken identity continues to serve their purpose of drawing out the bad guys and protecting their agent.  Knowing none of this, Thornhill follows Kaplan’s trail west from New York.  He meets Eve Kendall on the train to Chicago.  There is an immediate attraction between the two and she helps him avoid the police while on the train and upon arrival in Chicago.  She sends him to meet Kaplan outside of Chicago but all he finds is an airplane trying to kill him.  Eventually, everyone makes their way to Rapid City, South Dakota for a thrilling climax on and around Mt. Rushmore. 

If North by Northwest looks and sounds a little familiar, it’s because it influenced so many future films. It could even be said that it created a new genre. A wise-cracking leading man, international villains, beautiful women, and exotic locations are familiar ingredients to any James Bond, Mission Impossible, or Fast and Furious fan but, in 1959, no one had seen anything like this. Read some of the contemporary reviews of North by Northwest on Rotten Tomatoes and you will see how critics, on one hand, almost universally enjoyed it but did not quite know what to make of it.  None of them seemed to sense that it would become the classic we now consider it.  

I think the primary reason for the confusion of those critics is that so much of North by Northwest doesn’t really make sense but it’s so enjoyable and immersive that we can’t stop watching. We don’t know why Thornhill was mistaken as Kaplan but it so much fun watching his reaction and escapes from danger that we don’t mind. We don’t know how or why Eve Kendall is on the train to meet Thornhill but we are nevertheless wrapped up in the witty dialog and sexual tension between the two. We don’t know why an assassin would try to kill someone with a plane but it is such a thrilling scene that we go along with it. We don’t even know why they are trying to kill him until the very end but that doesn’t matter. Plenty of movies are confusing and have ridiculous plots and scenes but, in North by Northwest, it feels deliberate. Alfred Hitchcock is pulling us into the film by giving us little bits at a time. Our confusion about what is happening to Roger Thornhill creates a connection with him.  He doesn’t know what is happening either and he is figuring it all out as he goes, just like us. 

Hitchcock seemed to have a knack for casting the perfect performer for a role as well as getting the most out of the performer.  North by Northwest is no exception.  Cary Grant is perfectly cast as the handsome and clever Roger Thornhill. Grant was a unique talent who had both acting skills and nearly perfect comic timing. Both are on display in this film. Grant’s natural charm and wittiness are exactly what is needed to play Thornhill. 

Eva Marie Saint had a reputation as a somewhat dull method actress prior to North by Northwest.  The sex appeal she displayed in North by Northwest took critics by surprise. James Mason created a new type of movie villain with his polished demeanor and an accent you can’t quite place. Martin Landau is also memorable as Mason’s brooding and suspicious henchman. All of these roles clearly influenced later Bond heroines and villains.

North by Northwest is as enjoyable today as it was when it was first released over sixty years ago.