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A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.
Cary Grant: Roger O. Thornhill
Alfred Hitchcock made North by Northwest at the height of his career and popularity, released 1959; his television show gave him the kind of exposure and face recognition usually reserved for only the biggest stars. Hitchcock always maintained that great films should also entertain, North by Northwest being presented here as our star witness to prove his assertion to be right on the money.
Cary Grant plays Roger O. Thornhill as the slick Madison Avenue advertising man who is mistaken to be George Kaplin, a spy hot on the trail of Phillip Vandamm, played masterfully by James Mason. All we really know about Thornhill is the statement he makes to Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) on the train from New York to Chicago that he has a mother, several bartenders and two ex-wives dependent upon his support. The "O" used to initial his middle name and his initials, equally have significance. These details are revealing and the scene is beautifully crafted; showing us the apparent emptiness of his life prior to this adventure. Ernst Lehman's script is loaded with these types of treasures throughout the story.
If you're really not into excellent dialogue and clever acting and prefer that the story accelerate at a fast pace, this also is the adventure for you, as it has two of the most memorable action sequences in film; Referring to the crop dusting sequence and the finale on top of Mount Rushmore. Those are enough to put North by Northwest near the top of anyones must see list.
Eve Kendall: Patience is a virtue.
Roger Thornhill: So is breathing.
Respect are also due to Leo G. Carroll in one of his best character roles as The Professor, who's humble appearance belies the fact that he is the one who is responsible for manipulating much of the action behind the scenes. A young Martin Landau, as Leonard, Vandamm's right hand man, shows us in the few scenes what a versatile actor he was. The music by the great Bernard Herrmann is one of the classic pieces that made him famous; beginning from the clever opening title sequence to it's thrilling conclusion.
The film's intense pace takes the form of a dream, a person that loses control of his life and then transforms to the person he's mistaken for. Roger Thornhill, half by accident and half by his own will transforms to spy decoy George Kaplan.
The board of government spy directors, led by the Professor, represents the forces that control destiny. They control both Eve Kendall's and Thornhill's fate. And they choose to dispatch with Thornhill altogether since he doesn't fit the general scheme of things. Thornhill gets entangled in a Kafka-esquire nightmare. Kendall, the femme fatale, is a government spy herself trying to uncover Vandamm by working closely on his side and being his lover. A Freudian labyrinth.
If we view this movie in its historical context of 1959, we see that it was made in the middle of the Cold War, and much of the suspense is reliant upon the audience's reality of living with the knowledge that everything could end with the press of a button (I know this is too simplistic, but many people's perception at this point in history was just that). The Professor, Vandamm, Ms. Kendall, Leonard and others are Cold Soldiers, and it is Thornhill's misfortune to become swept up in it's intrigues; but our very great fortune to be able to get swept up with him and let Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, be our guide in one of his masterworks.
Roger Thornhill: I don't like the games you play, professor.
The Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it's a cold one.
10/10
