North by Northwest
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Original Title: North by Northwest
Year: 1959
Countries: United States of America
Category: Mystery,Thriller
Languages: English
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Gender: Mystery,Thriller
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125
Movie Cast:
- Roger O. Thornhill: Cary Grant
- Eve Kendall: Eva Marie Saint
- Phillip Vandamm: James Mason
- Clara Thornhill: Jessie Royce Landis
- The Professor: Leo G. Carroll
- Vandamm's Sister aka Mrs. Townsend: Josephine Hutchinson
- Lester Townsend: Philip Ober
- Leonard: Martin Landau
- Valerian: Adam Williams
- Victor Larrabee: Edward Platt
- Licht: Robert Ellenstein
- Auctioneer: Les Tremayne
- Dr. Cross: Philip Coolidge
- Sergeant Flamm: Patrick McVey
- Captain Junket: Edward Binns
- Charley - Chicago Policeman: Ken Lynch
- Anna, the menacing housekeeper (uncredited): Nora Marlowe
- Maggie - Thornhill's Secretary (uncredited): Doreen Lang
- Sergeant Emile Klinger (uncredited): John Beradino
- Ticket seller (uncredited): Ned Glass
- State Police Detective (uncredited): Tol Avery
- Man at Prairie Crossing (uncredited): Malcolm Atterbury
- Hotel maid Elsie (uncredited): Maudie Prickett
- Plaza Hotel lounge patron (uncredited): Bess Flowers
- Lieutenant Harding (uncredited): Stanley Adams
- Farmer (uncredited): Andy Albin
- Porter on Twentieth Century Ltd. (uncredited): Ernest Anderson
- Herman Weltner (uncredited): Frank Wilcox
- Man at Auction (uncredited): Brandon Beach
- Man at Auction (uncredited): Steve Carruthers
- Shaving Man (uncredited): Taggart Casey
- Auction Attendant (uncredited): Bill Catching
- U.S. Intelligence Agency Official (uncredited): Walter Coy
- Taxi Driver #1 (uncredited): Jimmy Cross
- Hospital Patient (uncredited): Patricia Cutts
- Train Steward (uncredited): Jack Daly
- Police Lieutenant (uncredited): John Damler
- U.S. Intelligence Agency Official (uncredited): Lawrence Dobkin
- Eddie - Elevator Starter (uncredited): Tommy Farrell
- Train Passenger (uncredited): Jesslyn Fax
- Bald Bidder (uncredited): Adolph Faylauer
- Second United Nations Receptionist (uncredited): Sally Fraser
- Lieutenant Hagerman (uncredited): Paul Genge
- Man at Auction (uncredited): James Gonzalez
- Silent State Police Detective (uncredited): Tom Greenway
- Man at United Nations Building (uncredited): Robert Haines
- Train Passenger (uncredited): Stuart Hall
- Man Who Misses Bus: Alfred Hitchcock
- Hotel Lounge Patron (uncredited): Stuart Holmes
- Security Guard at Auction (uncredited): Eugene Jackson
- Waiter (uncredited): Bobby Johnson
- Man Leaving Office Building (uncredited): Kenner G. Kemp
- Mrs. Finlay (uncredited): Madge Kennedy
- Man at Auction (uncredited): Colin Kenny
- Man at United Nations Building (uncredited): Carl M. Leviness
- Judge Anson B. Flynn (uncredited): Alexander Lockwood
- Taxi Driver (uncredited): Frank Marlowe
- Taxi Driver #2 (uncredited): Baynes Barron
- Train Passenger (uncredited): Thomas Martin
- Plaza Valet (uncredited): James McCallion
- Attendant (uncredited): Maura McGiveney
- Hotel Clerk (uncredited): Carl Milletaire
- Man at United Nations Building (uncredited): Hans Moebus
- Conductor on Twentieth Century, Ltd. (uncredited): Howard Negley
- Man at United Nations Building (uncredited): Monty O'Grady
- Bellhop (uncredited): Ralph Reed
- Train Passenger (uncredited): John Roy
- Hotel Lounge Patron / Man at Mt. Rushmore Cafeteria (uncredited): Jeffrey Sayre
- Man at Auction (uncredited): Scott Seaton
- Victor - Captain of Waiters (uncredited): Harry Seymour
- Larry Wade (uncredited): Robert Shayne
- Policeman at Grand Central Station (uncredited): Jeremy Slate
- Assistant Auctioneer (uncredited): Olan Soule
- Bidder (uncredited): Helen Spring
- Stockbroker (uncredited): Harvey Stephens
- Assistant Conductor (uncredited): Harry Strang
- Man at Auction (uncredited): Arthur Tovey
- Ranger (uncredited): Dale Van Sickel
- Minor Role (uncredited): Lloyd Williams
- Patrolman Waggoner (uncredited): Robert B. Williams
- Woman at Auction (uncredited): Paula Winslowe
- Photographer at United Nations (uncredited): Wilson Wood
- Fanning Nelson (uncredited): Carleton Young
- Courtroom Spectator (uncredited): Dick Johnstone
- Man at United Nations Building (uncredited): Bert Stevens
- Worker (uncredited): Cosmo Sardo
- Worker (uncredited): Don Anderson
- Man at United Nations Building (uncredited): Alphonso DuBois
- Police Lieutenant (uncredited): Len Hendry
Movie Crew:
- Original Music Composer: Bernard Herrmann
- Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
- Author: Ernest Lehman
- Associate Producer: Herbert Coleman
- Director of Photography: Robert Burks
- Editor: George Tomasini
- Casting: Leonard Murphy
- Production Design: Robert F. Boyle
- Sound Designer: Van Allen James
- Stunt Double: Sol Gorss
- Best Boy Electric: Bud McNeil
- Gaffer: Bill Shaw
- Special Effects: Lee LeBlanc
- Set Decoration: Henry Grace
- Hairstylist: Sydney Guilaroff
- Art Direction: William A. Horning
- Recording Supervision: Franklin Milton
- Title Designer: Saul Bass
- Makeup Artist: William Tuttle
- Special Effects: A. Arnold Gillespie
- Assistant Editor: Edward K. Milkis
- Stunt Coordinator: Paul Stader
- Camera Operator: Cliff Shirpser
- Color Timer: Charles K. Hagedon
- Art Direction: Merrill Pye
- Camera Operator: James V. King
- Set Decoration: Frank R. McKelvy
- Unit Manager: Ruby Rosenberg
- Other: Mentor Huebner
- Assistant Director: Mickey McCardle
- Visual Effects: Matthew Yuricich
- Boom Operator: Tom Overton
- Special Effects: Doug Hubbard
- Assistant Camera: Bobby Greene
- Still Photographer: Kenny Bell
- Musician: Sam Freed Jr.
- Assistant Director: Robert Saunders
If you want to know other articles similar to North by Northwest you can visit the category Mystery.
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I hate user/critic review websites strictly because of movies like this. People will go see like, Gran Torino, be entertained, admire a couple symmetrical shots and smooth camera pans or whatever, and rate the thing a 4.5/5, 9/10, 95%, etc. But then there are movies that have a ten minute chase scene with Cary Grant scaling down Mount Rushmore, every second of which you're screaming at the screen. Of course my most pompous entry is for an Alfred Hitchcock. But please, for progeny's sake, save the high ratings for ones that earn em
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Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful of worms.
Roger O Thornhill is a harmless and amiable advertising executive who is absurdly mistaken for a government agent by a gang of ruthless spies. Forced to go out on the lam, Thornhill lurches from one perilous scenario to another. Can he survive to prove his innocence? Is the gorgeous blonde who is helping him really a friend? All will be revealed in Alfred Hitchcock's majestic thriller.
If deconstructing it you find that this isn't a perfect Hitchcock movie, for it under uses James Mason's coolly vile Phillip Vandamm (which is a crime), and it also doesn't have a female lead acting with any great urgency since Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall fails to fully fulfil the promise of Kendall's arrival in the movie. Yet this film rightly earns the right to be on any critics top 100 list, to be a favourite amongst the legion of Hitchcock fans (of which I'm one of that number), for it is escapist entertainment in its purest form, Hitchcock's most accessible popcorn entertainment piece.
From the moment at the film's opening when you hear Bernard Herrmann's wonderful music, it's enough to send goose pimples all over the body. For it is a musical portent that signifies we are about to get a fusion of thrills, mystery, and some cheeky Hitchcock humour, accompanied by heroes and villains all condensed purely for our enjoyment. Fronted by a diamond Cary Grant performance as the man wrongly mistaken for another that leads to him being pursued frighteningly across the states, the pic is never found wanting for genre high points. Coming as it did after the darkly brilliant and soul sapping Vertigo, Hitchcock clearly wanted to hang loose and enjoy himself.
Working from a fabulous script by Ernest Lehman, North By Northwest's very reason for being is purely to entertain those wanting to invest a frame of mind with it, with Hitchcock cunningly putting us on side with what is ultimately a shallow character in Grant's Roger O (the O doesn't stand for anything) Thornhill. It's a neat trick from the master of trickery and devilment. Some of the scenes on show are now almost folk lore such is the esteem in which they are held by movie fans and makers alike. A crop dusting aeroplane attack (the prelude to which has those goose pimples popping up in anticipation), a pursuit on Mount Rushmore and the often forgotten drunk car on a cliff sequence, these are all trade mark pieces of work from Hitchcock.
North By Northwest is in my humble opinion one of the true greats of cinema history, where as bleak and as unnervingly brilliant as Vertigo was the previous year, this is the polar opposite in structure and fable, but the result is most definitely equally as great. One of the reasons I fell in love with cinema in fact. 10/10
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***It has its points of interest, but any 60’s Bond flick is a better choice***
When an ad executive in Manhattan (Gary Cooper) is mistaken for a government agent by a foreign spy & his cronies (James Mason, et al.) he finds himself a fugitive traveling by train to Chicago wherein he meets a woman that seems to have his favor (Eva Marie Saint). After a curious encounter with a crop dusting plane everything culminates at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.
"North by Northwest" (1959) is an adventure/thriller by Hitchcock with a huge reputation. It obviously influenced the James Bond flicks of the 60s, which started three years later with “Dr. No” (1962), but it’s very toned down by comparison because the hero in this case is not a trained spy. It’s entertaining to a point, but also seriously overrated due to some glaring problems…
Jessie Royce Landis plays the protagonist’s mother when she was only a little over 7 years older than Cooper and it’s too obvious; the story drags too much at this point (when he’s hanging out with his mother); his chance meeting with a key character on the train (Saint) is too coincidental; their make-out sessions are premature, unconvincing and painfully dull; what happens to the plane is stupefying; the crop dusting encounter supposedly takes place in rural Indiana when it’s clear that it’s nowhere within a thousand miles of Indiana (actually it was shot at the southern end of Central Valley, California, outside of Bakersfield); speaking of which, the geography is too noticeably disingenuous: e.g. during the drunk driving episode there are no cliffs like that on Long Island (it was actually shot at Potrero Valley, Thousand Oaks, CA, and obviously so).
Still, there’s enough good here to enjoy if you favor Hitchcock & the cast and don’t mind quaint movies.
The film runs 2 hours, 15 minutes (unnecessarily overlong).
GRADE: B-/C+
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North by Northwest is famous for its famous action sequences such as hanging on Mount Rushmore and the crop duster plane scene.
Essentially it is a film of mistaken identity as advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is mistaken for George Kaplan by some bad guys in league with a foreign power presumably Russian.
The trouble is Kaplan is a made up operative created by the CIA to flush out the film's villain, the urbane but deadly Vandamm (James Mason) and his cronies such as the fey henchman Leonard (Martin Landau) who are out to get Thornhill.
Thornhill in order to prove his innocence must evade capture from the bad guys and also the police as he is wanted by everyone. Only a beautiful blonde Eve (Eva-Marie Saint) aids him in this cross country chase but she is more than an innocent bystander as she might be in league with Vandamm.
This is an escapist action film that mixes tension with some comedy and Grant was always adept with light comedy. The film is overlong, it just feels 15 minutes too long and the villains motives seems to be rather cloudy.