History Film / NorthByNorthwest

* ExpositionCut: When Roger is brought up to speed, we do not hear the exposition since we already know this stuff.

* TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse: Thornhill gets a call from the bad guys while casing "Kaplan"'s room at the Plaza Hotel. He then finds out from the hotel's switchboard operator that the call came from the lobby.

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon

* TheWindyCity: We do go through Chicago on the way west.

** Van Damm's mansion behind Mount Rushmore. Anyone who's been to Mount Rushmore knows there's aren't any houses within several miles. Not to mention the topography is all wrong. It does make for a good climax however.

The film begins with advertising executive Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), who is currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat and then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car on a cliffside road.

One car chase later, Roger escapes but is arrested for drunk driving. To clear his name, he goes to the UN, where the real Townsend is giving a speech. Roger, surprised to find that it wasn't Townsend who abducted him, is even more surprised when Townsend's [[TheCorpseStopsHere corpse lands in his arms]]. Now wrongly accused of ''murder'', Roger flees New York.

One car chase later, Roger escapes but is WronglyAccused of drunk driving. To clear his name, he goes to the UN, where the real Townsend is giving a speech. Roger, surprised to find that it wasn't Townsend who abducted him, is even more surprised when Townsend's [[TheCorpseStopsHere corpse lands in his arms]]. Now wrongly accused of ''murder'', Roger flees New York.

The film begins with advertising executive Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), who is currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car.

The film begins with advertising executive Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), who's currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car.

The film begins with advertising executive Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car.

The film begins with advertising executive Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Vandamm (James Mason), currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car.

The film begins when advertising executive Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) is abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Vandamm (James Mason), currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car.

The film begins when Roger Thornhill (CaryGrant) is abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Vandamm (James Mason), currently masquerading as the diplomat Lester Townsend. Vandamm believes Roger to be an American spy, George Kaplan, who has been tailing Vandamm. When Roger insists he is not the spy, Vandamm orders him killed. His henchmen, led by the sinister Leonard (Martin Landau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring alcohol down Roger's throat then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car.

* ClimbingClimax: The final fight on the Mount Rushmore.

* BigApplesauce

* ThePrecariousLedge: Thornhill escapes the Professor's custody in the Rapid City hospital by navigating one of these.

* MatchCut: One at the very end

* ShownTheirWork: When Thornhill and his secretary ride in a taxi from his Madison Avenue workplace to the Plaza Hotel, the view shown through the rear window is of [[http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=5917 the actual route between the two locations]].

* [[RemonstratingWithAGun Remonstrating With a Knife]]: Lester Townsend is surreptitiously stabbed in the back by one of Vandamm's henchmen as he talks with Thornhill at the UN. As he falls foward, Thornhill catches him, and seeing the knife pulls it out of Townsend's back. Only then does the large crowd around them notice what's happened, and the trope is duly invoked.

* AllThereInTheManuel: Valerian and Licht's names are never stated on-screen but are given in the script.

* BondVillainStupidity
* CaliforniaDoubling: The entire crop duster scene was supposedly set in Indiana southeast of Chicago, but actually filmed near Bakersfield, California. Can't imagine why: if you actually drive into Indiana southeast of Chicago, you'd think, "Wow, this looks like where they filmed that scene from ''North by Northwest'' where Cary Grant was chased by the crop duster."
** Because it's cheaper to film in California than take all the crew and equipment to Indiana.
*** Actually, the corn fields look way too dry to be from Indiana (which, even during a drought, is greener than what you see, unless of course the drought happened to be pretty bad that year).

* DisneyVillainDeath: Valerian and Leonard (although it's arguable Leonard was already dead from the bullet).

* WronglyAccused

* ThePrecariousLedge: Thornhill escapes the Professor's custody in Rapid City by navigating one of these.

* ShoutOut: Seeing Vandamm and Leonard together with Eve at the Chicago art auction leads Thornhill to comment, "Now that's a picture only CharlesAddams could draw."

* VisualInnuendo: This film features the "train going into a tunnel" version.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Professor