History Film / NorthByNorthwest

The film begins with New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) getting abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (Creator/JamesMason), 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 (Creator/MartinLandau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring a bottle of bourbon down Roger's throat and then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car on a cliffside road.

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: Conveniently, a photographer is present to take an incriminating photo at the exact moment the victim falls on Thornhill not getting what's happening, he pulls the knife out of the victim's back. The look on Roger's face doesn't help, either. Then his guilty-looking mug is plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
* BigApplesauce: The story begins in NYC and the first section takes place there: specifically Fifth avenue, the UN, Grand Central Station, most of which were done in Hollywood studios, with only few exteriors.

* LostInTheMaize: The crop-duster attack takes place in and around a cornfield.

* PaperThinDisguise: To try and hide his identity in Grand Central Terminal, Thornhill dons a pair of sunglasses. The man at the counter guesses who he is, but Thornhill manages to escape.

One car chase later, Roger escapes but is arrested for drunk driving. He takes the skeptical police and his equally skeptical mother (Jessie Royce Landis) to the Townsend mansion where he was abducted, only to find Vandamm gone and the housekeeper, another Vandamm associate, claiming Roger stole the car after getting drunk at a party there.

* RealityEnsues: The first plan to kill Thornhill involves pouring a whole bottle of bourbon down his throat and trying to make it look like he killed himself drink-driving. Thornhill manages to escape, but, being extremely drunk, he almost collides with several motorists, then he overtakes a police car and gets arrested for drunk driving.

--> '''Roger Thornhill''': If you fellows can't lick the Vandamms of this world without asking girls like her to bed down with them and fly away with them and probably never come back, perhaps you ought to start learning how to ''lose'' a few cold wars.

** We never see Mrs. Thornhill again after Roger flees from the hotel.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: "That's funny." "What?" "That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops..."

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Vandamm believes Thornhill is guilty of this trope, believing him to be George Kaplan, despite Thornhill's arguments to the contrary.

-->We also know your contact in Pittsburgh since Jason (''slight pause'') committed suicide.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: The whole plot is kicked off because of one that's very easy to miss unless you're looking for it. Listen very closely to the background noise in the opening scene where Thornhill is sitting in the hotel bar with his associates, you can hear a bellboy announcing there's a page for "George Kaplan." Thornhill puts his hand up for an unrelated reason (he wants to send a telegram), and the spies ''assume he's Kaplan'', because from their vantage point it looks like he's answering the page.
** made much clearer in the stage production.

* MommasBoy: Thornhill, at least to the extent that it's his mother who he calls to bail him out of jail and assist him in casing "Kaplan"'s room at the Plaza.

* ThemeMusicPowerUp: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Booth times the soundtrack cuts loose with the main theme are the times Roger is exceptionally screwed -- [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident drunk out of his mind careening out of control in a stolen car]], and being chased by gunmen across [[MonumentalBattle Mount Rushmore]].

* ChekhovsGunman: In the scene in the CIA [[spoiler:after the scene in the United Nations where Thornhill is framed as the murderer of the real Lester Townsend]], the Professor mention "their own agent" [[spoiler: who later turns out to be Eve]]. Literally, considering the diner scene.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The Professor, a fatherly man who coolly figures out ways to protect Roger [[spoiler:and his double agent Eve]] in a potentially deadly predicament, gets Roger to cooperate through intelligent persuasion, and even manages to crack a couple of jokes to calm down an understandably-tense Roger.

* MrExposition: The Professor has an important role in the story, but his most important function is to explain to other characters (and the audience) what exactly the deal is with George Kaplan and Vandamm.

* MrExposition: The Professor.

The film begins with New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (Creator/JamesMason), 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 (Creator/MartinLandau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring a bottle of bourbon down Roger's throat and then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car on a cliffside road.

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Valerian and Leonard (although Leonard was already dead from the bullet). Also, when Leonard tells Vandamm that Eve is revealed to be a ReverseMole, Vandamm tells him they will kill her by pushing her out of the plane when it's flying over water. Thankfully, Eve never makes it to the plane.]]

* FemmeFatale: Eve Kendall.
** [[spoiler:FemmeFataleSpy: Doubly so once it's revealed she's the ReverseMole working for the United States government]].

* HighHeelFaceTurn: Eve, [[spoiler:although it turns out that she was a ReverseMole all along]].

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler: Eve is made out to be Vandamm's mistress, but she's working for the government. She was originally a {{Socialite}} bogged with RichBoredom and she genuinely did like Vandamm and admitted to falling for him, but then the US Government told her about Vandamm's shadiness and asked her to work as a mole]].

A classic 1959 thriller by Creator/AlfredHitchcock, in which an innocent man [[MistakenForSpies mistaken for a spy]] is [[TheChase chased]] halfway across the USA by enemy spies searching for a MacGuffin. You may know it as "the one with the climax on Mount Rushmore". Or, better still, as "the one where Creator/CaryGrant is chased by a crop duster", a scene which has often been {{homage}}d.

A classic 1959 thriller by Creator/AlfredHitchcock, in which an innocent man [[MistakenForSpies mistaken for a spy]] is [[TheChase chased]] halfway across the USA by enemy spies searching for a MacGuffin. It's probably best remembered as "the one with the climax on Mount Rushmore" or more likely as "the one where Creator/CaryGrant is chased by a crop duster", a scene which has often been {{homage}}d.

A classic 1959 thriller by Creator/AlfredHitchcock, in which an innocent man [[MistakenForSpies mistaken for a spy]] is [[TheChase chased]] halfway across the USA by enemy spies searching for a MacGuffin. Probably best known as being that movie that had a climax on Mount Rushmore or more likely as "that movie where Creator/CaryGrant is chased by a crop duster", a scene which has often been {{homage}}d.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/north_by_northwest_1959_68.jpg]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/north_by_northwest_1959_68.jpg]]

* TheAlcoholic: Thornhill himself. Though he insists he ''wasn't'' trying to get drunk this time, his mother's verbal scoffing indicates that she's not convinced. He later tells the Professor that he has "several bartenders who depend on me."

* RealityEnsues: The first plan to kill Thornhill involves pouring a whole bottle of bourbon down his throat and trying to make it look like he killed himself drink-driving. Thornhill manages to escape, but, being extremely drunk, he almost collides with several motorists, then he overtakes a police car and gets arrested for drink-driving.

* VillainsOutShopping: When we first see Leonard at Townsend's estate, he was playing a game of croquet before Licht interrupted him.

--> '''Roger Thornhill''': "If you fellows can't lick the Vandamm's of this world without asking girls like her to bed down with them and fly away with them and probably never come back, perhaps you ought to start learning how to lose a few cold wars."

A classic 1959 thriller by Creator/AlfredHitchcock, in which an innocent man [[MistakenForSpies mistaken for a spy]] is [[TheChase chased]] halfway across the USA by enemy spies searching for a MacGuffin. Probably best known as being that movie that had a climax on Mount Rushmore or more likely as "the movie where a character is chased by a crop duster," a scene which has often been {{homage}}d.

The film begins with New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Creator/CaryGrant) being abducted by [[EvilMinions enemy agents]] working for the master foreign spy Phillip Vandamm (Creator/JamesMason), 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 (Creator/MartinLandau), decide to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stage a fatal accident]] by pouring a bottle of bourbon down Roger's throat and then placing him at the wheel of a stolen car on a cliffside road.

* MythologyGag: Creator/JamesMason playing the villain here is a reference to when he was mentioned in the earlier Hitchcock film ''Theatre/{{Rope}}'' as an actor who could be "attractively sinister".

* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: Early on, Roger informs his secretary that "in the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie; there's only the expedient exaggeration."

* FailingATaxi: In the opening scene -- a man hails a cab, and Roger cuts in with his secretary, claiming she's pregnant, and takes it. She chides Roger, who assures her his lie let the guy think he was doing them a favor.

* InsistentTerminology: Early on, Roger informs his secretary that "in the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie; there's only the expedient exaggeration."