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North by Northwest (1959) PRoduction: Hitchcock, MGM
Screenplay:Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest Lehman
Camera:
Costumes:
CAST: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason,
Jessie Royce Landis, Leo G Carroll,
Martin Landau, Philip Ober, Josephine Hutchinson
Adam Williams, Edward Platt 
Cary Grant is confronted by two henchmen PLOT: The script is as complex as possible, the hero is involved in as many strands of a Gordian knot as the 136-minute film could bear.
In essence Cary Grant plays a suave executive called Roger Thornhill, who is mistakenly identified by a mysterious group of spies as a secret agent called Kaplan (who actually never existed) Pursued by the spies, thornhill cannot go to the police, of course as he gets framed for a murder, but encounters Eve Kendall ( Eva Marie Saint) who seems keen to help him, then betrays him, then ends up marrying him. On the run, thornhill is pursued by the epicene villain, Philip Vandamm(James Mason), and his henchmen through all sorts of unlikely locations, The United Nations building, a crowded auction room, Mount Rushmore, even an empty field where he is pursued by a crop-dusting plane. In the end Eve is revealed to be an undercover agent, and she and thornhill are married and ,presumibly, retire to a quiet life together. 
Grant gets himself arrested to escape the spies at the auction 
Cary Grant and Eva Marie saint on Mount Rushmore 
The nail-biting climax of the film is another masterly finale. Grant is frantically trying to grasp Saint's hand as she clings desperately onto the face of Mount Rushmore.In one swift cutaway, which manages to obviate the need for a great many convoluted explanations, we see Grant pulling her up onto the upper bunk of a railway sleeping car with the words" Come on, mrs. Thornhill". and the train plunges into a tunnel( one of Hitchcock's most celebrated erotic images) 
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The title of the film takes its cue from Hamlet's speech on his madness:" I am but mad North- Nort-West; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw" and the film is based on the character that Cary Grant had created over the years. The Plot depends on the audience identifying totally with Grant as a man to whom terrible things happen, but who nevertheless still seems never to lose control.
The Film turned out to be the director's most brilliant realization of his career. 
Cary Grant is kidnapped by the two spies North by Northwest is a thrilling rollercoaster ride, supervised by a consummate professional. The script was brilliant and deservedly earned a Best screenplay nomination. The noteworthy sequences are too many to be detailed, from the murder at the United Nations, to the elevator, to the crop duster chase, to Grant point blank murder by Eva Marie Saint, to the Mount Rushmore climax and the train wagon-lit ending. The film has to be seen to be appreciated, again and again. 
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