North by Northwest

“The Hitchcock film to end all Hitchcock films,” said Ernest Lehman, who contributed significantly to the film's great success with his original screenplay that constructed a thriller around a case of mistaken identity. A group of ruthless gangsters, led by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason in a starring role) mistake New York advertising executive Roger O'Thornhill (Cary Grant in a characteristic role) for the spy George Kaplan, who is to be eliminated. After a suspected bourbon binge, Thornhill escapes from his would-be killers and his own search for Kaplan leads him through cornfields, to the United Nations, into a sleeper car, and into the arms of an accomplice (Eva Marie Saint). (mg)