The apotheosis of Hitchcock's film-making!

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2005)

PLOT DESCRIPTION While having lunch, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) experiences misfortune just as a "George Kaplan" is being paged. From this point on, Thornhill's life is turned upside down. He is abducted by three mysterious men and whisked away to the palatial home of enemy spy Philip Vandamm. Denying that his name is Kaplan, Thornhill is at a complete loss when Vandamm begins grilling him for information. Finally, Thornhill is drugged, tossed into a car, and sent careening down a treacherous mountain road. He escapes this death trap only when his car is stopped by a pair of motorcycle cops. Unable to persuade the Law that his stories of kidnappings and enemy agents is true--he can't even convince his own mother--Thornhill takes the cops back to the mansion where he was held prisoner, only to find that Vandamm and company have cleared out, and that house is really owned by a United Nation ambassador.Tracking him down at the UN building, Thornhill tries to get the man's attention--whereupon the ambassador is knifed to death, and the nonplussed Thornhill left holding the weapon! Now a fugitive from justice, Thornhill tries to escape via train. En route, he meets the coolly beautiful Eve Kendall, who graciously hides him from the police. The apotheosis of Alfred Hitchcock's Hollywood career, North by Northwest is fast, funny, and exciting. The film contains far too many highlights to detail in this limited space: favorite bits include the crop duster dusting where there aren't any crops, the riotous auction scene, the mid-film murder of a principal character (or so it seems), and, of course, that nail-biting Mount Rushmore finale.