North by Northwest

Synopsis: Feature film. A spy thriller taking it’s name from Hamlet’s line ‘I am but mad north-north-west’ (II ii). New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) is kidnapped by a gang of spies led by Phillip Vandamm, who believe Thornhill is CIA agent George Kaplan. Thornhill escapes, but must find Kaplan in order to clear himself of a murder it is believed he committed. Following Kaplan to Chicago as a fugitive from justice, Thornhill meets a sympathetic but suspicious woman, Eve (Saint), on a transcontinent express train. Lured to a bleak prairie he is chased across a cornfield by a crop-dusting plane. Thornhill survives and later finds Eve and Vandamm together at an auction sale. The showdown involves a scramble across the giant sculptured features of Thomas Jefferson on Mount Rushmore. Some will argue that the connection to Shakespeare’s play is purely titular, but others have seen more significant parallels (see note on Stanley Cavell’s essay).
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 1959
Duration: 136 mins; 12,256 feet

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Producer

Cinematographer

Screenplay

Music

Cast

General: Stanley Cavell, writer on film and Professor of Philosopy at Harvard University, has argued in his book Themes Out of School: Effect and Causes (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984) that the Hamlet significance goes far beyond the titular. An excerpt from Cavell’s essay can be read by visiting http://www.uchicago.edu/research/jnl-crit-inq/issues/v7/v7n4.cavell.html

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British Universities Film & Video Council