North By North West

Director:

 Alfred Hitchcock

Writer:

 Ernest Lehman

Stars:

Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, 

James Mason Eva

North by North west is an action thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the film advertising executive Roger Thornhill gets kidnapped by a group of armed men and is taken to a strange house where he is interrogated. The kidnappers believe that Thornhill is a spy who goes by the name of George Caplin. Thornhill is completely unaware who Caplin is. This case of mistaken identity is the first sign of one of the ingredients of a typical thriller. 

When Thornhill keeps denying that he is George Caplin, the kidnappers  force him to consume a large quantity of alcohol and then place him in a car thats heading for a cliff so that his death would look like an accident. However just before he reaches the cliff Thornhill manages to take control of the vehicle and save himself. He then continued on a drunken car ride which resulted in him being arrested. This scene created large amounts of suspense as it was very fast paced and the audience had no idea if he would survive or not. Alfred Hitchcock uses many point of view shots throughout this scene to show how unstable and intoxicated Thornhill is. This also made the danger of driving under the influence of alcohol apparent.

Once in police custody Thornhill explains what happens but because he is intoxicated noone believes him. Even when he is sober and he takes the police to the kidnappers house the kidnappers claim he was a guest who simply drank to much and insisted on driving home. A rather frustrated Thornhill decides to investigate the real George Caplin. During his investigation he gets framed for murder and becomes a fugitive on the run. He doesn't give up his investigation though. He carries on searching for George Caplin. But by now the audience have discovered that George Caplin does not exists. By giving the audience information that the character is not aware of builds up tension and suspense. This is known as dramatic irony.

There are many maguffins used throughout North by north west. Examples are the micro film which was hidden inside a statue and George Caplin.

About half way through the film Thornhill meets a seductive blonde on a train whilst on his way to find out more about Caplin. At first it seems that she has a genuine attraction to him and is just being flirty. She even hides him in her room when the police are searching for him. However this was just a ploy to get him to trust her. We soon discover that she is actually working for the people who kidnapped Thornhill at the beginning of the film. This is one of the main red herrings used in this film. Hitchcock used red herrings to keep the audience in a constant state of confusion in regards to where her loyalties actually lie. We then discover that she is actually a spy herself on a secret missing to get information from the foreign spies and that George Caplin was invented to distract the foreign spies from uncovering her true identity.

One of the key scenes in North By North West is the crop duster scene. Thornhill arrives at this deserted road where he is expecting to meet with George Caplin. As the audience know that he does not exists it is expected that he will be killed in some sort of drive by shooting however this was not the case. A crop duster appears and tries to kill him. Thornhill desperately runs and dives for his life. His quick reactions result in the plane crashing into a gasoline filled truck causing a massive explosion. The explosion causes a big enough distraction allowing Thornhill to steal a car and escape. Alfred Hitchcock decided to use a crop duster as he wanted to avoid cliche's. 

As Thornhill's feelings towards her grows he puts both their lives in danger. The foreign spies begin to suspect that she isn't loyal when one of them takes a closer look at the gun that she supposedly shot Thornhill with. It was full of blanks. The scene where she shoots Thornhill is also another example of a red herring. 

The film draws to a dramatic end when Thornhill saves her life as well as his own when both are left hanging from Mount Rushmore after being chased by the foreign spies.

The film ends on a high point as they both proclaim their love for eachother and kiss.