North By Northwest

North by Northwest is a spy thriller film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1959. It starred Cary Grant in his fourth and final Hitchcock film before retirement, as well as Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, with Martin Landau and Leo G. Carroll in a supporting role. Today, it is considered one of Hitchcock’s best films. It was also the inspiration for the James Bond film franchise.

The films opens on New York’s Madison Avenue. Business executive Roger O. Thornhill (Grant) is walking along the busy sidewalk dictating notes to his secretary. After hailing a taxi, he heads to the Plaza Hotel. He instructs his secretary to call with a note to his mother, but after she leaves he realises his mother will be in a different location. He meets with his regular group of friends for a drink. He asks an employee where the wire is, at the same time a page is being called out for George Kaplan. As he heads to the bar to make a wire to his mother, two goons with concealed weapons force him into a taxi.

He is driven to a Long Island mansion where he meets ‘Lester Townsend’ (Mason) and his henchman Leonard (Landau). They accuse him of being federal agent George Kaplan, but Thornhill denies even knowing this man. After refusing to admit he is Kaplan, Leonard and an associate get Thornhill drunk and set him off driving a car along the coast. The plan fails however as Thornhill saves himself at the last second and drives off drunk. The goon’s pursue but back off when the cops stop Thornhill for drunk driving.

At the police station, it is revealed the car was stolen. Thornhill tells his story but no one believes him. He, his mother and two policemen head to the estate and the woman who answers the door acts like they are old friends, and all evidence of his previous visit have been removed. Thornhill demands to meet Townsend and is informed he is at the United Nations where he is about to address the General Assembly. Thornhill and his mother head back to the Plaza Hotel to try and find Kaplan. While heading back out, Thornhill recognises the two goons and escapes in a taxi to the United Nations building. He meets Thornhill, but he is not the man who orchestrated his kidnapping. One of the thugs following attempts to throw a knife at Thornhill but hits Townsend, killing him. Thornhill is photographed after pulling the knife out his back and is subsequently on all the front pages of the newspapers wanted for murder. All newspapers report he is named George Kaplan.

We then see a group of Government agents discussing the news about ‘Kaplan’. It is revealed that Kaplan is a fictitious man used to distract spies from uncovering real American undercover agents. The leader of the group, the Professor (Carroll) decides they will do nothing about the situation because it is a very useful decoy to cover up their own tactics and their own agent.

The police are searching for Thornhill in Grand Central station. He tries to buy a ticket for the Twentieth Century Limited to Chicago but the ticket booth operator recognises him and phones the police about his whereabouts. Thornhill sneaks onto the train and meets an icy blonde (Saint) who hides him in a train compartment and tells the police that she seen him get off the train. Thornhill later finds himself sitting with her in the dining car. He claims he is wanted for unpaid parking tickets but she tells him she knows all about the murder at the United Nations building. She reveals that she paid the porter $5 to sit him next to her and they flirt with each other for a while and then suggests he can hide in her apartment overnight. She then tells him the train has stopped and several policemen are getting on board. Thornhill quickly leaves the dining car.

In her compartment, she hides him in the closed upper bunk while the police ask her questions about the man she was talking with in the dining car. They flirt some more until a porter arrives and Thornhill hides in the bathroom. While they kiss it is revealed that she handed a note to the porter to be sent to another compartment. It says, “What do I do with him in the morning? Eve.” The men in the compartment are ‘Townsend’ and Leonard.

When the train arrives in Chicago, Thornhill is disguised as a train guard, Eve paying one of them for the clothes to sneak past the police waiting. When the police are aware that Thornhill is dresses as one of the guards, he hides in the men’s changing room in clear sight, shaving, as the police run right past him looking for a guard. Meanwhile, Eve and Leonard exchange a phone call where Eve receives instructions. When Thornhill emerges, Eve lies about having a phone call with Kaplan and says he has arranged a meeting at the Prairie bus stop on Highway 41. With tears in her eyes, Eve urges him to leave.

When he arrives at the deserted bus stop, numerous cars pass by before a man gets out of a car and stands at the bus stop on the opposite side of the road. Thornhill speaks to him but he is not Kaplan and is just waiting for a bus. Just before he gets on, he notes how odd it is that a crop duster is dusting where there is no crops. Suddenly, the pilot swoops down and begins shooting at Thornhill. After a chase into a corn field, Thornhill runs out and attempts to stop a truck, almost getting ran over. The plane then crashes into the truck and is set ablaze, killing the pilot. Two pickups stop by to look at the explosion, giving Thornhill the opportunity to steal one of them and drive back to Chicago.

Thornhill enters the Ambassador Hotel, looking for Kaplan but notices Eve heading up to her room. He gets the number off the hotel clerk before heading up into her room. When she opens the door, she runs and hugs him. He confronts her but she dodges the questions about the set-up of the attack. Eve receives a phone call and writes down an address, before asking that Thornhill leaves and never returns, before relenting and accepting a final dinner together, only if he gets his suit cleaned. While Thornhill pretends to take a shower, Eve sneaks out. He rubs a pencil over the paper Eve wrote on and finds the address- which turns out to be an art auction.

At the art auction, he sees ‘Townsend’ sitting with Eve and talking to Leonard. While confronting them, the auctioneer reveals ‘Townsend’ to be Vandamn, who was bidding for a rare art object. Vandamn still believes Thornhill is Kaplan. Thornhill then insults Eve who rises to hit him before stopping herself and sitting down. Leonard then heads to the exit along with another henchman to prevent Thornhill from escaping. As the Professor watches on, Thornhill deliberately bids low and makes idiotic comments before starting a fight in order to get arrested.

In the police car, Thornhill announces himself as the UN killer. As the policemen radio in for instructions on what to do, they are instructed to take him to the airport. There, the Professor reveals himself and explains that Kaplan never existed before stating they are headed to Rapid City, South Dakota as Vandamn has a house near Mount Rushmore. Thornhill declines before agreeing after being told that Eve is the undercover agent and Vandamn is getting suspicious about her. He agrees to pretend to be Kaplan for 24 more hours.

They arrange a meeting with Vandamn in a café near Mount Rushmore. ‘Kaplan’ knows that Vandamn is leaving the country at night time (the professor told him) and offers to let Vandamn leave without any trouble as long as he hands over Eve to him. Vandamn refuses and acting angry, ‘Kaplan’ pulls Eve towards him before she pulls out a gun. In order to prove she is not in allegiance with ‘Kaplan’, she shoots him before fleeing the scene. Vandamn and Leonard flee in order to avoid becoming involved with the ‘murder’. Thornhill leaves in an ambulance with the Professor.

The ambulance pulls up in a forest of pine trees. There, Thornhill gets a change to say goodbye to Eve, who is leaving with Vandamn at night. Thornhill tries to get her to change her mind but she refuses, feeling she has to get on with her work. She apologises for almost getting him killed by the crop duster. The ambulance driver then knocks out Thornhill on the Professor’s orders since he wasn’t going to allow Eve to leave.

Thornhill is held in a locked hospital room as radio reports that Kaplan is in a critical condition. When the Professor leaves to get a drink, Thornhill climbs out the window, sneaks along a ledge before dropping into another room and escaping. He calls a taxi and arrives at Vandamn’s house near Mount Rushmore. He climbs up the side of the house and sees and hears Leonard telling Vandamn about Eve’s treachery by shooting the gun loaded with blanks at him. Vandamn says he will dispose of Eve over water when the plane is in the air.

After overhearing this, Thornhill climbs up the side of the house to Eve’s room, writes a note warning her and throws it down to her. She gets it and heads up to her room, where Thornhill warns her not to get on the plane. She heads back down and heads out to the airfield with Vandamn. The housekeeper spots Thornhill and holds him at gun point, although it is the gun loaded with blanks. Thornhill eventually realises this and breaks out, steals one of Vandamns cars and rescues Eve and the art object, which is filled with microfilm. They try to leave but the gates are locked at the exit. They run while being chased by Leonard and another guard before finding themselves on top of Mount Rushmore.

As they climb down, the guard try’s to attack Thornhill with a knife but Roger throws him off the edge after a fight. Leonard appears and snatches the art out of Eve’s hands before pushing her over the edge. As she hangs on for life, Thornhill clings on to her. He appeals to Leonard for help but he stamps on his fingers. Just in time, a policeman shoots Leonard and him and the art and microfilm fall off the edge to his death. The Professor has returned in time to rescue Thornhill and Eve and arrest master spy Vandamn.

The scene cuts to Thornhill and Eve, now married, on the upper berth of a train compartment. It is their honeymoon and they are returning to how they first met.

Notorious

Notorious is a thriller that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1946. The main stars are Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, with Claude Rains in a supporting role. The film marked the second time that Hitchcock worked with both Grant and Bergman.

The film opens outside a Miami courtroom, where Alicia Huberman’s (Bergman) father is convicted of being a Nazi spy. Living a loose life, she has a party before leaving the country the next day to get away from all the scandal. She has a certain reputation as a promiscuous and fast living woman. At the party, a mysterious figure sits by himself and does not interact with anyone else. When the party dies down and only Alicia and this man are left, a conversation starts that eventually leads to Alicia suggesting a midnight picnic. Clearly drunk, she insists on driving anyway.

She wildly drives until a policeman stops the car. He leaves however when the mysterious man shows him his wallet and his profession. After this, he knocks Alicia out after she refuses to let him drive and then takes her back home. The next morning, he reveals himself to be T.R. Devlin, an American agent who wants Alicia to spy on a group of Nazis down in Rio De Janiero since she would be trusted by them all. She refuses until he plays a recording of an argument between Alicia and her father that was secretly recorded, in which she criticises her father’s activities and stated her love for America. She accepts the offer, and cancels her previous plans to leave the country.

On the flight down to Rio, Devlin informs Alicia that her father was found dead in his cell. Alicia reacts with shock and reveals to Devlin that her disgust at her father is the cause of her fast and self-destructive lifestyle. She is relieved that she no longer has to feel shame or disgust at her father’s life.

After arriving in Rio and waiting for more information on her assignment, Devlin and Alicia become closer. Alicia hopes she can repair her damaged reputation and show the world she is a changed woman, although Devlin has his doubts. After some teasing from Alicia, Devlin kisses her passionately.

When Devlin arrives at the US Embassy, he is concerned that Alicia does not know what her work will actually entail. Prescott, Devlin’s superior, is confident that Alicia is the perfect woman due to her promiscuous behaviour. The assignment is to seduce the leader of the Nazi exiles, Alexander Sebastian (Rains). Back with Alicia in her rented apartment, the longest film kiss in history takes place, lasting over three minutes! They kiss and nuzzle whilst talking. (The reason for the kissing then nuzzling then kissing etc. is because the Production Code at the time forebode kisses over three minutes. It was classic Hitchcock to get around the restrictions in such a way.) During the kiss, Devlin receives a phone call that Prescott needs to see him right away.

Devlin initially resents the plan for Alicia, until it is revealed to him that Alexander is a former flame of Alicia’s, although Alicia wasn’t very responsive at the time. Back with Alicia, Devlin is noticeably colder and unfriendly towards her. After being told the full details of her assignment, Alicia is furious that Devlin would allow the Embassy to think of her in such a way. Devlin insists on leaving the decision up to her, failing to show his love for her. Heartbroken, Alicia agrees to the assignment.

At the local riding club, they engineer a situation where Alexander will meet Alicia by having Devlin set her horse charging off. As planned, Alexander comes to her rescue and they begin to renew their past relationship at a restaurant.  She denies that she is in love with Devlin when Alexander inquiries about him. The meeting goes smoothly and Alexander invites her to attend a dinner party at his house the next night.

At her apartment, she receives instructions from Prescott while Devlin is deliberately unhelpful to her. When she arrives at Alexander’s house, she meets his mother, who is very wary and indifferent towards her. Alexander rescues her and takes her to meet his five friends, all Nazi spies. While in the dinner hall, Alicia notices the anger that surrounds a misplaced wine bottle in the room. Intrigued, she makes a mental note of the incident. The man who made the mistake is presumably killed off-screen.  The rest of the party turns out rather uneventful.

Devlin and Alicia meet at the racetrack the next day while Alex is occupied with his bossy mother. She tells Devlin about the wine bottle, while revealing she has added Alex to her list of ‘playmates’. Devlin is shocked, and begins to make passive-aggressive remarks towards her, which leads to her breaking down in tears. Alex appears and Devlin makes his excuses to leave. Alex hints that he wants Alicia to marry him.

Back at the embassy, they are all delighted with how successful the mission has been so far. They are all surprised when it is announced that Alicia will be making a surprise visit. While Prescott and his colleague question Alicia’s character, Devlin, for the first time in the film, stands up for her and defends her from the accusations being made against her. Alicia arrives and stuns them all with the news that Alex wants her to marry him, and wants her answer by noon. After asking them if she should go through with it, Devlin responds that it would be a useful idea even though he is privately furious with the news. Alex’s mother is opposed to the marriage but Alex stands up to her for once and tells her that the marriage is going ahead, and they would be happy to have her at the wedding.

After the honeymoon, Alicia returns to Alex’s house and begins to unpack her things. Noticing the closets are locked, she asks Alex for the keys. He agrees (after another argument with his mother), but she notices that one room is still locked- the wine cellar. When Devlin and Alicia have their next meeting, in a public park, she tells him about the locked door and he suggests she throw a party and invite him so that he can have a look around. She agrees. In a tense and nail-biting scene, she steals the key from Alex’s keyring while he is getting changed in the bathroom. However, as she turns to leave with the key in her hand, he emerges and grabs her closed hands. He opens the left one and kisses it, then as he goes to open the right Alicia throws herself at him for a hug and drops the key under the bed, to be retrieved later.

An incredible crane shot shows the whole party before zooming in from up high to Alicia’s hand, where the wine cellar key (the UNICA key) is being held tightly. When Devlin arrives, Alicia allows him to kiss her hand, allowing him to take the key. When the opportunity arises, Devlin and Alicia sneak off to the wine cellar. While snooping about, Devlin accidently knocks a bottle over and discovers that a type of sand is being stored in it. After taking a sample for testing, they hurriedly repair the mess that they have made. As they are leaving, Alex heads down the stairs. To cover up, Devlin grabs her and passionately kisses her. Alex interrupts them and Devlin quickly heads for the exit. Alicia assures him it meant nothing and Alex seems to buy it.

In the night, while Alex is unable to sleep, he notices that the missing has been replaces on his key ring. He realises he has been tricked by his wife and tells his mother. In order to prevent their fellow Nazis from executing them, they decide to slowly poison Alicia and not reveal her betrayal. Alicia drinks down the poison in cups of coffee over time and begins to feel the effects. In a meeting at the Embassy, Prescott reveals to her that it wasn't sand but uranium in the wine bottle. He also reveals that Devlin has asked for a transfer to Spain, unable to deal with losing Alicia. Alicia views it as a personal offence and has tears in her eyes when told, assuming that Devlin was just playing her this entire time.

At their next meeting, Devlin notices Alicia is not herself and wrongly assumes she has turned back to alcohol. Devlin refuses to admit his feelings for Alicia and they depart in acrimonious circumstances. Back at home, Alicia realises the truth about her illness when in a meeting one of Alex’s Nazi friends goes to drink her cup of coffee by mistake and Alex and his mother shout out to him to stop. In agony, she is confined to her bedroom with the phone line cut off.

Devlin becomes concerned that Alicia has failed to show up in the past few days and before he leaves for Spain he makes a house call. Told by the servant that Alex is busy in a meeting, he demands to know where Alicia is. Told she is in her bedroom, he heads up and finds her in a serious condition. She tells him she is being poisoned and he finally admits he loves her, which she reciprocates. Devlin takes her out but they run into Alex and his mother. Devlin tells them he knows what’s going on as they head down the stairs, in full view of the other Nazis, who are puzzled as to what is going on. Alex and his mother play along as if they don’t the betrayal will be revealed.

Devlin accidently dooms Alex and his mother when he says he phoned for an ambulance from the bedroom, even though Alex ordered the phone lines cut. As they take Alicia to Devlin’s car, Alex begs to be let in but Devlin refuses. As the new couple drive away to the hospital, Alex is summoned to his death by his fellow Nazis: “Alex, will you come in please? I wish to talk to you.” The door closes behind Alex as he enters.