North by Northwest

                                                                  

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: Ernest Lehman

Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason

A brief description of the Film

A hapless (innocent) man, named Roger Thornhill, who is a New York advertising executive, is mistaken for a Government agent by a group of foreign spies, chased across the USA coming into life and death situations. Interacting with new people, such as Eve, witch turns to love at first sight.

In what way is this a ‘archetypal’ (typical) thriller?

Key Action Scenes:

-          Being Kidnapped

-          Stabbing at the UN

-          Chasing on the Train

-          Thee plane killing scene

-          Shooting in the café

-          Cliff-hanger hanging off the cliff

You have both a hero and a villain:

Roger Thornhill: He lives a normal life, going to work, going out etc, but then is mistaken for a dubbed agent, that is non-existent but however made up, by the name of ‘George Kaplin’.

Mr Vandamm: A foreign spy who kidnaps Roger, then take him to a house, know to be someone by the name of Mr Thornhill, to integrate him on his assumption of he being ‘George Kaplin’.

Devices:

Suspense – the tension that is created while Roger is waiting at the bus stop for Mr Vandamm, when differentially a plane heads for him.

Red herrings – a red herring in this film is perhaps Eve Kendall is portrayed as a good person but then there is an unexpected twist where she is turns out to be working for the foreign spy to be a bad person, something that was not expected.

Cliff Hangers – Ironic but when he was hanging off the cliff near the end of the film, you didn’t know whether he was going to fall or get back up.

This is a typical villain driven plot; Mr Vandamm causes obstacles in which, Roger Thornhill has to overcome in order to survive and eventually save the day and make it a happy ending.

McGuffin – This is the plot element that catches the viewer’s eyes and drives the plot along. So in the film North by Northwest, the McGuffin is the micro filter that Mr Vandamm wants and tries to get his hands on.  The McGuffin is common in films especially in thrillers, however throughout the film it becomes less important and is like pushed to the side.

Hitchcock once said that thrillers allow the audience ‘to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it is like’.

I believe that Hitchcock has succeeded by the film North By Northwest and has successfully created a well written ‘thriller’.