North by North-west

Middle-aged Madison Avenue advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies. New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill is kidnapped by a gang of spies led by Philip 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 is helped by beautiful Eve Kendall. In Chicago, she delivers a message to Kaplan that almost costs Thornhill his life when he is chased across a cornfield by a crop-dusting plane.

North by Northwest is a 1959 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets (a classic MacGuffin).




Review:

I watched North by North-west which was created by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950s, the first time i watched it i thought it would be boring but as you continue to watch and unrevel the story as a viewer you are drawn in. As i continued to watch the film questions began to surface such as....

1) Who is George Kaplan?
2) What do they want with him?
3) If they knew who Kaplan was the they wouldn't mistaken him for someone else....
4) Will Mr Thornhill survive?

I found myself enjoying the film because it kept you in suspense as i wanted to know what would happen next and as to whether or not Mr Thornhill will survive, or would they eventually find out that the man they had initially kidnapped wasnt the man they had anticipated the kidnapping with. Hitchcock used a lot of camera movements and angles to emphasis the viewpoint and draw our attention. Thrillers often overlapwith mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plots, this is seen as a conspiracy thriller, and has set scenes e.g. train station.