North by Northwestis a 1959 American thriller 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 Northwestis 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.

Author and journalist Nick Clooney praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".

This is one of several Hitchcock movies with a music score by Bernard Herrmann and features a memorable opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass . This film is generally cited as the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.

The title refers not to a compass position, but Thornhill's flight north to Rapid City on Northwest Airlines. See the full discussion below .

Roger Thornhill, a twice-divorced Madison Avenue advertising executive ( Cary Grant ), is mistaken for "George Kaplan" when he summons a hotel bellhop who is paging Kaplan, and is kidnapped by Valerian ( Adam Williams ) and Licht ( Robert Ellenstein ). The two take him to the house of Lester Townsend on Long Island . There he is interrogated by a man he assumes to be Townsend, but who is actually foreign spy Phillip Vandamm ( James Mason ). Thornhill repeatedly denies he is Kaplan, but Vandamm refuses to believe his men picked up the wrong man. He orders his right-hand man Leonard ( Martin Landau ) to get rid of him.

Thornhill is forced to drink bourbon in an attempt to stage a fatal road accident. However, he pushes one thug out of the car and drives off. After a perilous drive, he is arrested for drunk driving . He is unable to get the police, the judge, or even his mother ( Jessie Royce Landis ) to believe what happened to him, especially when a woman at Townsend's residence says he got drunk at her dinner party; she also remarks that Lester Townsend is a United Nations diplomat.

Thornhill and his mother go to Kaplan's hotel room, but cannot find anyone there who has seen him. While in the room, Thornhill answers the phone; it is one of Vandamm's henchmen. Narrowly avoiding recapture, Thornhill takes a taxi to the General Assembly building of the United Nations, where Townsend is due to deliver a speech. Thornhill meets Townsend face to face and is surprised to find that the diplomat is not the man who interrogated him, and Townsend expresses surprise that anybody else has been living in his house. Before they can talk any more, Valerian throws a knife, striking Townsend in the back. He falls forward, dead, into Thornhill's arms. Without thinking, Thornhill removes the knife, making it appear to onlookers that he is the killer. He flees.