32. North by Northwest

I do enjoy a Wrong Man Thriller, but this one has that extra sauce on it because Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill is misidentified as a man who doesn’t even exist! Thornhill is confused for George Kaplan, an alias created by a US intelligence agency to frustrate and confuse a target of their investigation.

Now it suits them to let Thornhill run around, giving credence to their lie about Kaplan existing, and helping them draw their target out into the open. Oddly enough, I see connective tissue with Miracle on 34th Street and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, where a primary character in the story is a pawn in other peoples’ game.

Whether or not people agree on if it’s the best Hitchcock thriller, it’s certainly the Most Hitchcock one. If you watched this playing Hitchcock Trope bingo, everyone would be a winner. And it’s not just ticking off boxes, but creating iconic moments:

• The murder in the UN (see the photo above)
• Thornhill waiting for a bus, then being chased by a low flying crop duster.
• A final chase on top of Mount Rushmore.
• The wholly unsubtle, single entendre final shot of a train entering a tunnel.

Another thing to think about: Even though his life is in danger throughout, Thornhill never becomes a nigh-indestructible action hero. He’s an advertising executive who you believe is in danger throughout. He’s not going to get out of this scrape by suddenly leveling up his physical stats, but by being just clever enough and just persistent enough to play the angles that get him to safety.