North by Northwest

North by Northwest. 1959 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Leo G. Carroll, Jessie Royce Landis, Martin Landau
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Amazon.com listings: Single DVD (discontinued). Part of the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection (still available).

Roger Thornhill (Grant) is a Madison Avenue advertising executive who is mistaken for a government agent named George Kaplan. Seized by two men, Valerian (Adam Williams) and Licht (Robert Ellenstein), Roger is taken to the home of Lester Townsend, where he is interrogated by Phillip Vandamm (Mason), who the executive assumes is Townsend. After Thornhill repeatedly denies that he is George Kaplan, Vandamm orders Leonard (Landau) to get rid of him, which he does by forcing a bottle of bourbon into him, and putting him behind the wheel of a car. The attempt to stage a fatal accident fails, and Thornhill is instead arrested for driving while intoxicated. Unable to convince anyone that he was kidnapped and forced to drink the liquor, Roger realizes the only way to prove his story is true is to locate Kaplan.

Finding George Kaplan turns into a major ordeal, as Roger finds himself wrongly accused of murder after Lester Townsend himself is knifed in front of him. Fleeing from New York to Chicago via the 20th Century Limited, Roger meets Eve Kendall (Saint), who is Vandamm's lover, but she has no problem helping Thornhill hide from the police. Thornhill ends up in a flat countryside, where the now famous scene of a crop duster trying to ambush him occurs. Later, after being caught in an auction completely manned by Vandamm's thugs, Thornhill places outrageous bids, and is removed from the building. After being taken to Midway Airport, Roger meets the Professor (Carroll), who reveals that Kaplan is imaginary, and that he was created to distract Vandamm and his men from the real government agent: Eve. Her life is now in danger thanks to Roger's involvement, so he must pose as Kaplan, to help the Professor and his agency fool Vandamm.

Highly, highly recommended.

P.S. Alfred Hitchcock's cameo takes place during the opening credits, two minutes in, as he misses a bus.