North By Northwest
(1959)
Artemus Ward
Dept. of Political Science
Northern Illinois University
Title Meaning
• What does the title “North by Northwest” mean? How does it
relate to the film?
• It was taken from a line in Hamlet, which, like Hitchcock’s
film, also concerns itself with shifting perceptions of reality:
• Hamlet, Act II, scene 2: “I am but mad north-north-west.
When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a
handsaw...”
• Perhaps, more slyly, and Hitchcock was very sly, it's that the
action climaxes after a trip from Chicago to Rapid City, South
Dakota. Via Northwest Orient Airlines. In a northerly, actually
northwesterly, direction.
The Maguffin (McGuffin)
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“[We] have a name in the studio, and we
call it the 'Maguffin.' It is the mechanical
element that usually crops up in any story.
In crook stories it is most always the
necklace and in spy stories it is most
always the papers.” – Alfred Hitchcock,
1939 lecture at Columbia University.
“It might be a Scottish name, taken from a
story about two men in a train. One man
says, 'What's that package up there in the
baggage rack?' And the other answers,
'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks
'What's a McGuffin?' 'Well' the other man
says, 'It's an apparatus for trapping lions in
the Scottish Highlands.' The first man
says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish
Highlands,' and the other one answers
'Well, then that's no McGuffin!' So you see,
a McGuffin is nothing at all.” – Alfred
Hitchcock, 1966 interview with Francois
Truffaut.
What is the Maguffin in North by
Northwest?
Janet Leigh and Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Psycho (1960).
In this case, the Maguffin is the hidden
microfilm.
The Early Years
• Within a year of V-J Day in 1945, a slew of movies
mythologizing the OSS—the CIA’s World War II forerunner—
were playing at theaters everywhere.
• But from the beginning the CIA was more interested in
staying behind the scenes than being on the screens:
– They bought the rights to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and changed
the ending of the subsequent 1954 movie to suit U.S. political
interests.
– They encouraged Hollywood producers to use well-dressed black
actors in films to offset Soviet charges of American racism.
Early Portrayals of CIA Agents
• The CIA agents portrayed in the film (e.g.
the Professor, Eve Kendall) never profess
to be CIA and are never identified as such.
• Roger Thornhill: You're police, aren't you?
Or is it FBI?
The Professor: FBI, CIA, ONI... we're all
in the same alphabet soup.
• The first identified CIA agent to appear in a
mainstream film may have been Felix
Leiter (played by Jack Lord) in 1962’s “Dr.
No.” In nine James Bond movies he was
played by eight different actors. He was
never sexy, never got the girl, and always
played second or third or fifth fiddle.
KGB?
• The KGB was the national security agency of the Soviet
Union from 1954 until 1991 though its origins date back to the
Bolshevik Revolution.
• Who are the Soviet spies in North by Northwest?
• They are Americans/English who seamlessly blend into a
cultured, upper class American landscape of mansions and
auction houses.
• Do you think this scared American audiences during the
height of the Cold War (1959)?
Martin Landau as Leonard
• How is it that Vandamm’s No. 2 Leonard (played by Martin
Landau) is the one to discover that Eve Kendall is an American
spy?
• Because Leonard not only worked for Vandamm, he was also in
love with him.
• He was jealous of Van Damm’s relationship with Eve from the
start which made it easier to discover her true identity.
• He “shoots” Vandamm to express his anger that Vandamm
chose Kendall over him and thereby jeopardized their mission.
• Landau has confirmed that Leonard was gay.
Cold War Paranoia
• North by Northwest suggests that the Cold War between the U.S.
and U.S.S.R. is not only serious but that the U.S. is losing:
• Roger Thornhill: I don't like the games you play, Professor.
The Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill. Even when it's a cold
war.
Roger Thornhill: If you fellows can't whip the VanDamm's of this
world without asking girls like her to bed down with them and
probably never come back, perhaps you should lose a few cold
wars.
The Professor: I'm afraid we're already doing that.
• Did Cold War-era films help fan the flames of anti-communist, Red
Scare McCarthyism causing American’s to build bomb shelters and
turn on one another to expose communist sympathizers?
PostScript: Where’s Hitch?
• Alfred Hitchcock appeared in each of his films. Did you spot
him in North by Northwest?
• How do you suppose Hitchcock appeared in Lifeboat (1944)
where the entire film takes place on a small lifeboat in the
middle of the ocean or in Rope (1948) where the entire film
takes place in a Manhattan apartment?
Conclusion
• North by Northwest is an one of the earliest
American spy films.
• The CIA exercised control of their portrayal in motion
pictures behind the scenes, which is exemplified by
the agents never being identified as CIA in the film.
• The film reflects American Cold-War paranoia about
communist sympathizers and losing ground to the
Soviets.