Must you love a script to portray it to its full potential? Not if you’re Cary Grant. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest is a masterful cat-and-mouse thriller in which advertising executive Roger Thornhill, mistakenly identified as a government agent, is pursued across the country by foreign spies. Though Grant is his usual suave self, you might not know his convincing portrayal of a man caught in a maze of mistaken identity was partially authentic — the actor himself was genuinely befuddled about much of the film’s plot during production.

North by Northwest transpired as Grant’s fourth and final collaboration with Hitchcock, following Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), and To Catch a Thief (1955). His everyman quality wrapped in sophisticated packaging (and a nice gray suit) was at ease with audiences who related to and aspired to be him. This reached its apex in North by Northwest, where Grant’s accidental method-acting bore fruit, and plenty of it.

A Masterclass in “Wait, What’s Happening”?

When Thornhill is mistaken for a spy named George Kaplan, he’s pursued across the country by enemy agents led by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint). Thornhill is framed for murder at the United Nations and narrowly escapes death multiple times, spending much of his time reacting to outlandish circumstances: being forcibly intoxicated, fleeing from a killer crop duster, and dangling from Mount Rushmore, all while trying to piece together a plot that was baffling to him (quite literally). Uncovering a conspiracy involving microfilmed secrets hidden inside pre-Columbian statues and finding Kendall not who she initially appeared to be, the chase ends on the cliff, where they fight for survival.

North by Northwest, while a grand adventure, isn’t Hitchcock’s usual sophisticated horror — it’s a spectacle. But he still made use of those famed suspense techniques. The director was sure, as the BBC reported, “for the suspense to work, it had to be rooted in the audience’s anticipation of danger.” He showered viewers with vital details unknown to the character through his clever framing ideas. In the crop-dusting scene, wide and long takes introduce a flat landscape, giving a clue to Thornhill’s vulnerability, with nowhere to hide as the airplane swoops down. The film also features another tried-and-tested Hitchcock move – a MacGuffin, with the concealed microfilmed secrets in statues driving the plot and motivating characters, though their specifics matter less than the pursuit.

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It Had To Be Grant For the Role of Thornhill

Jimmy Stewart, Hitchcock’s leading man from Vertigo and Rear Window, initially had his eye on the part of Thornhill. Hitchcock wanted Grant, even though the studio, MGM, was championing their own Gregory Peck. Timing things just right, Hitchcock didn’t want to disappoint Stewart. So when Stewart was tied up with Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Hitchcock sought Grant’s more sophisticated persona. Here was a man used to getting his own way, but Grant obliged; he felt true affection towards the director, and the feeling was mutual. Biographer Nancy Nelson wrote: “Shortly before Hitchcock died, he told [George] Barrie, ‘Knowing Cary is the greatest association I’ve had with any film actor.”

Convinced he was in a costly flop, Grant famously remarked during the filming of North by Northwest, “It’s a terrible script. We’ve already done a third of the picture and I still can’t make head or tail of it.” Hitchcock didn’t mind this at all, knowing Grant’s real confusion would add to the authenticity of Thornhill’s character. But there was no disorientation where money was concerned. Grant’s initial pay was serious dollars in the first place, but with filming running over schedule, his fees skyrocketed. Some say cash well spent. The Sunday Times eloquently said, “But it is on Mr. Grant’s own performance, intent, resourceful, witty, as always beautifully timed, that a large part of the pleasure depends.”

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When Life Gives You Confusing Scripts…

There’s comedy within the film that never overtakes the main story, with Grant’s lines, such as “I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives, and several bartenders dependent upon me.” Poor fellow. Desperately trying to return to normal life while the world goes bonkers around him. The next time you watch North by Northwest, consider this possibility: Was Grant’s bewilderment with the script potentially a secret ingredient in his memorable performance? While we can’t know for sure, it would seem like his accidental Method Acting brought the secret ingredient.

Perhaps there’s something poetically fitting about an actor being genuinely confused while playing a character who spends most of the film in a state of confusion. Whether by design or happy accident, the result was one of cinema’s most enduring thrillers and a performance that continues to charm audiences. Sometimes in filmmaking, as in life, the most interesting results come from the most unexpected places.