Movie of the Day: North by Northwest (1959)

Cary Grant (Roger O. Thornhill) and Eva Marie Saint (Eve Kendall)

2h 16min | Action, Adventure, Mystery | 26 September 1959 (Japan)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Ernest Lehman

Stars: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

Memorable Quotes

[Thornhill is wearing sunglasses to hide his identity] 

Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes? 

Roger Thornhill: Yes, they're sensitive to questions.

Eve Kendall: [Hanging by their fingers from Mount Rushmore] What happened with your first two marriages? 

Roger Thornhill: My wives divorced me. 

Eve Kendall: Why? 

Roger Thornhill: They said I led too dull a life.

Roger Thornhill: I didn't realize you were an art collector. I thought you just collected corpses.

Phillip Vandamm: Mr. Kaplan, you are quite the performer. First you're the outraged Madison Avenue advertising executive who claims that he has been mistaken for someone else. Next, you play the fugitive from justice supposedly trying to clear himself of a crime he knows he didn't commit. And now, you're the jealous lover spurned by love and betrayal. 

Roger Thornhill: Apparently the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead. 

Phillip Vandamm: Your very next role, and you'll be quite convincing, I assure you.

Roger Thornhill: No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser.

Roger Thornhill: Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself "slightly" killed.

Eve Kendall: I'm a big girl. 
Roger Thornhill: Yeah, and in all the right places, too.

Phillip Vandamm: What possessed you to come blundering in here like this? Could it be an overpowering interest in art? 

Roger Thornhill: Yes, the art of survival. 

Eve Kendall: He followed me here from the hotel. 

Leonard: He was in your room? 

Roger Thornhill: Sure. Isn't everybody?

Roger Thornhill: In the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only expedient exaggeration.

Eve Kendall: I tipped the steward five dollars to seat you here if you should come in. 

Roger Thornhill: Is that a proposition? 

Eve Kendall: I never discuss love on an empty stomach. 

Roger Thornhill: You've already eaten! 

Eve Kendall: But you haven't.

The Professor: War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it's a cold one.

Roger Thornhill: How do we know it's not a fake? It looks like a fake. 

Bidder: Well, one thing we know. You're no fake. You are a genuine idiot.

Roger Thornhill: What's wrong with men like me? 

Eve Kendall: They don't believe in marriage. 

Roger Thornhill: I've been married twice. 

Eve Kendall: See what I mean?

Roger Thornhill: I don't like the way Teddy Roosevelt is looking at me.

Roger Thornhill: When I was a little boy, I wouldn't even let my mother undress me. 

Eve Kendall: Well, you're a big boy now.

Roger Thornhill: How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you? 

Eve Kendall: Lucky, I guess.

Eve Kendall: While I'm calling, you can change your clothes. 

Roger Thornhill: Where do you propose I do that? In Marshall Fields' window? 

Eve Kendall: I sort of had the men's room in mind. 

Roger Thornhill: Did you, now? You're the smartest girl I ever spent the night with on a train.

Roger Thornhill: Handle with care, fellas. I'm valuable property.

Eve Kendall: I want you to do a favor for me. A big, big favor. 

Roger Thornhill: Name it. 

Eve Kendall: I want you to leave right now, stay far away from me, and don't come near me again. We're not going to get involved. Last night was last night, and it's all there was, and it's all there is. There isn't going to be anything more between us. So please. Goodbye, good luck, no conversation, just leave.

Roger Thornhill: [to Eve] Who are you kidding? You have no feelings to hurt.

Roger Thornhill: [... ] it's something about my face. 

Eve Kendall: It's a nice face. 

Roger Thornhill: You think so? 

Eve Kendall: I wouldn't say it if I didn't. 

Roger Thornhill: Oh, you're that type. 

Eve Kendall: What type? 

Roger Thornhill: Honest.

Roger Thornhill: Tell me, why are you so good to me? 

Eve Kendall: Shall I climb up and tell you why?

Eve Kendall: How do I know you aren't a murderer? 

Roger Thornhill: You don't. 

Eve Kendall: Maybe you're planning to murder me right here, tonight. 

Roger Thornhill: Shall I? 

Eve Kendall: Please do.

Roger Thornhill: Sorry love, I'm sentimental.

Eve Kendall: Roger O. Thornhill. What does the O stand for? 

Roger Thornhill: Nothing.

Roger Thornhill: I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

Roger Thornhill: When we get out of this, you can ride the train with me again. 

Eve Kendall: Is that a proposition? 

Roger Thornhill: It's a proposal, sweetie!