North by Northwest

North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The original screenplay written by Ernest Lehman was intended to be the basis for "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures". North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity: an innocent man (Grant) is pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization that aims to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle microfilm containing government secrets out of the country. It is one of several Hitchcock films featuring a musical score by Bernard Herrmann and an opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass. The film was the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits. The film was released on July 1, 1959, to critical and commercial success. It topped the box office in the United States for seven consecutive weeks. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and garnered Hitchcock the Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastián Film Festival. It is listed among the canonical Hitchcock films of the 1950s and is widely ranked among the greatest films ever made. In 1995, the Library of Congress selected North by Northwest for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".