North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write -the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures-. North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets. Author and journalist Nick Clooney praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film -certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best-.