Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Ernest Lehman.

Roger Thornhill

• Ah, Maggie, in the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only the expedient exaggeration. You ought to know that.

• [to The Professor] 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.

Others

• The Professor: We do nothing...That's right, nothing. Oh, we could congratulate ourselves on a marvelous stroke of good fortune. Our non-existent decoy George Kaplan created to divert suspicion from our actual agent has fortuitously become a live decoy... What can we do to save him, without endangering our own agent?...We didn't invent our non-existent man and give him the name of George Kaplan, establish elaborate behavior patterns for him, move his prop belongings in and out of hotel rooms for our own private amusement. We created George Kaplan and labored successfully to convince Vandamm that this was our own agent hot on his trail for a desperately important reason...If we make the slightest move to suggest that there is no such agent as George Kaplan, give any hint to Vandamm that he's pursuing a decoy instead of our own agent, then our agent working right under Vandamm's very nose will immediately face suspicion, exposure and assassination, like the two others who went before.

• Vandamm: That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets.

Dialogue

Roger: And what the devil is all this about? Why was I brought here?

Vandamm: Games, must we?

Roger: Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then, but I have tickets for the theatre this evening, to a show I was looking forward to and I get, well, kind of unreasonable about things like that.

Vandamm: With such expert play-acting, you make this very room a theatre. My secretary is a great admirer of your methods, Mr. Kaplan. Elusiveness, however misguided ...

Roger: My name is Thornhill, Roger Thornhill! It's never been anything else ... So obviously, your friends picked up the wrong package when they bundled me out here in the car.

[Roger is wearing sunglasses to hide his identity]

Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes?

Roger: Yes, they're sensitive to questions.

Roger: Oh, you're that type.

Eve: What type?

Roger: Honest.

Eve: Not really.

Roger: Good, because honest women frighten me.

Eve: Why?

Roger: I don't know. Somehow they seem to put me at a disadvantage.

Eve: Because you're not honest with them?

Roger: Exactly.

...

Roger: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.

Eve: What makes you think you have to conceal it?

Roger: She might find the idea objectionable.

Eve: Then again, she might not.

...

Eve: I'm Eve Kendall. I'm twenty-six and unmarried. Now you know everything.

Roger: Tell me. What do you do besides lure men to their doom on the Twentieth Century Limited?

Eve: I'm an industrial designer.

Roger: Jack Phillips. Western sales manager for Kingby Electronics.

Eve: No, you're not. You're Roger Thornhill of Madison Avenue, and you're wanted for murder on every front page in America, and don't be so modest.

Roger: Whoops!

Eve: Oh, don't worry, I won't say a word.

Roger: How come?

Eve: I told you. It's a nice face.

Roger: Is that the only reason?

Eve: It's going to be a long night.

Roger: True.

Eve: And I don't particularly like the book I've started.

Roger: Ahhh.

Eve: You know what I mean?

Roger: Uh, let me think. [Pause] Yes, I know exactly what you mean...

Eve: I'm a big girl.

Roger: Yeah, and in all the right places too. [They share a lingering kiss.]

Eve: You know, this is ridiculous, you know that don't you?

Roger: Yesss.

Eve: I mean, we've hardly met.

Roger: That's right.

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

Roger: You don't.

Eve: Maybe you're planning to murder me right here tonight?

Roger: Shall I?

Eve: Please do. [Another long kiss.]

...

Roger: Now where were we?

Eve: Here. [They kiss again passionately.]

Roger: Yes. Nice of you to have opened the bed.

Eve: Yes.

Roger: Only one bed.

Eve: Yes.

Roger: That's a good omen, don't you think?

Eve: Wonderful.

Roger: You know what that means?

Eve: Hmmm.

Roger: What? Tell me.

Eve: It means you're going to sleep on the floor.

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

Roger: Name it.

Eve: 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 that's all there is. There isn't going to be anything more between us. So please, goodbye, good luck, no conversation, just leave.

Vandamm: Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely, Mr. Kaplan? First, you're the outraged Madison Avenue man who claims he's been mistaken for someone else. Then you play the fugitive from justice, supposedly trying to clear his name of a crime he knows he didn't commit. And now, you play the peevish lover, stung by jealousy and betrayal. It seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the Actor's Studio.

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

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

Roger: I wonder what subtle form of manslaughter is next on the program. Am I to be dropped into a vat of molten steel and become part of a new skyscraper, or are you going to ask this female to kiss me again and poison me to death?

[Eve tries to slap him]

Roger: Who are you kidding? You have no feelings to hurt.

Roger: If we ever get out of this alive, let's go back to New York on the train together, all right?

Eve: Is that a proposition?

Roger: It's a proposal, sweetie.

Eve: What happened to the first two marriages?

Roger: My wives divorced me.

Eve: Why?

Roger: Well, I think they said I led too dull a life.

Taglines

• The Master of Suspense presents a 3000-mile chase across America!

• The Master of Suspense weaves his greatest tale!

• It's a deadly game of "tag" and Cary Grant is "it"!

• It's love and murder at first sight!

• From the killer plane in the cornfield to the cliff-hanger on George Washington's nose, it's suspense in every direction!

Cast

• Cary Grant - Roger O. Thornhill
• Eva Marie Saint - Eve Kendall
• James Mason - Phillip Vandamm
• Jessie Royce Landis - Clara Thornhill
• Leo G. Carroll - The Professor
• Josephine Hutchinson - Mrs. Townsend
• Philip Ober - Lester Townsend
• Martin Landau - Leonard