Made in 1959, North by Northwest is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most beloved thrillers, an enticing cocktail of suspense, comedy, eroticism, and danger. Cary Grant is a suave but stiff-necked executive who finds himself mistaken for a United States intelligence agent and, as a result, is forced into a series of life-threatening encounters with the villainous James Mason. Grant's consolation is that he also becomes involved with the elegant female spy played by Eva Marie Saint. But the game of international intrigue is played for high stakes—and in high style: in the film's classic sequences, Grant is chased across cornfields by a crop-dusting plane and, later, forced to climb the slopes of Mount Rushmore's National Memorial to escape his pursuers.

The screenplay is the work of one of the most versatile and successful American screenwriters, Ernest Lehman, who begins this volume an Introduction that fully explores the process of collaborating with Hitchcock on the film. Also the author of the screenplays for such diverse films as Sweet Smell of Success and The Sound of Music, Lehman managed in this work to combine witty wordplay and thoughtful suspense in such a way that North by Northwest stands as the epitome of Hitchcock's elegant and entertaining thrillers.

Mike Nichols' directorial debut is an adaptation of Edward Albee's controversial stage play, starring husband-and-wife Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. George (Burton) is a foul-mouthed, drunken university professor married for two decades to the equally foul-mouthed, drunken Martha (Taylor), whose father is the president of George's college. When younger married couple Nick (George Segal) and Honey (Sandy Dennis) are invited round for a nightcap, they witness a marathon of bickering and verbal abuse. The film won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Elizabeth Taylor and Best Supporting Actress for Sandy Dennis.