North by Northwest Appearances Quotes

Thornhill's comment to his secretary sets up a film where expedient lying seems to be everyone's M.O. Nothing is really what it seems.

The room where Vandamm's holding Thornhill (or where "Townsend" is holding "Kaplan") takes the place of the theater where Thornhill was supposed to be attending a performance that same evening. The coincidence is too neat to be just coincidental; the line instead indicates just how obsessed North by Northwest is with appearances and acting.

Thornhill can't believe his ears when he hears the woman who's pretended to be Mrs. Townsend—who he's never met before last night—claiming to be an old friend of Thornhill's instead. And as audience members we have to agree with him: there's no denying this woman's such a good liar that she's a gifted actress.

Notice that Vandamm uses the same language to praise his sister that Thornhill had used to condemn "Mrs. Townsend" as a liar. These two guys really can't agree on anything in the film except this woman's performance. And it's telling that this is the thing they'd agree on, since both men rely on performance as the film unfolds.

The irony here is that Thornhill isn't yet acting; he's telling the truth, that he's Thornhill, not Kaplan. But in the world of North by Northwest, truth and lies are hard to tell apart. In the spy biz, everyone's lying and assumes the other guy is too. Eventually, Thornhill will have to play Kaplan—and "play dead" as Vandamm predicts—in order to rescue Eve.

The Prof points to the fact that fictions can acquire lives of their own. It's as if spy agents were artists: the fictional Kaplan becomes the real Thornhill, who becomes Kaplan, in order to become fully himself (i.e., his own man, no longer his mother's son, and so on). It's a beautiful narrative system that doesn't get completely sorted out until the last impostor—Eve—is revealed to be working for the feds. Whew!