North by Northwest Family Quotes

This is hands-down Mrs. Thornhill's most memorable line in the film, not least because it prompts several awkward minutes of laughter. In addition to being brazen, her question shows how little she respects Thornhill. She places so little faith in his story about being abducted and forced to drive drunk that she thinks she can put an end to his Plaza Hotel antics by simply asking his pursuers about it. File under: unsupportive. This is one example of why Thornhill has to break away, though he doesn't know it at first.

Here's another line for the unsupportive file. Mrs. Thornhill has followed her son to the scene of the previous night's crime: the Townsend estate, taken over by Vandamm and his cronies, who are pretending to be the Townsends. But here as in the hotel elevator a few scenes later, Mrs. Thornhill's convinced that Roger has made up the whole story about this kidnapping. In this case, she urges him to pay the fine he's been charged for driving while intoxicated.

(FYI, "Pay the two dollars" is a line from an old vaudeville routine that roughly translates to "You can't fight city hall." We know this was 1959, but we sure hope the fine for drunk driving was more than two bucks.)

Arrested for drunk driving, Thornhill uses his one phone call to contact his mother, who's not too thrilled to hear from him in the middle of the night. This line does important work, since it clues us into Roger's mommy issues early on. Is this why his first two wives dumped him?

Here again, in George Kaplan's room in the Plaza Hotel, we get confirmation that Mrs. Thornhill refuses to treat her son like a full grown-man. "No wonder, then," the viewer's meant to think, "her son can't act his age." This is, again, why mommy dearest has to be ushered offstage.

This line, delivered while Roger's fleeing Vandamm's men, marks Mrs. Thornhill's exit from North by Northwest. Roger will talk to her on the phone from Grand Central Station, but never again will we see her or hear her voice. The film answers her question with a resounding no: he won't be home for dinner. And the whole rest of the film shows what he does instead, as if to illustrate all that's possible when you finally think for yourself.