North by Northwest (1959)

In 1958, two thugs in a New York City hotel bar hear a waiter paging George Kaplan, whom they are looking for. When advertising executive Roger Thornhill summons the same waiter, he is mistaken for Kaplan, kidnapped, brought to the luxury estate of Lester Townsend. He is interrogated by spy Phillip Vandamm, who is a Cold War enemy of the United States. He disregards Thornhill’s protestations and arranges his death in a staged drunken driving accident. Thornhill survives only to be arrested for driving under the influence. Thornhill fails to convince his mother and the police of what happened. Police take him back to Townsend’s home, where a woman says he showed up drunk at her dinner party. She also says that Townsend is a United Nations diplomat.

Thornhill and his mother go to Kaplan’s hotel room. He is not there, so they sneak inside. Thornhill answers the room phone: the thugs are calling from the lobby. He escapes them and enters the U.N. General Assembly building to meet Townsend—who is not the man he met on Long Island. One of the thugs throws a knife and Townsend falls dead. Thornhill is photographed as he grabs the knife, giving the appearance that he was the murderer; Thornhill flees and attempts to find the real Kaplan.