Who Is Hitchcock's Crop Duster?

Alek Gulbenkian
November 25, 2014
Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North by Northwest pulls off debatably one of the most memorable and cinematically famous assassination attempts. In the scene “Crop Duster,” a psychotic crop duster pilot terrorizes Roger Thornhill –played by Cary Grant –. The scene begins when Thornhill, a New Yorker caught up in a life-threatening case of mistaken identity, arrives at an isolated rendezvous point in the countryside of Indiana to meet the man for whom he has been mistaken. He steps off the bus and on to a gritty, lonesome highway surrounded on both sides by farmland. It is not a place where many sophisticated businessmen would choose to spend their afternoons, but there is beauty in such bleakness, as Hitchcock focuses on.
A slow establishing shot of the area emphasizes Thornhill's vulnerability in such unfamiliar surroundings. This is vital because, up until this moment, Thornhill has managed to charm, bribe or talk his way out of whatever danger is about to befall him. In this scene, Hitchcock, the masochist, is at pains to make his character appear as helpless and exposed as possible. The twinkle in his eye, fancy expensive suit and suave

There's a sense of an ominous threat, but nothing much actually happens until a car pulls up and a suited man gets out. The plane continues to buzz while, nearby, corn stalks shiver in the wind. Hitchcock uses these eerie sound effects to ratchet up the tension. He wants the audience to know that Thornhill is in imminent danger, but not give them any idea what might jeopardies his life. In true Hitchcock style, the stranger turns out to be a red herring – he departs as quickly as he arrives, but not before uttering the immortal line: "That's funny. That plane's dusting crops where there ain't no