The director of the film is Alfred Hitchcock, the writer is Ernest Lehman, the main characters are played by Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.
This film has several characteristics that make it defineable as an archetypal thriller. It has several key action scenes: the plane scene when he is lured into a rarely used highway, apart from the occasional bus or car, where a plan is sent to kill him.
Another key action scene is when he is forcibly made to be drunk, so his death would be attributed to his own faults by the police, when in fact the ploy was an attempted murder.
The film also has two resourceful heroes - Mr Thornhill and Miss Kendall. They use their wits and smarts to survive against villains that outclass them. This is demonstrated in the scene where Thornhill dresses up as one of the train staff to evade the police.
The film is ridled with suspense - it has the audience hanging onto their seats when some of the key action scenes come up. It also has a red herring - Miss Kendall appears to be a helpful stranger at first, but then it is revealed she is working for the other side, and then towards the end it's revealed she's an undercover agent.
The film's plot is driven by the villain - it is the villain's actions which dictate the heroes' reactions - for example, Thornhill's getting forciby drunk forces him to attempt to escape whilst intoxicated.
The MacGuffin is what drives the plot along - it is not usually in the audience's interests at the end of the film, but it will be what the film is centred around. The film's MacGuffin was the villain's desire to fly microfilm out of the country - without the microfilm, there would be no need to track the villain, and Thornhill wouldn't've been mistaken for Kaplan.
