All spotlights will be pointing southwest Monday night in the honor of the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece "North by Northwest," as the famed director's classic "wrong man" thriller celebrates its 50th anniversary at the American Film Institute's Los Angeles Film Festival.

Set to attend the screening of the film at AFI Fest Los Angeles are stars Eva Marie Saint, (who plays the mysterious romantic interest, Eve) and Martin Landau (Vandamm's henchman, Leonard), the only surviving major cast members of the film. In a recent @ The Movies interview, Landau, couldn't be more pleased knowing that the film still feels fresh to audiences 50 years after its release.

"Outside of the shape of men's lapels, some skinny ties and a couple of automobiles that are classic cars now, the picture really holds up," Landau said. "If you were to shoot the same picture today, there would be nothing archaic about it."

Also making its 50th anniversary debut on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday (Warner Home Video), "North by Northwest" stars Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, a free-wheeling advertising executive who is mistaken for a key government agent by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) and his spy organization. Escaping Vandamm's agents, Thornhill also becomes a wanted man by authorities in a race across the country to save his life -- ending with a climactic scene atop Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

The film's late screenwriter, Ernest Lehman once described "North by Northwest" -- which received a $1 million restoration in preparation of its Blu-ray unveiling -- as "The Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures." The funny thing is, Landau said, was that the idea for it merely stemmed from a scene from another one of Hitchcock's films: a scene that was gnawing at the director for 16 years prior to the commencement of filming "North by Northwest."

"It probably is the quintessential Hitchcock movie because he borrowed from himself and used a lot of elements from his other films and put them all together," Landau said. "One of the reasons he made the film -- and I got this from the horse's mouth -- is because of a scene in 'Saboteur,' where he had Norman Lloyd, who played the bad guy, hanging off the Statue of Liberty."

Impersonating Hitchcock, Landau continued, "'Martin, I made a grave error. I had the bad fellow in jeopardy and no one gave a damn. They wanted him to die. So I felt compelled to correct that flaw,' and he did. He's got another national moment, and he's got a good guy hanging off of it in jeopardy instead of the bad guy. He turned it around."

The film is a benchmark achievement for Landau in that it was among his first major feature film roles. He's of course, since then, worked non-stop in film and television, including such TV series as "Mission: Impossible" and "Space: 1999"; and earned Oscar nominations for his turns in "Tucker: The Man and his Dream" and Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors." And in 1995, of course, Landau was celebrated by Oscar and others for Best Supporting Actor playing Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's "Ed Wood."

Perhaps Landau's longevity as a performer stems from his willingness to take risks with his roles: and the layer he added to Leonard in "North by Northwest" is one of his most shining examples.

"Hitchcock cast me in this role, which I had chosen to play very subtly as a homosexual. In the 1950s, you didn't necessarily do that," said Landau, 78. "The character was written as a henchman, but I felt very strongly that Leonard wanted to get rid of Eve with a vengeance. Ernie Lehmann added a line for Leonard after he saw what I was doing in some of the dailies. It wasn't in the original script, but he added, 'Call it my woman's intuition if you will,' which he says (prior to exposing Eve's betrayal to Vandamm) in a major scene."

Landau said that his portrayal of Leonard as closeted gay man became so convincing, in fact, that it effectively changed the dynamic of his relationship with Vandamm to viewers.

"James Mason until the day he died said that the most often asked question of him was, 'In Vandamm in "North by Northwest," bisexual?' It's been written a number of times that James responded, 'No, he wasn't at all, but Landau's choice made it impossible for anyone to think otherwise,' Landau said with a laugh.

"James became a friend of mine and I think it bugged him a little, because he said that there was nothing he could do to offset (the inference)," Landau added. "But I felt it was such a right choice for the role. I thought it would create a sense of danger if he had this desire to get rid of Eve."