North by Northwest (1959)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writer:

Ernest Lehman (written by)

Release Date:

17 September 1959 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Alfred Hitchcock takes you.... North by Northwest!

Plot:

A hapless New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Agent | Advertising | Government Agent | Murder

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Cary Grant	...	Roger O. Thornhill
Eva Marie Saint	...	Eve Kendall
James Mason	...	Phillip Vandamm
Jessie Royce Landis	...	Clara Thornhill
Leo G. Carroll	...	The Professor
Josephine Hutchinson	...	Mrs. Townsend
Philip Ober	...	Lester Townsend
Martin Landau	...	Leonard
Adam Williams	...	Valerian
Edward Platt	...	Victor Larrabee
Robert Ellenstein	...	Licht
Les Tremayne	...	Auctioneer
Philip Coolidge	...	Dr. Cross
Patrick McVey	...	Sergeant Flamm - Chicago Policeman
Edward Binns	...	Captain Junket

Also Known As:

Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (USA) (complete title)
Breathless (USA) (working title)
In a Northwesterly Direction (USA) (working title)
The Man in Lincoln's Nose (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) | Dolby SR | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (2000) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:A (1959) | USA:Approved (PCA #19156) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Iceland:L | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | South Korea:12 | Netherlands:AL (DVD rating) | Netherlands:12 (re-rating) | Netherlands:12 (2008 re-release) | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:G (1959-1998) | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:12 (re-rating) | Peru:14 | UK:PG | West Germany:16 (original rating) | Norway:16

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Famed art director/special effects artist Albert Whitlock who worked on several Hitchcock films (not this one) painted a painting of Mount Rushmore and superimposed the face of Alfred Hitchcock into the rock sculptures on the mountain as a joke. The painting exists in a private collection.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Leonard loses his footing while climbing down Mt. Rushmore, the long shots show him dangling in front of a side of the mountain entirely carved with vertical lines. But in the close-up, his feet are shown dangling in front of bare rock, with the carved lines ending well above his ankles.

Quotes:

Roger Thornhill: The moment I meet an attractive woman, I have to start pretending I have no desire to make love to her.
Eve Kendall: What makes you think you have to conceal it?
Roger Thornhill: She might find the idea objectionable.
Eve Kendall: Then again, she might not.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers (2009) (TV)

Soundtrack:

It's a Most Unusual Day

Worth it just to see the the crop duster chase

I can't quite understand how anyone can dislike Alfred Hitchcock's films. Personally, he's one of the few old school talents I find interesting and watchable, even if his work is dated and set in its era (the era when most sets were hopelessly phony). I guess you have to appreciate his themes - dysfunctional relationships between a man and his mother, flawed by essentially innocent men caught up in a web of intrigue, beautiful blonds, comments of authority figures, black humor, etc - to really appreciate Hitchcock.

Interestingly, James Stewart was Hitchcock's original choice for the role of Roger Thornhill, the hapless ad man who is mistaken for a spy who doesn't even exist to begin with and is chased half way across the country by villains and authorities for a murder he didn't commit. For one reason or another, Stewart was unavailable and the part went to Cary Grant instead. Grant seems better suited to the character and the situation than Stewart would have been, but I can easily picture Stewart being chased in the cornfield by the crop duster.

Like all Hitchcock films, there are hundreds of things that aren't realistic though set in the real world and lots of highly improbable stuff going on everywhere, but if you give it a chance you'll enjoy it and won't care. Don't miss Eva Marie Saint having to dub over a then lewd line about love, a full stomach and sex. The use of a crop duster may not be the most practical way to kill a man, but it's a great visual representation of the great Hitchcockian examination of "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide". The music and clinging to Mount Rushmore is also memorable. Did I mention the innuendo?