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North By Northwest
Released: 1959
Country: USA
Budget: $4,000,000
Colour: Technicolor
Sound: Mono
Duration: 136 mins
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Trivia
The studio choice to play Roger Thornhill was Gregory Peck
while James Stewart campaigned for the role himself but
Hitchcock was adamant Grant should get it
The line "I never discuss love on an empty stomach"
(voiced by Eva Marie Saint in the train scene) was actually
"I never make love on an empty stomach" but
had to be dubbed over
Despite not getting permission to film at the UN, Hitchcock
secretly shot the exterior footage of Grant approaching the
UN building from across the street
Roger O Thornhill is a reference to producer David O Selznick
as mocked in the line where Grant explains that the 'O' stands
for 'nothing'
Jessie Royce Landis played the role of Cary Grant's mother
claiming to be just one year older! However, she was actually
seven years older
In the Mount Rushmore scene Eva Marie Saint really did
injure her arm in the footage used in the movie where she clutches
her arm after falling
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The Name Is Grant, Cary Grant
James Bond author Ian Fleming stated that Cary
Grant was a partial inspiration for the big screen character
of James Bond and the actor he saw taking the film role.
A few years after North By Northwest was released, the
first Bond movie, Dr. No was released with Sean Connery
in the title role.
There is no denying that North By Northwest does share
many similarities with Ian Fleming's novels
and perhaps we were denied
the greatest Bond of all.
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"It
doesn't seem quite fair does it?"
Roger Thornhill becomes a victim of mistaken identity and is chased
across America by the police and enemy agents all the while chasing
a mysterious, sexy blonde himself. Slowly, he pieces together the mystery
as to his own mistaken identity and what he now needs to do to bring
the matter to an end. But has he left it too late to save himself and
the girl he's fallen for?
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Cast
Cary Grant --- Roger O Thornhill
Eva Marie Saint --- Eve Kendall
James Mason --- Philip Vandamm
Martin Landau --- Leonard
Jessie Royce Landis --- Clara Thornhill
Leo G Carroll --- The Professor
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"Now
you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got
a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that
depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting
myself slightly killed."
skyjude review
An action packed comedy suspense thriller with some romance thrown in.
Filmed in glorious Technicolor and using this to the max, North By
Northwest is a dream of a movie. When Hitchcock and Grant got together
it was always magical and this is among the finest movies in either
of their illustrious careers. From start to finish it does not let up
with it's wisecracks, action and continued suspense. With sterling support
from James Mason, Martin Landau and Jessie Royce Landis this movie delivers
in all areas and includes a fabulous score from the legendary Bernard
Herrmann that criminally got ignored by the Academy.
Top
5 Reasons for Watching North By Northwest
[5]
Innuendo
Possibly the most sexual innuendos in movie history. Cary Grant and
Eva Marie Saint positively sizzle with their on the edge dialogue and
this is completed in legendary style with the final shot of the train
entering the tunnel. Hitchcock again proving his cheeky genius.
[4] Cary Grant drink driving!
Forced to consume a sizeable amount of Bourbon and then sat in a car
hurtling downhill, we get to watch Cary driving under the influence
in one of the funniest drunk scenes ever. This continues into the police
station where he simply curls up on the table under questioning.
[3]
Eva Marie Saint
Hey - I'm a guy, what can I do? Eva Marie Saint just oozes sex appeal
in this movie (and indeed in her earlier classic, On
The Waterfront) fully vindicating Hitchcock's decision to hire
her despite protests from the studio. I would go as far as saying this
is one of the sexiest screen roles in movie history. Infact, I did just
say it.
[2] The set pieces
From the train to the crop duster scene, the auction room, the clifftop
house and ultimately to Mount Rushmore - each set piece conjures up
an unforgettable image in the legend of the movies.
[1] Alfred Hitchcock
Everyone knows he's the master of suspense but in North By Northwest
he compiles what is essentially a 'greatest hits' of Hitchcock moments.
All the ingredients are here from the macguffin, to the blonde heroine,
the cross country chase and the everyman in a case of mistaken identity
attempting to prove his innocence. And in this case the everyman just
so happens to be cinema's most infectiously watchable star - the uber-cool
Cary Grant.
North
By Northwest quotes
Eve
Kendall: I tipped the steward five dollars to seat you here
if you should come in.
Roger Thornhill: Is that a proposition?
Eve Kendall: I never discuss love
on an empty stomach.
Roger Thornhill: You've already
eaten!
Eve Kendall: But you haven't.
Roger Thornhill: No. No, Mother,
I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole
bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser.
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.
Eve Kendall: It's going to be a
long night.
Roger Thornhill: True.
Eve Kendall: And I don't particularly
like the book I've started.
Roger Thornhill: Ah.
Eve Kendall: You know what I mean?
Roger Thornhill: Ah, let me think.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean.
Eve Kendall: I'm a big girl.
Roger Thornhill: Yeah, and in all
the right places, too.
Eve Kendall: How do I know you aren't
a murderer?
Roger Thornhill: You don't.
Eve Kendall: Maybe you're planning
to murder me right here, tonight.
Roger Thornhill: Shall I?
Eve Kendall: Please do.
Roger Thornhill: I may go back to
hating you. It was more fun.
Roger Thornhill: How does a girl
like you get to be a girl like you?
Eve Kendall: Lucky, I guess.
Roger Thornhill: Now, what can a
man do with his clothes off for twenty minutes? Couldn't he have taken
an hour?
Eve Kendall: You could always take
a cold shower.
Eve Kendall: While I'm calling,
you can change your clothes.
Roger Thornhill: Where do you propose
I do that? In Marshall Field's window?
Eve Kendall: I sort of had the men's
room in mind.
Roger Thornhill: Did you, know?
You're the smartest girl I ever spent the night with on a train.
Roger Thornhill: Tell me, why are
you so good to me?
Eve Kendall: Shall I climb up and
tell you why?
Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Inc.
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Academy Awards 1960
--- Nominated ---
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Colour
William A Horning, Robert F Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace,
Frank R McKelvy
Best Film Editing
George Tomasini
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the
Screen
Ernest Lehman
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Ernest
Lehmann
Hitchcock desperately wanted
to work with scriptwriter Lehmann and tasked him with writing
for The Wreck Of The Mary Dreare.
However, Lehmann struggled with this so Hitchcock gave him
a new premise of a chase movie that involved the UN building
and Mount Rushmore.
The North By Northwest script was then written using
Mary Dreare's budget and Hitchcock's simple ideas.
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Call it my women's intuition
After reading the script Martin Landau became sure his
character had feminine traits and decided to camp up his role.
This was best shown in the scene with James Mason:
Leonard: You surely would have suspected. Why else would
you have decided not to tell Miss Kendall why our little treasure
here has a belly full of microfilm?
Phillip Vandamm: You seem to be trying to fill mine with
rotten apples.
Leonard: Sometimes the truth does taste like a mouthful
of worms.
Phillip Vandamm: Truth? I've heard nothing but innuendos.
Leonard: Call it my women's intuition, if you will. But
I've never trusted neatness. Neatness has always been the form
of very deliberate planning.
When James Mason was told that Landau had played his character
with affection for Mason's character, he was said to have got
very angry and rejected the suggestion.
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Where's Hitch?
Hitchcock made his customary cameo appearance during the opening
credits (right after his own name appears) just missing his
bus, arriving as the bus doors close in his face.
It was common in the later movies for Hitch to make his cameo
early on as many fans were so eagerly awaiting his walk-on part
that they missed parts of the movie!
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