North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason.[3][4] North by Northwest is a tale of mistaken identity: an innocent man is pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization that aims to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle microfilm containing government secrets out of the country.It is one of several Hitchcock films featuring a musical score by Bernard Herrmann and an opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass.[6][7] In 1995, the Library of Congress selected North by Northwest for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[9][10] A waiter pages George Kaplan at the Oak Room restaurant at the Plaza Hotel in New York City at the request of two well-dressed thugs.As advertising executive Roger Thornhill summons the same waiter, he is mistaken for Kaplan, kidnapped by the thugs, and brought to the estate of Lester Townsend in Glen Cove.The two establish a relationship—on Kendall's part because she is secretly working with Vandamm—and she tells Thornhill that she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan at a rural bus stop in Indiana.Hitchcock often told journalists of an idea that he had about Cary Grant hiding from the villains inside Abraham Lincoln's nose and being given away when he sneezes.The original traveling salesman character had been suited to James Stewart, but Lehman changed it to a Madison Avenue advertising executive, a position that he had formerly held.They bought the idea from the journalist for $10,000.Lehman repeated this story in the documentary Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest that accompanied the 2001 DVD release of the film.[citation needed] Otis Guernsey was the American journalist who had the idea which influenced Hitchcock, inspired by a true story during World War II when British Intelligence obtained a dead body, invented a fictitious officer who was carrying secret papers, and arranged for the body and misleading papers to be discovered by the Germans as a disinformation scheme called Operation Mincemeat.Guernsey turned his idea into a story about an American salesman who travels to the Middle East and is mistaken for a fictitious agent, becoming "saddled with a romantic and dangerous identity".Production costs on North by Northwest rose when a delay in filming put Cary Grant into the penalty phase of his contract, resulting in his being paid an additional $5,000 per day before shooting even began.Days after the dinner, Saint's mother called her and reminded her that Hitchcock loved casting women wearing beige clothing and white gloves.[42][43] There is some disagreement as to who tailored the suit; Vanity Fair magazine claimed it was Norton & Sons of London,[44] although according to The Independent, it was Quintino of Beverly Hills.[48] In François Truffaut's book-length interview, Hitchcock/Truffaut (1967), Hitchcock said that MGM wanted North by Northwest cut by 15 minutes so the film's length would run under two hours.The site states the critical consensus as: "Gripping, suspenseful and visually iconic, this late-period Hitchcock classic laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow.[77] A. H. Weiler of The New York Times made it a "Critic's Pick" and said it was the "year's most scenic, intriguing and merriest chase"; he also complimented the two leads: Cary Grant, a veteran member of the Hitchcock acting varsity, was never more at home than in this role of the advertising-man-on-the-lam.He handles the grimaces, the surprised look, the quick smile, ... and all the derring-do with professional aplomb and grace, In casting Eva Marie Saint as his romantic vis-à-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore.[80] The London edition of Time Out, reviewing the film nearly a half-century after its initial release, commented: Fifty years on, you could say that Hitchcock's sleek, wry, paranoid thriller caught the zeitgeist perfectly: Cold War shadiness, secret agents of power, urbane modernism, the ant-like bustle of city life, and a hint of dread behind the sharp suits of affluence.Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill, the film's sharply dressed ad exec who is sucked into a vortex of mistaken identity, certainly wouldn't be out of place in Mad Men.But there's nothing dated about this perfect storm of talent, from Hitchcock and Grant to writer Ernest Lehman (Sweet Smell of Success), co-stars James Mason and Eva Marie Saint, composer Bernard Herrmann and even designer Saul Bass, whose opening-credits sequence still manages to send a shiver down the spine.[81]Author and journalist Nick Clooney praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".)[84][85] In 1995, North by Northwest was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[91] Despite its popular appeal, the film is considered to be a masterpiece for its themes of deception, mistaken identity, and moral relativism in the Cold War era.Many have seen it[citation needed] as having been taken from a line ("I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw") in Hamlet, a work also concerned with the shifty nature of reality.North by Northwest has been referred to as "the first James Bond film"[94] because of its splashily colorful settings, secret agents, and an elegant, daring, wisecracking leading man opposite a sinister yet strangely charming villain.[95] The film's final shot—that of the train speeding into a tunnel during a romantic embrace onboard—is a famous bit of self-conscious Freudian symbolism reflecting Hitchcock's mischievous sense of humor.
North by Northwest (disambiguation)Alfred HitchcockErnest LehmanCary GrantEva Marie SaintJames MasonJessie Royce LandisRobert BurksGeorge TomasiniBernard HerrmannMetro-Goldwyn-Mayerthriller filmSaul Basskinetic typographygreatest filmsLibrary of CongressNational Film RegistryThe New YorkerThe New York TimesOak Room restaurantPlaza HotelGlen Covedrunk drivingUnited NationsGeneral Assembly Building20th Century LimitedIndianacrop dustertank truckPurépechaMount RushmoreLeo G. CarrollJosephine HutchinsonPhilip OberMartin LandauAdam WilliamsEdward PlattRobert EllensteinLes TremaynePhilip CoolidgePatrick McVeyEdward BinnsKen LynchMaudie PrickettMalcolm AtterburyTol AveryJohn BeradinoNed GlassDoreen LangNora MarloweOlan SouleFrank WilcoxRobert ShaynePatricia CuttsSara BernerHitchcock's cameo appearancesJesslyn FaxAlfred Hitchcock PresentsRear WindowAbraham LincolnJames StewartJohn Russell TaylorThe Wreck of the Mary DeareHammond InnesWilliam GoldmanWhich Lie Did I Tell?tornadoOtis GuernseyWorld War IIBritish IntelligenceOperation MincemeatTurner EntertainmentEva Marie Saint'sCyd CharisseMiddle of the NightEdward G. RobinsonUnited Nations headquartersVistaVisionHigh SocietyNaval Aircraft Factory N3NBoeing-Stearman Model 75Wasco, CaliforniaThe GuardianEmpireWarren and WetmoreEmery Roth and SonsLever Houseinternational styleHarrison and AbramovitzOak RoomOld Westbury GardensGrand Central TerminalLaSalle Street StationAmbassador East HotelChicago Midway AirportNational Park ServiceMission 66Cecil J. DotyHarold SpitznagelVandamm HouseFrank Lloyd WrightRobert F. Boylematte paintingsCulver City, CaliforniaTom CruiseCollateralBen AffleckPaycheckTodd McEwenVanity FairNorton & SonsThe IndependentQuintinoBeverly HillsSavile Row tailorBergdorf GoodmanFrançois TruffautUnited Artists TheatreRadio City Music HallTribeca FestivalBlu-rayWarner Bros.4K Ultra HD Blu-rayWarner Bros. Home Entertainmentnumber one film at the US box officetheatrical rentals