North by northwest
1959 USA Color 136 Minutes
Review
It's going to be a long night,
and I don't particularly like the book I started.
Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is a middle-aged advertising executive who claims his life is just too dull. When he answers the wrong page, one for a George Kaplan, he is mistaken for Kaplan. It becomes an identity which Thornhill cannot shake. Unctuous, urbane spy Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) wants Kaplan dead, but when his first attempt at assassination fails,
he frames Thornhill for murder instead.
Now Thornhill is chased across the USA by the spies, the police and the FBI. Boarding a train he meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who helps him in his desperate flight. Eve seems to know a little too much and when he discovers Eve's apparent duplicity, the smitten Roger's attempt to even the score with her endangers both of their lives. And then things are getting really complicated.
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 .... Vandamm's sister = 'Mrs. Townsend'
- Philip Ober .... Lester Townsend
- Martin Landau .... Leonard
- Adam Williams .... Valerian
- Edward Platt .... Thornhill's attorney
- Robert Ellenstein .... Licht
- Les Tremayne .... Auctioneer
- Philip Coolidge .... Dr. Cross
- Patrick McVey .... Chicago police sergeant
- Edward Binns .... Capt. Junket (Nassau County detective)
Links and more
A simple yes or no
It’s an old Gestapo trick
Theme music
You gentlemen
Universal Hitchcock site
Trivia
Release date: July 17, 1959
Oscar Nominations:
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color
Best Film Editing
Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen
Screenwriter Ernest Lehman: “I wanted Cary Grant to hide in Lincoln's nostril and then have a fit of sneezing. The Parks Commission was rather upset at this thought. I argued until one of their number asked me how I would like it if they had Lincoln play the scene in Cary Grant's nose. I saw their point at once.”
Director Cameo: Hitchcock arrives at a bus stop, (during the opening credits) but gets there a second too late and the door is closed in his face. He misses the bus.
The final chase scene was not shot on Mount Rushmore; Hitchcock couldn’t gain permission to shoot an attempted murder on a national monument. The scene was shot in the studio on a replica of Mount Rushmore.
James Stewart was very interested in starring in this movie, begging Hitchcock to let him play Thornhill. Hitchcock claimed that Vertigo (1958)’s lack of financial success was because Stewart looked too old.
Alfred Hitchcock: “I took a lot of trouble with Eva Marie Saint, grooming her and making her appear sleek and sophisticated. Next thing she is in a picture called Exodus looking dissipated”Source / More
Bio
Cary Grant
Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant
Remarkable:
Cary pictured on a 37¢ USA postage stamp in October 2002
Born:
January 18, 1904
Born as:
Archibald Alec Leach
Died:
November 29, 1986
Archibald ran away from home at 14 to join a traveling acrobatic troupe as song-and-dance man. In 1920, Leach traveled to the United States with a select group of boys from the troupe. This was followed by Broadway musicals, operettas and supporting roles for Paramount.
His career boost came, after a name change, with She done him wrong (1933) co-starring Mae West. In 1937, Grant's contract with the studio expired, and he was free to choose his own projects. And so he picked some successful screwball comedy's as The awful truth (1937), Bringing up baby (1938) and Holiday (1938).
In the forties and fifties Cary managed to balance a mix of drama, comedy and romance. Suspicion (1941) was the first of four films that Grant made with Alfred Hitchcock Over the next 18 years, the actor and director collaborated on Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959). Cary retired from the screen in 1966.
Academy awards
1970 Honorary Award
1945 Nominated Oscar best actor for: None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
1942 Nominated Oscar best actor for: Penny Serenade (1941)
Selected Movies:
- North by Northwest (1959)
- Notorious (1946)
- Bringing Up Baby (1938)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
- Philadelphia Story, The (1940)
- His Girl Friday (1940)
Books:
Warren G. Harris -> Cary Grant: A Touch of Elegance (1987)
Donald Deschner -> The Films of Cary Grant (1973/1995)
Graham McCann -> Cary Grant: A Class Apart (1996)
Richard Schickel -> Cary Grant (1983/1998)
