North by Northwest 🎬 Hitchcock

North by Northwest

(Hitchcock, 1959)

 

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/North%20by%20Northwest

Starring:

Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

Synopsis:

Madison Avenue ad man Roger Thornhill is accidentally mistaken for a government spy, and begins a desperate chase for survival across the United States.

 

Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant.

Quote: “Ah, Maggie, In the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only expedient exaggeration. You ought to know that.”

Roger Thornhill: And what the devil is all this about? Why was I brought here?
Phillip Vandamm: Games? Must we?
Roger Thornhill: Not that I mind a slight case of abduction now and then, but I have tickets for the theater this evening, to a show I was looking forward to and I get, well, kind of
unreasonable about things like that.
Phillip Vandamm: With such expert playacting, you make this very room a theater.  My secretary is a great admirer of your methods,Mr. Kaplan. Elusiveness, however misguided ...
Roger Thornhill:  My name is Thornhill, Roger Thornhill! It's never been anything else ... So obviously, your friends picked up the wrong package when they bundled me out here in the car.

Quote: "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."

Clara Thornhill: You gentlemen aren't REALLY trying to kill my son, are you? 

Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes?

 
Roger Thornhill: Yes, they're sensitive to questions. 

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.

 

 

"I never make love on an empty stomach" 

The censors made them dub in "discuss" for "make" in post production

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.

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.

💗 Love on a Train 💗

The Seduction Scene

One of the most brilliant and seductive scenes in cinema history. The sexuality conveyed sans nudity is exquisite.

Few modern homes from films are so beloved by architecture geeks as the Vandamm House, which was practically a main character in Alfred Hitchcock’s unforgettable ‘North by Northwest’. And so it is often with bitter disappointment that Hitchcock fans learn that the Vandamm House is not a creation of Frank Lloyd Wright – or even a real house at all. 
It was an elaborate MGM film set, placed on top of Mount Rushmore using movie magic, but it was indeed designed to resemble the works of Wright, who was the most popular architect when the film was shot in 1958. Hitchcock wanted the home (naturally belonging to a villain) to be not just impossibly luxurious but also familiar, a requirement that couldn’t be met by any real-life location.

 Pre-production sketch by Robert F. Boyle of the Vandamm house in North by Northwest.

Phillip Vandamm, “North by Northwest

Quote: “Seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the F.B.I. and a little more from the Actor’s Studio.”

Roger Thornhill: Tell me, why are you so good to me?
Eve Kendall: Shall I climb up and tell you why?

By:  Sister Celluloid 

Lincoln Center

“The Art of the Score: Hitchcock!”

That’s Kim Novak’s eye you see peering through the credits there… “Vertigo” was one of the five featured soundtracks, along with “North by Northwest,” Strangers on a Train,” “To Catch A Thief” and “Dial M for Murder.”

The two Bernard Hermann scores, from “Vertigo” and “North by Northwest,” pretty much blew the others off the map, but all five were fabulous, accompanied by gorgeous, pristine clips. Rounding out the program was a montage of Hitchcock’s home movies and cameos, set to Gounod’s “Marche funebre d’une marionnette,” which he chose as the theme music for his television show. (Ba-bum-ba-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-BUM…)

Watching the clips while cocooned inside the live music — which the fabulous musicians synched perfectly — was such an incredible feeling. especially during the suspenseful scenes, when you could feel the timbre rising up through your ribcage and catching in your throat.

The narration, by Sam Waterston, was less successful. He struggled a bit, understandably, with the pompous text, which was very much at odds with Hitchcock, who punctured pomp at every turn. A lot of the information in there was also wrong, which was like, Jeez, if you’re going to get all professorial on everyone’s ass, as least get your facts straight.

For “Strangers on a Train,” they said that how fast Farley Granger could wrap up the tennis match “would determine his guilt or innocence.” Um, yeah, no. He was innocent. What was at stake was whether or not he could prove it.

For “Dial M for Murder,” they said that Ray Milland’s murder plan was foiled when his watch stopped. Nope. He managed to overcome that little glitch and sync up with the would-be murderer anyway. What foiled the plan was Grace Kelly grabbing hold of the scissors she’d set aside to do “those boring press clippings.”

Oh, and did you know that this movie was when “Grace Kelly replaced Ingrid Bergman as Hitchcock’s favorite leading lady”? Neither did I. Possibly because it’s not true. Bergman was in Italy with Roberto Rossellini when all three Kelly/Hitchcock collaborations took place. She was also 14 years older than Kelly, and would not have been appropriate for any of the three roles, all of which were essentially ingenue parts. Hitchcock never stopped adoring Ingrid, and the feeling was mutual.

And when introducing “Vertigo” — in Avery Fisher Hall, no less — they didn’t give as much as a shout-out to Wagner, whose “Tristan und Isolde” was borrowed from liberally, which Hermann, who wove his own brilliant score around it, was happy to acknowledge. 

But once I managed to swat those nerd-gnats away and the music started up again, I was completely swept away!

It really was a beautiful, beautiful night, one to make you fall in love with movies all over again. I was hoping for an encore — like, okay, they’re not in the program, but here come a few more films! It’s much too early to go home!

(Photography was not permitted, but a friend from the TCM group snapped this pic, which I am borrowing! 

But I kept my camera firmly in my purse, I promise…)

By:  Sister Celluloid

Quote:  “In the world of advertising, there’s no such thing as a lie. There’s only expedient exaggeration.”

 Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill in North By Northwest (1959)

In 2012’s biopic Hitchcock, there’s an annoyingly obvious wink to the audience where the famed director’s secretary suggests he adapt ‘that Ian Fleming novel, Casino Royale’.  Anthony Hopkins’ reply, as our dear Mr. Hitchcock, is to say “I already made it.  It’s called North by Northwest.”

I don’t know if Hitch ever actually said that, but he certainly was offered the job of bringing 007 to the big screen for the first time. It’s interesting enough, that 3 years before Dr. No kicked off one of the biggest film franchises of all-time, that North By Northwest would give us the formula that James Bond would follow in nearly every one of his big screen adventures through the 1980’s.

When Cary Grant (Ian Fleming’s first choice to play his British spy, FYI)  is framed for murder after being mistaken for a secret agent by a group of spies, the Madison Avenue advertising executive is sent on a cross country quest to uncover the truth.  Along the way, he finds intrigue, danger and romance in one of the most exciting stories ever put to film. 

With its epic scale, constantly twisting plot and the director’s signature style, North by Northwest defined a genre and opened the world of cinema up to so many new possibilities.  The fact that it’s one of the most enjoyable exercises in storytelling ever put to the screen, is the icing on the cake.  Years before James Bond became the icon of the big screen spy tale, North by Northwest became the standard to which all spy thrillers are held.

*

 “There are no symbols in North by Northwest. Oh yes! One. 

The last shot, the train entering the tunnel after the love-scene between Grant and Eva-Marie Saint. 

It’s a phallic symbol. But don’t tell anyone.”

Alfred Hitchcock, Cahiers du Cinéma, No. 102