MovieChat Forums > North by Northwest (1959) Discussion > It All Comes Together Here

It All Comes Together Here

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
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One critic wrote of "North by Northwest": "It all comes together here." Which was to say that Hitchcock's career of British thrillers like The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, 40's WWII thrillers like Saboteur and Foreign Correspondent; and fifties films like To Catch a Thief(for a suave Cary Grant) and The Man Who Knew Too Much(for a spy plot)..not to mention all manner of "wrong man" films(like Strangers on a Trai, I Confess and The Wrong Man) and "twisted love" films(above all for NXNW -- Notorious -- with Cary Grant AGAIN batting an elegant superspy for a beauty's affections)...it all comes together here.

Hitchcock went to MGM for only this one film, and got the biggest budget he'd ever been given, enough to hire THREE major stars for the hero(Grant), villain(Mason) and femme fatale(Saint); enough to hire a virtual "cast of hundreds" to populate the 2,000 mile chase(including about every Hollywood character actor extant in 1959, from Ed Binns to Ed Platt to Ned Glass to Olan Soule to Les Tremayne to Ken Lynch..

...and, you ever notice that NXNW sports two actors who would go on to be "the main bosses" on two key shows of the sixties(Ed "Get Smart" Platt and Leo G. "Man from UNCLE" Carroll?)

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With that great cast in place, Hitchcock then had the budget to movie his cameras from New York City(the Plaza and the UN), to Glen Cove, Long Island; to Chicago, to Mount Rushmore...with a stopover near Bakersfield, California(playing the Indiana prairie for that crop duster scene). And in between? How about a nice sexy train ride?

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Great Hitchcock scenes? We got 'em.

Three action set-pieces spaced nicely apart: a drunken car drive to start the movie, the grand "cinematic short story" of the crop-duster scene at mid-point, and then that emotionally involving, exhilarating literal cliffhanger of a finale at the greatest place a movie thriller ever got to climax: the "Land of the Giants" that constitutes Mount Rushmore.

The three action set-pieces are the "anchors" of North by Northwest, but there are other great scenes:

The murder at the UN, which is macabre, AGAIN exhilarating -- and very, very funny at the same time(notice how the photographer turns around to catch a photo just as Grant has the knife in his hand; its the funniest "wrong man moment" in movies.)

The auction in Chicago, in which Grant BIDS HIS WAY out of danger -- creating such a ruckus of stupid bidding and insults ("$5000? For THAT chromo?") that the cops show up and whisk him away from the baddies("Sorry, chap...better luck next time.")

The "shooting of Grant" near Mount Rushmore, which likely shocked 1959 audiences for at least a minute or two -- until they realized you can't kill the star(Psycho would put the lie to THAT.)

But also:

Romance on the train. One year before Hitchcock would have Janet Leigh and John Gavin have strip for post-coital necking in a cheap hotel room, he had a fully clothed Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint trade very, very VERY direct banter about their mutual interest in sexual congress upon having only met minutes ago. I can only imagine 1959 audiences smiling in sexual delight --the movies didn't ALLOW this kind of talk, usually. And the sexy talk in the dining car leads to some very sexy necking in the sleeping car(Hitchcock was not allowed to film sex scenes for most of his career; "intense necking" had to take its place...and it did.)

And even:

The Great Glen Cove Library Scene: An opening gambit of great lines("With your expert play-acting, you make this very room a theater"), great camera moves(following Grant to the door and his finding it blocked by Valerian), great camera angles(from high above the room) and a growing state of suspense: these guys not only have mistaken Thornhill for somebody else(George Kaplan)...all they really want to do is kill him. This is like a "miniature one act play" that handsomely launches NXNW with maximum suspense. Its also worth hearing James Mason say the words "Rapid City, South Dakota" with his great voice.

Yes: it DOES all come together for Hitchcock here. Already a star from his TV show, Hitchcock now had the respect and the budget to hire the best actors, the best screenwriter, and shoot on the best locations that money could buy. He awarded us with the greatest wrong-man spy chase adventure cliffhanger ever made.

[–] Drmccormack (743) 7 years ago

Wow, great review here ecarle! Well done! We went to go see this at the movie theater last night and it was wonderful to see it up on the big screen. My only complaint is they do these Fathom events using a digital copy and I would love to see these as the real film copy. It was beautiful on the big screen but I bet the restored film would be spectacular. I love technicolor because the colors are so saturated and they lose something in the digital copy. It was nice to see it with a big audience though. I always look forward to the scene where Eva Marie Saint wears that beautiful red dress. It's a dream dress and she looks perfect in it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Yes, I made it to that Fathom/TCM event as well. I did think that the digital rather desaturated the film, but then it has seemed to be different colors to me over the years in different prints (I find the film's color scheme to be largely "sliver and blue" -- except for that beautiful dress and the orange outfit Hitchcock had Saint wear to be seen on Rushmore.)

I appreciate your reading my review and I'm here to tell you I believed it myself as one great memory after another flowed off the screen, out of my memories, and into my heart.

Magic!

[–] Drmccormack (743) 7 years ago

A friend of mine who teaches film at a local college told me that the color scheme for the movie was red, white and blue. I tried to pay attention yesterday and I think she's right. Nearly every person in the film is dressed in these colors. There were some yellows and greens in the crowd but for the most part, it's silver/blue suits or a bright red dress etc. I'd like to think Hitchcock wanted the red, white and blue theme.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

. I'd like to think Hitchcock wanted the red, white and blue theme.

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This may well be the case. Certainly, this is "Hitchcock's All-American thriller" with a chase across the United States that ends on the giant Presidential faces.

Also: I once attended a seminar given by NXNW screenwriter Ernest Lehman, and he said in a first draft of the treatment for the film, the Rushmore chase was the "second act climax" of the film, which THEN went all the way to the other end of America -- Alaska(the newly crowned 49th state) for its climax: a seaplane versus tidal wave chase.

But the budget wasn't there. So we have, probably, a much better ending. On Rushmore.

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As to the color scheme, it has been said that an extra (a woman) on NXNW was wearing the wrong color dress and Hitchcock opined that her dress should be "spray painted gray" (while the extra was WEARING the dress!) to avoid a color clash with Eva Marie Saint's dress. Nicer minds prevailed and the extra changed dresses.