Mistaken for someone else, Roger Thornhill is being pursued by a spy and his men. These men are causing him nothing but trouble. Thornhill wants answers, so he does some investigating by traveling to certain places he knows he can get answers. Thornhill has to make sure no one recognizes him because everyone is after him. The LAW and those mystery men. Along the way, Thornhill meets a mysterious, yet lovely women named Eve Kendall.
Blaine: Everyone knows how big of a director Alfred Hitchcock was. His movies are legendary. Alfred Hitchcock achieved success in the 40s and 50s. MGM studios asked Hitchcock to turn a popular novel, “The Wreck of the Mary Deare”, into a film. Ernest Lehman was asked to adapt it into a screenplay, but Ernest had no idea how he was going to write the screenplay. “The Wreck of the Mary Deare” was challenging for Ernest, and not in the good way. He told Alfred Hitchcock that he couldn’t do it. Alfred Hitchcock got along with Ernest so much that he decided that they should make something else, without telling the studio. Alfred Hitchcock was a man with ideas and he told Ernest that he had this idea he had for a while of people running on the faces of Mount Rushmore and that sounded good to Ernest. Alfred would tell Ernest everything that was on his mind and Ernest would write them down as notes. Ernest would then construct a story out of those notes and he knew how the plot should go. Ernest let Alfred be the judge of what he thought of his writing and Alfred sent him a four page letter telling him he was doing a great job. Both Alfred and Ernest were on the same page. Some ideas would come to Ernest the more he worked on the screenplay for “North by Northwest”. He would tell Alfred Hitchcock whatever ideas he had and Alfred thought they were great. Alfred Hitchcock went to MGM and told them he was developing a different project and the executives were very open to that because all they wanted was an Alfred Hitchcock picture. However, MGM knew that “North by Northwest” was going to be an expensive movie to make. It was going to cost over three million.
Alfred Hitchcock knew he was going to need a creative team to put that money to good use and help him bring “North by Northwest” to life. Once the script was finished, Alfred Hitchcock started drawing storyboards for how he wanted “North by Northwest” to look. The number one person Alfred Hitchcock would talk to was the cinematographer because they way the movie was going to be shot was always important to Alfred. Jimmy Stewart was in mind for the lead character, Roger O. Thornhill, but then Cary Grant was brought to mind and Alfred felt the part was more suitable for him. This was Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant’s fourth project together after “Suspicion”, “Notorious” and “To Catch a Thief”.
For the role of Eve Kendall, the double agent, Alfred Hitchcock had Eva Marie Saint in mind, but MGM thought different. Alfred Hitchcock had a talent for seeing things in people that no one else could and he could see Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall. Like a lot of Hitchcock’s previous films, the lead actress was always blonde and beautiful, but that’s not all they were, they were also very talented actresses. Eva Marie Saint had just given birth to a daughter when she got the part and she had to lose the baby weight before they tested out the costumes. There were a lot of costumes MGM felt went great with Eva Marie Saint, but Alfred Hitchcock thought different and got rid of almost every one of them. Alfred took Eva to New York to meet a different costume designer who he felt had better taste and he designed all the costumes Eva wore in the film. Playing Eve was something special for Eva Marie Saint because she was different from the other characters Eva had played in the past. Eve is very clever at making you believe she is telling the truth. She was more glamorous and mysterious because you can’t tell who’s side she’s really on. Eva found her performance through Alfred Hitchcock because he was giving her all the details of how she should act and move in a scene. Alfred made Eva feel special because she loved all the directions on what she had to do to bring this character to life. Eva Marie Saint felt claustrophobic while shooting a scene where her and Cary Grant are in the train car because the set was tight and the crew was surrounding it. But kissing Cary Grant took Eva’s mind off of it. Eva got along with Cary fine, but she wasn’t in love with him because she was already happily married.
An artist will do things without anyone’s permission in order to get what he or she wants and on the first day of shooting “North by Northwest”, Alfred Hitchcock had shot a scene in the front entrance of United Nations in New York. It was secretly shot from across the street at times and then other times where Cary Grant would be getting out of a cab in front of the place, the camera would be hidden inside a carpet cleaning truck. Alfred Hitchcock was lucky enough to get away with it. Alfred Hitchcock always made his trademark with a cameo in his own film. Alfred Hitchcock has been making films since the 20s and Alfred liked making a cameo appearance so much that he continued doing it and it inspired future filmmakers to make trademarks of their own. In “North by Northwest”, Alfred Hitchcock makes his cameo at the beginning of the movie as the guy who missed his bus.
The scene where a plane is shooting at Cary Grant was shot in East Bakersfield, California. It was a hot place and Cary Grant would run like crazy with a stunt plane swooping down at him. Cary did a lot of his own stunt work during that scene. Cary runs into a corn field to avoid the plane. Cary runs to a truck that is coming his way. He has to put himself on the road in order to force it to stop. The truck nearly runs him over. That scene was planned out, but there was one thing missing that Hitchcock didn’t realize until after they shot it. Cary Grant was supposed to have crop dust on him after the plane tries to get him out of the corn field. So the whole thing had to be shot again. The place is supposed be out in the middle of nowhere, but in real life there was a town close by that you could see from the distance. That had to be cut out.
“North by Northwest” was shot in locations like New York, Chicago and they went to South Dakota, but by the time they got to South Dakota, word got out that Alfred Hitchcock was planning to use Mount Rushmore for scenes that involve killing in his next picture. They couldn’t get permission to shoot anywhere near Rushmore, including the park. The press wasn’t nice about what they had to say about Alfred Hitchcock making a film with people running through Mount Rushmore once they found out. One newspaper editor said Alfred Hitchcock should go back to England and have people scampering on the Queen’s face. Because they didn’t have permission to shoot anywhere near the monument everything that takes place in South Dakota was shot at MGM studios, the Rushmore visitor center where Eva Marie Saint shoots Cary Grant, the forest where they reunite after they have created a false shooting and Mount Rushmore. The last thing they shot was the Rushmore scene. Green screen or blue screen didn’t exist yet, so for the scenes where Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint are climbing through Mount Rushmore trying to get away from the bad guys, these special sets were built by production designer Robert F. Boyle and his team to make it look like the real thing. They also had this hundred and fifty feet wide scenic painted by a special artist. The set was large, but also safe. Although Eva Marie Saint did get a bit of an injury on her right arm when her character falls down a bit. “North by Northwest” ends with Cary Grant trying to pull Eva Marie Saint up as she is hanging from the cliff. She feels she is done for, but Carie Grant doesn’t give up and then all of sudden it cuts to him pulling her up to the bed of their train car. Judging by the sound of it they are a married couple now. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman wished he came up with the ending. Alfred Hitchcock gets the credit for how “North by Northwest” should have ended just as much as the film was his idea to begin with. Ernest Lehman was jealous of Alfred Hitchcock because he was a man with a lot of original ideas. Alfred Hitchcock was nervous, but like all his films, “North by Northwest” became a success and a classic.
My rating on “North by Northwest” is five out of five stars.
Family Guy
Peter and Lois are trying to spice up their marriage, so they decide to take what they call a second honeymoon. Peter crashes the car after trying to read a comic book while being behind the wheel. The money that was for the trip is spent on the car, so now the second honeymoon is canceled. Peter sees a news report about a fancy hotel where people like Mel Gibson stay at. Peter gets himself and Lois into that hotel by pretending to be Mel Gibson and saying he's put on weight for a new role. Peter and Lois find Mel Gibson's secret screening room, along with the only copy of his new "Passion of the Christ II" film. Peter feels a movie like this shouldn't be shown and he plans to get rid of it. Mel Gibson’s men arrive at the hotel to get the film and Peter and Lois make a run for it. The men manage to get their hands on Lois and if Peter wants her back he must give back what belongs to Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson has a private house located on top of Mount Rushmore. Peter shows up to rescue Lois and gives a film can with dog shit in it. Peter and Lois burst through the window and Mel Gibson goes after them and chases them through Mount Rushmore. Lois is hanging off of George Washington’s lips and Peter goes to rescue her. While Peter is trying to pull Lois up, Mel Gibson is aiming his gun right at Peter. Mel Gibson demands to know where “Passion of the Christ 2” is and Peter tricks Mel Gibson into falling off the edge. Peter and Lois are not only safe, but that spicy feeling they wanted comes back and they do it on top of President Washington’s head.
