Most of us, at one point or another, wonder what it would be like to live in someone else’s shoes. Changing identities could add a whole new dimension of intrigue and problems to our daily lives. What if the other person led an adventurous, dangerous lifestyle? Would it still be cool to want to exchange places? Here’s the corker… what if everyone assumed you were someone else? How hard would you fight to get your everyday life back, especially if it all centered around the world of guns and espionage? I have a very vivid imagination, and these thoughts can swirl around in my brain at any given moment, as I watch a lot of movies.
I remember when I was in my early twenties, I traveled to San Francisco by myself for an audition. I had no idea how to get to the hotel where I was meeting several directors from back East. I was walking up a typical hill in the area, and kept making the wrong turn, so I was circling instead of moving forward to my destination. I must have circled this one block at least three times, and each time, a gentleman would tip his hat as I passed. He finally made the first verbal contact and asked if he could be of assistance. I didn’t hesitate in my reply. He helped me find the hotel and politely offered to wait for me in the lobby. This brief interlude could have ended very badly, but it was a different decade, and stranger danger didn’t lurk around every corner. I was supposed to fly home that same afternoon, but instead I took a leap and accepted his invitation to dinner along with an evening of dancing and fun. I had decided to pretend to be someone else… a woman who could do or say anything she pleased. It was glorious and exciting. The next morning, I took a cab to the airport and traveled home. I felt like an international, worldly woman. It was all very intoxicating and exciting.
I often look back at this blip in my timeline and wonder what if things had ended up differently, and I had no control over any outcome? Wow… cue my movie for this week. NORTH BY NORTHWEST, which featured the gorgeous Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, a man who was kidnapped in the middle of a restaurant, accused of being someone else, charged with murder, escaped to find a lusty love interest, and then traveled to all sorts of locations to get his identity back. I was lucky none of this happened to me, but then my life story was not being controlled by the brilliant, creative Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Whew. I dodged a bullet for sure.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is considered Hitchcock’s greatest romantic, comedic, and suspenseful spy thriller. It was the film that would influence many movies that followed, especially the James Bond franchise. The blunt, glib one-line zingers are what give NBN its edge. It is as fresh and sharp as when it first premiered in 1959. It was nominated for three Academy Awards in the categories of screenwriting, editing, and art direction. Hitchcock made sure every second of filming counted. Only eight feet of film was cut from the finished product, a mere five seconds of actual film time. Amazing. Hitchcock always had the final say.
To film several scenes, Hitchcock had to be very creative. He never got permission from the United Nations, so he secretly set up a hidden camera to get Grant walking into the building. Once safely inside, Hitchcock switched to a soundstage. Grand Central Station in NY was real, but not any of the moving trains. Filming the forested area surrounding Mt. Rushmore, Hitchcock had over 100 trees planted in the back lot of the studio. It was a truly mixed bag of what he could get away with and what he had to create. He didn’t like the costumes designed for Eve (Eva Marie Saint), so Hitchcock purchased everything she wore from Bergdorf Goodman himself. In the end, he went one million dollars over budget, but the film was an enormous financial and critical success.
Grant and Saint were Hitchcock’s first choices for the roles they played, even though Grant was 55 when they began filming. The two of them were outstanding together. Their vocal jabs and their hot make-out sessions were perfection. They were believable together, whether they were on the same team or opposite sides. It was mesmerizing to watch, and who doesn’t like the idea of falling in love at first sight? Movie magic is made from these moments.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is intense. Whether climbing along the facial features of past presidents at Mt. Rushmore, waiting for someone to pick you up in the middle of a countryside field while being chased by a crop-dusting plane, or hiding in a small compartment aboard a train still gets my heart rate pumping faster and faster. Simple, all-American locations turned into possible death traps. This is pure genius.
The ensemble that surrounded Grant and Saint was a masterclass of actors. James Mason, Martin Landau, Leo G. Carroll, and Jessie Royce helped create a story that took almost an hour into the film to figure out what was going on and who the bad guys were. This was an ingenious move. Would theater-goers wait patiently for answers? Indeed, they did. And they even accepted that Landau played his villainous, violent character as a gay man. Hitchcock and the screenwriter, Ernest Kehman, even added the line, “Call it my woman’s intuition,” when he was talking with Mason’s character, Vandamm. This was very gutsy for the times.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a gripping, suspenseful classic. It is an iconic film that is as impressive today as it was over sixty years ago. It is tightly wound with legendary sequences. Many believe it was Hitchcock’s crowning achievement. He often said in later interviews that it was great fun to do. It was also one of the finest films ever made in this genre.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST is available on TCM.
