North By Northwest (1959)

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Herbert Coleman & Alfred Hitchcock/ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Ernest Lehman - screenplay

Bernard Herrmann

Robert Burks

George Tomasini

Distributors: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (theatrical) | Warner Bros. (2001,DVD)

United States

English

Bakersfield, California, USA

Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, USA

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, N. Y., USA

Glen Cove, Long Island, New York City, N. Y., USA

Grand Central Station, Manhattan, New York City, N. Y., USA

Keystone, South Dakota, USA

LaSalle Street Station - 141 W. Van Buren Street, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Long Island, New York, USA - Phipps Estate

Los Angeles, California, USA

Manhattan, New York City, N. Y., USA

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA - interiors/full-scale models of Mt. Rushmore

Midway Airport, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Mount Rushmore National Memorial - Highway 244, Keystone, South Dakota, USA - establishing shots

Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Old Westbury Gardens - 71 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury, Long Island, New York, USA

Omni Ambassador East Hotel - 1301 N. State Parkway, Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, N. Y., USA

Plaza Hotel - 750 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, N. Y., USA

Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

Southern Pacific Railroad Tunnel between Santa Susana & Chatsworth, California, USA - closing train shot

United Nations - First Avenue at 46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, N. Y., USA

Academy Awards

1960 - Nominated Oscar Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color

1960 - Nominated Oscar Best Film Editing - George Tomasini

1960 - Nominated Oscar Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen - Ernest Lehman

DVD Exclusive Awards

2001 - Nominated Video Premiere Award Best DVD Original Retrospective Documentary/Featurette Peter Fitzgerald For Destination Hitchcock: The Making of 'North by Northwest' (2000).

Directors Guild of America

1960 - Nominated DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures - Alfred Hitchcock

Edgar Allan Poe Awards

1960 - Won Edgar Best Motion Picture - Ernest Lehman

Laurel Awards

1960 - Won Golden Laurel Top Action Drama

National Film Preservation Board, USA

1995 - National Film Registry

San Sebastián International Film Festival

1959 - Won Silver Seashell - Alfred Hitchcock

Writers Guild of America

1960 - Nominated WGA Award (Screen) Best Written American Comedy - Ernest Lehman

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An advertising executive, Rodger O. Thornhill (Grant), is mistaken for a government agent by a gang of spies and is pursued across the United States, while being helped by the beautiful Eve Kendall (Saint). One of Hitchcock’s best-loved classics, North By Northwest is a mistaken-identity caper movie in which the master of suspense puts the ever-suave Cary Grant through his paces (it would be the fourth and final collaboration between the actor and director) as a man on the run in a mystifying game of cat-and-mouse. Or perhaps that should be crop-duster and quarry.

The film features two of cinema's most famous set-pieces: the chase scene in which Grant is terrorized by a biplane that harries him across empty fields; and the equally famous, but less mysteriously unsettling, climatic scene in which Grant and Saint are chased across the monumental presidential sculptures of Mount Rushmore. In between the pursuit sequences the two leads engage in frisky thrust-and-parry dialogue, as though they'd wandered out of a romantic comedy into a big-budget thriller and can't quite get their bearings.

For all its set-piece action, North By Northwest is Hitchcock in light, likeable mood. The fearsome and intimate malevolence of Psycho was only a year away.

Roger Thornhill: In the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie. There's only expedient exaggeration.

Roger Thornhill: 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.

Man at Prairie Crossing: That's funny, that plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops.

Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes?
Roger Thornhill: Yes, they're sensitive to questions.

Eve Kendall: Roger O. Thornhill. What does the O stand for?
Roger Thornhill: Nothing.

Roger Thornhill: You're police, aren't you? Or is it FBI?
The Professor: FBI, CIA, ONI... we're all in the same alphabet soup.

Eve Kendall: Patience is a virtue.
Roger Thornhill: So is breathing.

During the climactic Mt. Rushmore scene at the end of the film, the top of the mountain set and equipment are clearly visible for a number of seconds.

When Thornhill and his mother are changing elevators you can see a crew member bend over in the reflection on a pane of glass.