North By Northwest

North by Northwest (NBN) was the forth and final time Cary Grant teamed up with Director Alfred Hitchcock for this 1959 thriller.

NBN has been selected by the American Film Institute as one of the top 100 films of all time. Amazingly, with a screenplay written by Ernest Lehman, a cast including Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, NBN was nominated for five Oscars and won, well ah, that would be none.

Some kooky facts behind this film…DID YOU KNOW…

James Stewart was the original choice for the lead role.

Cary Grant’s “mom” in NBN was only one year older than Cary Grant. WTF?

On set, Cary Grant charged would-be autograph seekers $0.15/signature. Greedy SOB or JackAss Greedy SOB?

The iconic crop duster scene included a whopping 8 minute setup of “nothingness” before the chase – MGM wasn’t thrilled.

Why does Alfred Hitchcock make a cameo-appearance in every film he directed? Back in the day, in England, Hitchcock couldn’t find enough extras – so he used himself out of necessity. It then became his “signature.” But because it was so distracting to audiences, he started putting these cameos near the beginning of his films - get it out of the way, pull the audience back into the plot. You’ll see Hitchcock getting a bus door slammed in his face in NBN.

Best Goof:

Watch the Mt. Rushmore Observatory gunshot scene again – about three seconds BEFORE Eva shots Cary, you’ll see a boy behind her cover his ears – the kid was tired of the take-after-take gunshot special effects noise.