North by Northwest

North by Northwest was made in 1958 and released in 1959.

Cast

Cary Grant... Roger O. Thornhill
Eva Marie Saint... Eve Kendall
James Mason... Phillip Vandamm
Jessie Royce Landis... Clara Thornhill
Leo G. Carroll... The Professor
Josephine Hutchinson... Mrs. Townsend
Philip Ober... Lester Townsend
Martin Landau... Leonard
Adam Williams... Valerian
Edward Platt... Victor Larrabee
Robert Ellenstein... Licht
Les Tremayne... Auctioneer
Philip Coolidge... Dr. Cross
Patrick McVey... Sergeant Flamm - Chicago Policeman
Edward Binns... Captain Junket
Ken Lynch... Charley - Chicago Policeman

The Wrong Man Motif

In many Hitchcock movies an innocent man is escaping from the police (and often also the bad guys).

• The Lodger, 1926/1927
• The 39 Steps, 1935
• Young and Innocent, 1937/1938
• Saboteur, 1942
• Spellbound, 1944/1945
• Strangers on a Train, 1950/1951
• I Confess, 1952/1953
• To Catch a Thief, 1954/1955
• The Wrong Man, 1956
• North by Northwest 1958/1959
• Frenzy, 1971/1972

North by Northwest (1959) titles

The opening credits were created by Saul Bass. He also designed the titles for Vertigo and Psycho.

MacGuffin

Hitchcock explaining to Truffaut what the MacGuffin is: "It's the device, the gimmick, if you will, or the papers the spies are after. [...] the "MacGuffin" is the term we use to cover all that sort of thing: to steal plans or documents, or discover a secret, it doesn't matter what it is. And the logicians are wrong in trying to figure out the truth of a MacGuffin, since it's beside the point. The only thing that really matters is that in the picture the plans, documents, or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatever.

Hichcock Films with a MacGuffin

• The 39 Steps (the mechanical formula for the construction of an airplane engine)
• The Lady Vanishes (secret hidden in a melody)
• North by Northwest (microfilm containing government secrets)
• Torn Curtain ("Gamma Five" project, concerning an anti-missile missile)
• Similar to, but no MacGuffins are: Number Seventeen (the necklace), The Man Who Knew Too Much (assasination), Notorious (uranium)

Leo Gratten Carroll appeared in the following Hitchcock movies

"I wanted once to do a scene, for North By Northwest by the way, and I couldn't get it in there. I wanted it to be in Detroit, and two men walking along in front of an assembly line. And behind them you see the automobile being put together. It starts with a frame, and you just take the camera along, the two men are talking. And you know all those cars are eventually driven off the line, they load them with gas and everything. And one of the men goes forward, mind you you've seen a car from nothing, just a frame, opens the door and a dead body falls out."
Alfred Hitchcock

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