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North by Northwest (1959) Poll Winner watch along (Patreon)

Published:
2024-09-06 16:05:01
Edited:
2024-10-12 04:11:56
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

WHEW!

What a poll winner!!!

Hitchcock is truly an amazing filmmaker, especially for his time. Cary Grant has officially become one of my new crushes-he is INCREDIBLE! I can’t handle him, and yes, even his butt! You'll laugh when I mention it later in this reaction... but I seriously adore him so much! This movie is another one knocked off the AFI list, sitting at #55! It felt so satisfying to check it off the list!

As for the film itself, I have similar things to say about this one as other Hitchcock classics. His films are always so smart with their themes-identity, trust, betrayal-they all come up again here. The incredible camera work and visual techniques Hitchcock used were absolutely stunning, once again! They truly elevated the film. I loved the predicament Cary Grant’s character found himself in and the wild adventure he went on to clear his name. I had no clue where it was headed, which made it even more thrilling!

And don’t even get me started on the chemistry between him and Eve-it was so hot and heavy! I felt all the emotions watching their relationship unfold. My absolute favorite moment? The matchbook throw. You'll know exactly what I mean when you see it—no spoilers. And the MT. Rushmore scene!!! EEEE!

I just reread Hamlet cause my teacher always quotes it! So this title is piquing my interest!

Drop em all below! I expect great comments!

xx

ames

Files

North by Northwest (1959) Watch a long

Comments

Teemu Laitinen

Cary Grant always has sizzling chemistry with all his leading ladies. A few of my favorite Cary Grant films are An Affair to Remember, Charade and To Catch a Thief. I'd wholly recommend all three. In those films you have Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.

Bill Maurer

that is why his full name is Cary "freaking" Grant !!!!!!!! Add "An Affair to Remember" to your list. Bring tissues . Bring a box.

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

There is a blooper that was kept in the film. It happened just before a gunshot. Did you notice it?

Reggie

Eva Marie Saint recently turned 100 years old!

Toc

About to watch! But I see people listing Cary Grant films. I'll say An Affair To Remember, definitely. Hitchcock's Notorious definitely (with Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains, both from Casablanca!). You'll be seeing him at least two more times on the AFI. You know why Cary Grant stoped making movies? He discovered acid! Once he started taking LSD, he stopped making movies! He just liked to stay at home and trip! :P Gotta love that!

Clay F

This will be a first watch of North by Northwest for me. Looking forward to the movie and your reaction.

Chris Harris

Cary Grant's the greatest. He's appeared in over 70 films, I've seen 40+ of them, and every single one of them was an enjoyable watch.

Cliff Adams

The final scene was not lifting her to the upper berth, but the train entering the tunnel.

Toc

Not my favorite Hitchcock by a long shot - the plot is just too silly and flimsy for me, he wanted to make a breezy, commercial, entertaining movie after the weirdness (and failure) of "Vertigo" and for me it shows - but it's definitely fun, and a was a super fun reaction! Love James Mason who played the bad guy, a total favorite actor (Kubrick's Lolita comes to mind), love the scenes with Eva Marie Saint, love the look of it. You were on the money about "Catch Me If You Can" - the title sequences to both movies were done by Saul Bass. Anyways, you've knocked out three in a row for Hitch: Vertigo, North By Northwest and Psycho! You are now an expert in that period of his career! :)

Toc

PS: Your response to the UN photo was totally valid! :P

James Rogers

This is Hitchcock firing on all cylinders. It may not be my favorite of his films but it is quintessential Hitchcock. I really love the cornfield sequence. The minimal sound as Cary is waiting by the side of the road really helps ramp up the tension. Kudos for figuring out Eve's role. I hear Sam Spade is looking for a new partner. My top 3 - Vertigo - Psycho - Strangers on a Train

Chris Harris

It was really more about the birth of his only child. But he definitely took a lot of acid trips around the same time. It was legal until the mid/late 60s.

Chris Harris

He wasn't gay. The biography that Charles Higham wrote on CG in the 90s was pure fiction...like all of Higham's other biographies on movie stars (not long after they passed away). He had a lot of women in his life and not one of them ever saw, even a hint, of him being gay. The same goes for Randolph Scott.

Chris Harris

Some really good Cary Grant films that don't seem to have been mentioned yet are The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, Father Goose, That Touch Of Mink, Operation Petticoat, Mr Lucky, The Philadelphia Story, People Will Talk, Suspicion(Hitchcock), The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer, The Talk of the Town, and Monkey Business.

Ken Schneyer

Oh, I hope the dog feels better! I loved your reaction! I haven't read the other comments, so I apologize for any repetitions below. This film is really a character arc of a man who is shown, in the first few scenes, to be wholly and unbearably selfish and superficial, gradually becoming more and more compassionate and even patriotic, finally showing great physical courage and a willingness to sacrifice himself for another. These events give him his soul. I entirely believe that the title derives, yes, from Hamlet: "I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is in the south, I can tell hawk from a handsaw." This is Hamlet hinting that his madness is feigned, and that he is really calculating exactly what is going on and what to do. I think this is Thornhill's situation as well, especially in the auction scene. (Coincidentally, I'm teaching Hamlet this semester.) Bernard Hermann is probably the greatest film-score composer of the 40s, 50s, and early 60s. I couldn't count all the great films he's scored, but he did the original theme music to The Twilight Zone (not the famous four note guitar repetition, but the creepier woodwind chords with harp). If you're interested in luxury train travel, I highly recommend the film "Murder on the Orient Express". (There are three different versions (!), but I much prefer the 1974 version with Albert Finney.) "Pay the two dollars" is a refrain from an old Vaudeville routine that goes back to the early 1900s. Audience members in 1959 would still be familiar with it. The gist of it is, if you keep fighting minor penalties, you'll wind up getting increasingly harsh ones. Remember the 10-to-1 ratio between 1959 currency and ours. Eve's $5 tip to the waiter to seat Thornhill at her table is the equivalent of $50 today. (!!) Ladies' razors in that era were tiny. I'm not sure why, but maybe it had to do with the shape of armpits as opposed to faces? The similarity with the opening credits of "Catch Me If You Can" is not coincidental; the opening of that film was trying to evoke the 1960s, and this is a classic sequence from that era. If you would like to see more Cary Grant film, I'd recommend "Bringing Up Baby" (1938), "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), and "Charade" (1963). The first two films feature Katharine Hepburn, the third features Audrey Hepburn. "Charade" is also an homage to Hitchcock, and a great deal of fun. Speaking of Hitchcock, he did another delightful film with Cary Grant, "To Catch a Thief" (1955), which co-starred Grace Kelly. "Can't blow my cover" is -- well I was going to say "beneath you," but that's just as bad. But I do appreciate your earthy humor in these reaction videos. :D

Shawn Goforth

This is my second favorite Hitchcock film, after Psycho. Yes, I know, but I don't care. Vertigo upsets me. The set pieces in this one are thrilling, I find myself more engaged in the mystery, the runtime flies by, and I will take Roger Thornhill's style in the grey suit any day over Sean Connery's Bond. To top it off, we get the happy ending; it's a breath of fresh air. You're going to find this ridiculous, but as many times as I've seen this, my favorite part is early on. Roger has just stepped out of the cab, after talking with his secretary. He begins walking toward the Oak Bar to meet his friends, before he is mistaken for Kaplan. On his way through the lobby, he repeatedly looks down at his watch. It's a throw-away piece of acting business that has stuck in my mind for years for no reason at all. Every time I turn on this movie, I wait for Cary Grant to pull back his cuff to check the time over and over as he's walking, even though the time made very little difference, as he was about to have his entire week upended.

JM63
>>148746311

Nice catch, I'll have to look for that. Hey you don't have to apologize for your tastes, there's a Hitchcock film for everyone!

Chris Harris

I hope that your dog is okay. You named him after Cary Grant without even knowing it. His real first name was Archie.

RicoRay317

Hitchcock movies top 5 to me are Psycho, North By Northwest, Rear Window, Notorious, Rebecca, honorable mention, The Birds and Vertigo.

RicoRay317

Fun fact, the National Park Service would not allow them to film the ending on the actual monument so they constructed a set to reproduce it. I think that's amazing.

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

I always enjoy the last shot of the movie showing the Freudian imagery of the train entering the tunnel after Roger and Eve climb into the sack together. Hitchcock's wit at its best.

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

Martin Landau's character, Leonard was as gay as the movie censors would allow at the time. "Call it my woman's intuition...."

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

Bernard Herrmann's score is riveting in this movie. He was Hitchcock's "go to" guy for most of his 50s and early 60s films. Hermann got his start with Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane". His last movie score? Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver".

Jeffrey Schmidbauer

I also enjoy the classic cropduster scene which seamlessly intercuts location shots with those done in the studio soundstage.

Kinokind

All of those real locations are mixed with the soundstage Mount Rushmore. And the modernist house doesn't exist, either. But the Plaza Hotel is still there on Central Park, and that mansion in Glen Cove is not only extant, but available as a hotel and event facility! I believe the writer of the screenplay, Ernest Lehman, set out to do a cross-country epic for Hitchcock - "The Hitchcock film to end all Hitchcock films" - and specifically wanted it to end at Mount Rushmore. The title (although probably derived from Hamlet) is, he admitted, arbitrary and meaningless. The thing that always makes me go "wow" when I see it is that camera angle from the top of the U.N. building down at the lonely speck of Thornhill. Also, a word for the great cast: The silky James Mason as the big bad is great casting. Mason was in countless movies, but my favorite is his Captain Nemo in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954). Martin Landau, as the creepy henchman, Leonard, is also spot on. He well deserved the Oscar he got for Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" (1994), playing Bela Lugosi. And last but not least, Eva Marie Saint turned 100 this year, bless her. One of the many blondes who had to put up with Hitchcock's advances.

Clay F

I liked the movie (first watch). "You assholes." Ha, yep. I like Cary Grant. Not that it matters, but I see discussion in comments about if he was gay or bi. Chevy Chase called him a "homo." His daughter said he was straight but experimented. In any case, the guy had charisma. Eva Marie Saint = beautiful. You noticed she is left-handed. I don't notice stuff like that. As someone indicated above, she turned 100 yrs old this year. We traveled trains a lot in Europe the 5 months we lived in Italy in 1990. Did an overnight train w/bed a couple of times. That was a heartwarming ending. Hitchcock could have, for example, had Eve lose grip and fall down the cliff, but Hitchcock chose instead to have a happy ending. As others indicated, that creepy guy is a young Martin Landau. He was in several movies. I watched many Hitchcock TV series episodes as a kid in first grade in 1969-70 -- spooky for me -- and watched some since. That's an early memory I retained. I have watched five Hitchcock movies (my ranking: 1. Psycho, 2. Vertigo, 3. Rear Window, 4. North by Northwest, 5. The Birds). I want to watch "To Catch a Thief" and others.

MikeLL
>>148840436

Just saw this reaction today. Confused about the talk about the title. I'm sure Hamlet had nothing to do with the title. If you look at a map of the US, the action in the movie moved from New York, to Chicago, to Rapid City, SD. North by Northwest. It is a very literal title. Nobody had mentioned Martin Landau's lengthy stint as a cast member of the Mission: Impossible TV show in the 1960's. One of my favorite movies with Eva Marie Saint is the great cold war comedy The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966) (a Best Picture nominee) with Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin (his first Oscar nomination), Brian Keith, and Jonathan Winters. A great comedy.