Editing North by Northwest

{{Short description|1959 film by Alfred Hitchcock}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = North by Northwest
| image          = Northbynorthwest1.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Alfred Hitchcock]]
| writer         = [[Ernest Lehman]]
| producer       = Alfred Hitchcock
| starring       = {{Unbulleted list | [[Cary Grant]] | [[Eva Marie Saint]] | [[James Mason]] | [[Jessie Royce Landis]]}}
| cinematography = [[Robert Burks]]
| editing        = [[George Tomasini]]
| music          = [[Bernard Herrmann]]
| studio         = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| distributor    = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
| released       = {{Film date|1959|07|01|Chicago|ref1=<ref name=Chicago>{{Cite news|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=July 1, 1959|title=Chicago [Picture Grosses]|page=10|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/variety215-1959-07#page/n9/mode/1up|access-date=May 20, 2019|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>}}
| runtime        = 136 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $4.3 million<ref name="Mannix">{{Citation | title = The Eddie Mannix Ledger | publisher = Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study | place = Los Angeles}}</ref>
| gross          = $9.8 million<ref name="Mannix" />
}}
'''''North by Northwest''''' is a 1959 American [[Spy film|spy]] [[thriller film]] produced and directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]], starring [[Cary Grant]], [[Eva Marie Saint]], and [[James Mason]]. The original screenplay written by [[Ernest Lehman]] was intended to be the basis for "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".<ref name="Jaynes-Trach">{{Cite web |last1=Jaynes |first1=Barbara Grant |last2=Trachtenberg |first2=Robert |year=2004 |title=Cary Grant: A Class Apart |url=http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=76185 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108042612/http://www.tcm.com:80/thismonth/article/?cid=76185 |archive-date=8 Jan 2009 |access-date=22 Sep 2024 |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |location=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Freedman |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jvYKCgAAQBAJ&dq=%22the%20Hitchcock%20picture%20to%20end%20all%20Hitchcock%20pictures%22.&pg=PA36 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Alfred Hitchcock |date=2015-07-08 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-30101-2 |pages=36 |language=en}}</ref>

''North by Northwest'' is a tale of mistaken identity: an innocent man (Grant) is pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization that aims to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle microfilm containing government secrets out of the country. It is one of several Hitchcock films featuring a musical score by [[Bernard Herrmann]] and an opening title sequence by graphic designer [[Saul Bass]]. The film was the first to feature extended use of [[kinetic typography]] in its opening credits.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Johnny C. |last2=Forlizzi |first2=Jodi |last3=Hudson |first3=Scott E. |chapter=The kinetic typography engine: An extensible system for animating expressive text |date=2002-10-27 |title=Proceedings of the 15th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology |chapter-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/571985.571997 |series=UIST '02 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]] |pages=81–90 |doi=10.1145/571985.571997 |isbn=978-1-58113-488-9}}</ref>

''North by Northwest'' is listed among the canonical Hitchcock films of the 1950s and is widely ranked among the greatest films ever made.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AFI'S 100 YEARS…100 MOVIES — 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION |url=https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915200424/https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/ |archive-date=15 Sep 2024 |access-date=2024-09-22 |website=[[American Film Institute]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sight and Sound |title=The Greatest Films of All Time |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240922034704/https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time |archive-date=22 Sep 2024 |access-date=2024-09-22 |website=BFI |language=en}}</ref> In 1995, the [[Library of Congress]] selected ''North by Northwest'' for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]] for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240918182434/https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/ |archive-date=18 Sep 2024 |access-date=2020-05-06 |website=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> After its first screening, reviewers for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' and ''[[The New York Times]]'' hailed it as comedic, sophisticated self-parody.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Weiler |first1=A. H. |date=August 7, 1959 |title=Hitchcock Takes Suspenseful Cook's Tour; ' North by Northwest' Opens at Music Hall |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/08/07/archives/hitchcock-takes-suspenseful-cooks-tour-north-by-northwest-opens-at.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213072138/https://www.nytimes.com/1959/08/07/archives/hitchcock-takes-suspenseful-cooks-tour-north-by-northwest-opens-at.html |archive-date=13 Feb 2024 |access-date=22 Sep 2024 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |quote=Although they are involved in lightning-fast romance and some loose intrigue, it is all done in brisk, genuinely witty and sophisticated style.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Balliett |first=Whitney |date=1959-08-08 |title=Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest," Reviewed |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1959/08/15/hitchcock-on-hitchcock |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526203129/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1959/08/15/hitchcock-on-hitchcock |archive-date=26 May 2024 |access-date=2024-09-22 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X |quote=“North By Northwest,” Alfred Hitchcock’s new study of the vagaries of the nervous system under pressure, is the brilliant realization of a feat he has unintentionally been moving toward for more than a decade—a perfect parody of his own work.}}</ref>

== Plot ==
A waiter pages George Kaplan at the [[Oak Room (Plaza Hotel)|Oak Room restaurant]] at the [[Plaza Hotel]] in New York City at the request of two well-dressed men. As advertising executive Roger Thornhill summons the same waiter, he is mistaken for Kaplan, kidnapped by the pair, and brought to the estate of Lester Townsend in [[Glen Cove, New York|Glen Cove]]. Townsend interrogates Thornhill and subsequently arranges to kill him in a staged [[drunk driving]] crash; Thornhill survives, but fails to convince the police or his mother of what happened. Returning to the estate, Thornhill learns that Townsend is a [[United Nations]] diplomat.

Thornhill and his mother sneak into Kaplan's empty room at the Plaza, where the thugs have followed him. Thornhill heads to the U.N. [[United Nations General Assembly Building|General Assembly Building]] to meet Townsend, who turns out to be a completely different man. As he asks him about the man impersonating him, one of the gang's thugs throws a knife into Townsend's back. Townsend collapses in Thornhill's arms, and Thornhill is photographed grabbing at the knife, giving the appearance that he is the murderer. Thornhill flees, attempting to find the real Kaplan.

The "United States Intelligence Agency" realizes that Thornhill has been mistaken for Kaplan, a non-existent agent they created as a decoy to distract their quarries, but its chief, "the Professor", decides against rescuing him for fear of compromising their operation.

Thornhill sneaks aboard the luxurious ''[[20th Century Limited]]'' train to Chicago without a ticket, where he meets Eve Kendall, who hides him from the police in her stateroom's upper berth. The two establish a relationship—on Kendall's part because she is secretly working with the espionageurs—and she helps him elude a police dragnet. She then tells Thornhill that she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan at a rural bus stop in [[Indiana]]. When Thornhill arrives there, he is attacked by a [[Aerial application|crop duster]] armed with a machine gun. After being flushed from cover in a cornfield, he attempts to halt a passing [[tanker truck]]; the airplane crashes into it and both explode. In the ensuing confusion he steals a bystander's pickup truck. At Kaplan's hotel in Chicago, Thornhill learns that Kaplan had checked out before the time when Kendall claimed to have spoken with him. He goes to her room and confronts her, but she eludes him.

[[File:North by Northwest movie trailer screenshot (3).jpg|thumb|Roger Thornhill, Eve Kendall, and Phillip Vandamm at the Mount Rushmore visitor center]]

Thornhill tracks Kendall to an art auction, where the Townsend-impersonator—Phillip Vandamm, the ringleader of the group—is purchasing a small primitive statue. Vandamm instructs his henchmen to deal with Thornhill. Thornhill disrupts the auction until police are called to remove him. He confesses to them that he is the fugitive murderer, but the Professor intervenes. At the airport, he tells Thornhill that Kaplan was fictitious and that Eve Kendall is their real agent. Vandamm lives above [[Mount Rushmore]], and the agency thinks he will be leaving the country by plane from there. Thornhill agrees to help maintain Kendall's cover.

At the Mount Rushmore visitor center, now playing the role of Kaplan at the USAI's request, Thornhill negotiates for Vandamm's turnover of Kendall to be arrested. Kendall shoots Thornhill with blanks and flees. Afterward, the Professor arranges for Thornhill and Kendall to meet; Thornhill learns that Kendall is to depart on the plane with Vandamm and his right-hand man Leonard. He tries to dissuade her from going, but is knocked unconscious by the Professor's driver and locked in a hospital room.

Thornhill escapes and goes to Vandamm's home to rescue Kendall, where he overhears that the sculpture holds [[Microform#Microfilm|microfilm]] and that Leonard has discovered the blanks in Kendall's gun. Vandamm indicates that he will dispose of Kendall by throwing her from the plane; Thornhill manages to warn her with a surreptitious note. Vandamm, Leonard, and Kendall head for the plane. Thornhill is momentarily held at gunpoint by the housekeeper until he realizes she is holding Kendall's gun. As Vandamm boards, Kendall takes the sculpture and runs to the pursuing Thornhill, and they flee to the top of Mount Rushmore. As they climb down, they are pursued by Vandamm's men. A park ranger fatally shoots Leonard, and Vandamm is taken into custody by the Professor.

As Kendall hangs on by her fingertips, Thornhill reaches down to pull her up. She is next seen—as Mrs. Thornhill—being pulled into an upper berth on a train, which suggestively enters a tunnel.  

== Cast ==
''Cast information from [[Turner Classic Movies#TCM Movie Database (2006–2019)|Turner Classic Movies Database]]''<ref name="North by Northwest">{{Cite web |title=North by Northwest: Full Credits |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1036/north-by-northwest#credits |access-date = October 6, 2024 | work = [[Turner Classic Movies#TCM Movie Database (2006–2019)|Turner Classic Movies Database]] | publisher = [[WarnerMedia#Time Warner (2003–2018)|Time Warner]] | location = New York | year = 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160427184007/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1036/North-by-Northwest/full-credits.html | archive-date = April 27, 2016 | url-status = live}}</ref> 
{{Cast listing|
* [[Cary Grant]] as Roger Thornhill
* [[Eva Marie Saint]] as Eve Kendall
* [[James Mason]] as Phillip Vandamm
* [[Jessie Royce Landis]] as Clara Thornhill
* [[Leo G. Carroll]] as The Professor
* [[Josephine Hutchinson]] as "Mrs. Townsend"
* [[Philip Ober]] as Lester Townsend
* [[Martin Landau]] as Leonard
* [[Adam Williams (actor)|Adam Williams]] as Valerian
* [[Edward Platt]] as Victor Larrabee
* [[Robert Ellenstein]] as Licht
* [[Les Tremayne]] as Auctioneer
* [[Philip Coolidge]] as Dr. Cross
* [[Patrick McVey]] as Sergeant Flamm
* [[Edward Binns]] as Captain Junket
* [[Ken Lynch]] as Charlie
'''Uncredited cast'''
* [[Maudie Prickett]] as Elsie the Maid<ref name="BFI">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bf4e912 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302132526/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bf4e912 |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 2, 2016 |title=North by Northwest (1959) |work=British Film Institute |access-date=February 19, 2019}}</ref>
* [[Malcolm Atterbury]] as Man at the crossroads<ref name = "Malcolm Atterbury">{{Cite web | title = Malcolm Atterbury | work = Turner Classic Movies | publisher = Time Warner | location = New York | year = 2024 | url = https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/6746%7C104140/Malcolm-Atterbury | access-date = October 6, 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150306193842/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/6746%7C104140/Malcolm-Atterbury/ |archive-date = March 6, 2015 | url-status = live }}.</ref>
* [[Tol Avery]] as State Police Detective<ref name="BFI" />
* [[John Beradino]] as Sergeant Emile Klinger<ref name = "John Beradino">
{{Cite web | title = John Berardino | work = Turner Classic Movies | publisher = Time Warner | location = New York | year = 2015 | url = http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/730781%7C85154/John-Berardino/filmography-with-synopsis.html | access-date = October 6, 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150404113958/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/730781%7C85154/John-Berardino/filmography-with-synopsis.html |archive-date=April 4, 2015 | url-status = dead}}</ref>
* [[Ned Glass]] as Ticket Seller<ref name="BFI" />
* [[Doreen Lang]] as Maggie, Roger's Secretary<ref name="BFI" />
* [[Nora Marlowe]] as Anna, the housekeeper<ref name="BFI" />
* Ralph Reed as Bellboy<ref name="BFI" />
* [[Olan Soule]] as Assistant Auctioneer<ref name="BFI" />
* [[Frank Wilcox]] as Herman Weitner<ref name="BFI" />
* [[Robert Shayne]] as Larry Wade<ref name="BFI" />
* [[Patricia Cutts]] as Hospital Patient
* [[Sara Berner]] as Telephone Operator (voice)<ref name="BFI" />
}}

[[List of cameo appearances by Alfred Hitchcock|Hitchcock's cameo appearances]] are a signature occurrence in most of his films. In ''North by Northwest'', he is seen getting a bus door slammed in his face, just as his credit appears on the screen.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.empireonline.com/features/hitchcock-cameos/29.asp |title=Alfred Hitchcock's Movie Cameos: North by Northwest (1959) |work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] magazine |access-date=February 17, 2013 |date=June 25, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812212953/http://www.empireonline.com/features/hitchcock-cameos/29.asp |archive-date=August 12, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> There has been some speculation as to whether he made one of his rare ''second'' appearances, this time at around the 45-minute mark in drag as a woman in a turquoise dress on the train, but in fact, the woman was played by [[Jesslyn Fax]], who went on to appear in many episodes of ''[[Alfred Hitchcock Presents]]''. She had previously appeared in ''[[Rear Window]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Matthew |date=August 15, 2008 |title=Did Alfred Hitchcock make a secret cameo appearance in drag? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2565551/Did-Alfred-Hitchcock-make-a-secret-cameo-appearance-in-drag.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2565551/Did-Alfred-Hitchcock-make-a-secret-cameo-appearance-in-drag.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Production==
===Writing===
[[File:Cary Grant North by Northwest Original Still.jpg|thumb|Cary Grant in an original still for the film]]

Hitchcock often told journalists of an idea that he had about [[Cary Grant]] hiding from the villains inside [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s nose and being given away when he sneezes. He speculated that the film could be called ''The Man on Lincoln's Nose''.<ref name="brady201">{{Harvnb|Brady|1981|p=201}}</ref> Hitchcock sat on the idea, waiting for the right screenwriter to develop it. The original traveling salesman character had been suited to [[James Stewart]], but Lehman changed it to a Madison Avenue advertising executive, a position that he had formerly held.<ref name="engel">{{Cite book|last=Engel|first=Joel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ2ZAAAAQBAJ|title=Screenwriters on Screen-Writing: The Best in the Business Discuss Their Craft|publisher=Hyperion|year=1995|isbn=978-0786880577|location=New York}}</ref>

[[John Russell Taylor]]'s 1978 biography ''Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock'' suggests that the story originated after a spell of writer's block during the scripting of another film project:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% | Alfred Hitchcock had agreed to do a film for MGM and they had chosen an adaptation of the novel ''[[The Wreck of the Mary Deare]]'' by [[Hammond Innes]]. Composer [[Bernard Herrmann]] had recommended that Hitchcock work with his friend [[Ernest Lehman]]. After a couple of weeks, Lehman offered to quit saying he didn't know what to do with the story. Hitchcock told him they got along great together and they would just write something else. Lehman said that he wanted to make the ultimate Hitchcock film. Hitchcock thought for a moment then said he had always wanted to do a chase across [[Mount Rushmore]]. Lehman and Hitchcock spitballed more ideas: a murder at the United Nations headquarters; a murder at a car plant in Detroit; a final showdown in Alaska. Eventually they settled on the U.N. murder for the opening and the chase across Mount Rushmore for the climax. For the central idea, Hitchcock remembered something an American journalist had told him about spies creating a fake agent as a decoy. Perhaps their hero could be mistaken for this fictitious agent and end up on the run. They bought the idea from the journalist for $10,000.}}

Lehman repeated this story in the documentary ''[[Destination Hitchcock: The Making of North by Northwest]]'' that accompanied the 2001 DVD release of the film. Screenwriter [[William Goldman]] insisted in ''[[Which Lie Did I Tell?]]'' that it was Lehman who created ''North by Northwest'' and that many of Hitchcock's ideas were not used. Hitchcock had the idea of the hero being stranded in the middle of nowhere but suggested that the villains try to kill him with a [[tornado]]. "But ''they're'' trying to kill him. How are ''they'' going to work up a cyclone?" Lehman responded. "I just can't tell you who said what to whom, but somewhere during that afternoon, the cyclone in the sky became the crop-duster plane."<ref name="brady202">{{Harvnb|Brady|1981|p=202}}</ref>

Hitchcock had been working on the story for nearly nine years prior to meeting Lehman.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} [[Otis Guernsey Jr.|Otis Guernsey]] was the American journalist who had the idea which influenced Hitchcock, inspired by a true story during [[World War II]] when [[British Intelligence]] obtained a dead body, invented a [[Operation Mincemeat#Major William Martin, Royal Marines|fictitious officer]] who was carrying secret papers, and arranged for the body and misleading papers to be discovered by the Germans as a disinformation scheme called [[Operation Mincemeat]]. Guernsey turned his idea into a story about an American salesman who travels to the Middle East and is mistaken for a fictitious agent, becoming "saddled with a romantic and dangerous identity".

Guernsey admitted that his treatment was full of "corn" and "lacking logic", and he urged Hitchcock to do what he liked with the story. Hitchcock bought the 60 pages for $10,000.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} In an interview in the book ''Screenwriters on Screenwriting'' (1995), Lehman stated that he had already written much of the screenplay before coming up with critical elements of the climax. An example of the "corn" in the finished screenplay was the scene where Roger Thornhill returns to the Townsend estate with the detectives to find everything changed. If Thornhill was indeed a spy, he would have had no reason to return to the estate after his escape the previous night, nor would the criminals be expecting him to return as they obviously did.

This was the only Hitchcock film released by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]. Since 1986, it has been owned by [[Turner Entertainment]], as part of the pre-May 1986 MGM film library that it acquired through temporary ownership of MGM.

Production costs on ''North by Northwest'' rose when a delay in filming put Cary Grant into the penalty phase of his contract, resulting in his being paid an additional $5,000 per day before shooting even began.<ref name="spoto405">{{Cite book|last=Spoto|first=Donald|url=https://archive.org/details/darksideofgenius00spot_0/page/405|title=The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock|publisher=Da Capo|year=1999|isbn=978-0-306-80932-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/darksideofgenius00spot_0/page/405 405]}}</ref>

===Casting===
[[Eva Marie Saint|Eva Marie Saint's]] agent had told her that she had received an invitation to a dinner with Alfred Hitchcock and his family, the first time she and Hitchcock met. Days after the dinner, Saint's mother called her and reminded her that Hitchcock loved casting women wearing beige clothing and white gloves. Following her mother's advice, she met with Hitchcock again, wearing that combination. She credited this for helping her win the role.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|title=Eva Marie Saint and Martin Landau Discuss Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest| date=April 16, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwIZoD7r8H8|language=en|access-date=2022-02-10}}</ref> MGM wanted [[Cyd Charisse]] for the role of Eve Kendall. Hitchcock stood by his choice of Saint.<ref name="spoto405" />

Hitchcock attended the ''[[Middle of the Night]]'' play in order to watch a performance by [[Edward G. Robinson]]. After being impressed by the performance of [[Martin Landau]], Hitchcock asked to meet him at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]]. Landau arrived and Hitchcock showed him the entirety of the project, including the storyboards. While they were looking at the project, Hitchcock turned and told Landau, "You're now Leonard."<ref name=":0" />

===Filming===
[[File:North by Northwest movie trailer screenshot (13).jpg|thumb|The [[United Nations headquarters]] is the location of a scene in the film]]
At Hitchcock's insistence, the film was made in Paramount's [[VistaVision]] widescreen process. The only other VistaVision film made at MGM was ''[[High Society (1956 film)|High Society]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hart|first=Martin|title=The Development of VistaVision: Paramount Marches to a Different Drummer|url=http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/vvstory.htm|publisher=The American WideScreen Museum|access-date=December 4, 2012}}</ref>

The aircraft flying in the aerial chase scene is a [[Naval Aircraft Factory N3N]] Canary, better known as the "Yellow Peril", a World War II Navy primary trainer sometimes converted for crop-dusting.<ref>[http://rwebs.net/dispatch/output.asp?ArticleID=35 The Yellow Peril: N3N] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928171500/http://rwebs.net/dispatch/output.asp?ArticleID=35 |date=September 28, 2011 }}, Laverne Hoestenbach, "The Dispatch", Winter 1992</ref> The aircraft that hits the truck and explodes is a wartime [[Boeing-Stearman Model 75]] trainer, and many of these were used for agricultural purposes until the 1970s. The plane was piloted by Bob Coe, a crop-duster from [[Wasco, California]].<ref>[http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/258178.html The Bakersfield Californian], ''Wasco man had Hitchcock movie role'', October 11, 2007 {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113224341/http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/258178.html |date=January 13, 2009}}</ref> Hitchcock placed replicas of square Indiana highway signs in the scene. In 2000, ''[[The Guardian]]'' ranked the crop-duster scene at No. 29 on their list of "The top 100 film moments".<ref>{{cite web|title=The top 100 film moments|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/feb/06/100-top-film-moments-shawshank-redemption-alien-seven|website=The Guardian|date=6 February 2000}}</ref> The British film magazine ''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'' ranked it as the "greatest movie moment" of all time in its August 2009 issue.<ref>{{Cite magazine | title=1001 Greatest Movie Moments | magazine=Empire | location=London, England | pages=89–113}}</ref>

Among the locations used in the film are:
* 430 Park Avenue {{Coord|40.760694|-73.971680}}
** This is the building used by [[Saul Bass]] during the opening credits. The building was constructed in 1916 as a luxury apartment tower called the Avenue Apartments and was designed by the firm [[Warren and Wetmore]]. In 1953, the building was stripped of its façade, given a new curtain wall designed by [[Emery Roth|Emery Roth and Sons]] in the style of [[Lever House]], and converted to offices. Bass's title sequence is based on the geometric structure of the [[International Style (architecture)|international style]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/22/realestate/commercial-property-430-park-avenue-redesigning-upgrading-faded-office-building.html|title=Commercial Property/430 Park Avenue; Redesigning and Upgrading a Faded Office Building|last=Holusha|first=John|date=2001-07-22|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-08|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
* Commercial Investment Trust Building (650 Madison Avenue, New York) {{Coord|40.763965|-73.971302}}
** This is the location of Roger Thornhill's office, and the building he walks out of in his first appearance in the film. The CIT Building was designed by the firm [[Harrison & Abramovitz|Harrison and Abramovitz]] and constructed in 1957.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scoutingny.com/the-filming-locations-of-north-by-northwest-part-1-new-york-youve-changed/|title=The Complete NY Filming Locations of North By Northwest|last=Scout|date=2012-10-01|website=Scouting NY|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref>
* [[Plaza Hotel]] (768 Fifth Avenue, New York) {{Coord|40.764733|-73.974241}}
** After taking a cab with his secretary, Thornhill has a drink in the [[Oak Room (Plaza Hotel)|Oak Room]] of the Plaza Hotel. It is here that he is kidnapped by Vandamm's henchmen. Thornhill later returns to the Plaza, where he breaks into George Kaplan's room.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/n/North-By-Northwest.php|title=Filming Locations for Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest (1959), in New York, Chicago, and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.|website=The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref> For space reasons, most of the shots in and around the Oak Room were actually done on a set.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tlc-mag.com/archive_issues/plaza_jan10.html|title=The Plaza Hotel Renovated|author=James Gaddy|date=January 2010|work=TLC Magazine|access-date=January 22, 2015}}</ref>
* [[Old Westbury Gardens]] (71 Old Westbury Road, Old Westbury) {{Coord|40.773822|-73.594921}}
** Thornhill's kidnappers drive him to Townsend's estate on Long Island. After questioning Thornhill, Vandamm instructs Leonard and his other henchmen to intoxicate Thornhill by force.
* [[Headquarters of the United Nations|United Nations headquarters]] {{Coord|40.749127|-73.968327}}
** Following Thornhill's escape from Vandamm's henchmen at the Plaza, he takes a taxi to the United Nations headquarters to meet Lester Townsend. The U.N. headquarters buildings were also designed by Harrison and Abramovitz, the architects of Thornhill's office.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/United_Nations,_New_York_City,_New_York|title=United Nations, New York City, New York - The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki|website=the.hitchcock.zone|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref> The scene of Cary Grant going to the United Nations in New York was filmed illicitly because, after reviewing the script, U.N. authorities denied permission to film on or near its property. After two failed attempts to get the required shots, Hitchcock had Grant pull up in a taxicab right outside the General Assembly Building while a hidden camera crew filmed him exiting the vehicle and walking across the plaza.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Man Who Knew Hitchcock: A Hollywood Memoir|last=Coleman|first=Herbert|publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2007|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pebXAQAAQBAJ&dq=North+by+Northwest+hidden+united+nations&pg=PA282 282-284]}}</ref>
* [[Grand Central Terminal]] (89 East 42nd Street, New York) {{Coord|40.752724|-73.977221}}
** Following the murder of Townsend at the United Nations, Thornhill rushes to Grand Central Terminal, where he sneaks onto the ''[[20th Century Limited]]'' en route to Chicago.
* [[LaSalle Street Station]] (414 South LaSalle Street, Chicago) {{Coord|41.875304|-87.632152}}
** Thornhill and Eve Kendall arrive in Chicago at the LaSalle Street Station. At the station, Kendall gives Thornhill the instructions for his meeting with Kaplan.
* Prairie Stop {{Coord|35.760814|-119.561721}}
** The famous "crop duster scene", which in the film takes place in rural Indiana, was actually filmed on a highway in central California near the town [[Wasco, California|Wasco]]. Hitchcock added square signs to the location to replicate those found in Indiana.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmdetail.com/2010/02/15/location-of-the-crop-dusting-sequence-in-north-by-northwest/|title=Location of the Crop Dusting Sequence in North By Northwest|last=Heron|first=Ambrose|date=2010-02-15|website=FILMdetail|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref>
* [[Ambassador East|Ambassador East Hotel]] {{Coord|41.905856|-87.628303}}
** Thornhill returns to Chicago in a stolen truck he parks outside the Ambassador East Hotel. The hotel opened in 1926 and was designed by Robert S. DeGolyer and Co. Today, it continues to be operated as a hotel, under the name The Ambassador.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/n/North-By-Northwest.php|title=Filming Locations for Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest (1959), in New York, Chicago, and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.|website=The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref>
* [[Midway International Airport|Chicago Midway Airport]] {{Coord|41.788372|-87.744211}}
** Following Thornhill's arrest at the auction, he and the Professor travel to Midway Airport, where they board a flight for Rapid City, South Dakota. The terminal seen in the film was built in 1945-46 and was designed by architect Paul Gerhardt Sr. This terminal building was demolished in 2002.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chicagology.com/transportation/midway/| title=Part 8 - Midway Airport | website=chicagology.com|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref>
* Memorial View Building, [[Mount Rushmore]] {{Coord|43.877014|-103.456213}}
** The spurious murder of Roger Thornhill takes place in the Buffalo Room of the Memorial View Building at Mount Rushmore—the one location in the park where Hitchcock was permitted to film.<ref name="Chapman">James Chapman, ''Hitchcock and the Spy Film'' (2017), p. 222.</ref> This building was constructed in 1957 as part of the [[National Park Service]]'s [[Mission 66]] program, and was designed jointly by NPS architect [[Cecil J. Doty]] and local architect [[Harold Spitznagel]]. The building was demolished in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/keeping-up-with-the-times.htm|title=Keeping Up With the Times|website=Mount Rushmore National Memorial|publisher=U.S. National Park Service}}</ref>
* [[Vandamm House]]
** Vandamm's house, set on a cliff atop Mount Rushmore, was not a real structure. Hitchcock asked the set designers to make the house in the style of [[Frank Lloyd Wright]], the most popular architect in United States at the time, using the materials, form, and interiors associated with him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rushmore/peopleevents/e_hitchcock.html|title=People & Events: Mount Rushmore and Hitchcock's North by Northwest|work=The American Experience|publisher=PBS|access-date=December 4, 2012}}</ref> Set designer [[Robert F. Boyle]] planned the house, which featured a cantilevered living room and made extensive use of limestone. Exterior shots were done using [[matte painting]]s,<ref name="Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.wwnorton.com/college/film/movies2/sample_film_analyses/north_by_northwest.aspx|title=ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S North by Northwest (1959; 136 mins.)|work=Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film|publisher=W.W, Norton|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100217114542/http://www.wwnorton.com/college/film/movies2/sample_film_analyses/north_by_northwest.aspx|archive-date=February 17, 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=December 4, 2012}}</ref> while interior shots were filmed using a set built in [[Culver City, California]], where MGM's studios were located.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.productiondesignerscollective.org/single-post/2016/06/12/Connecting-The-Dots---THE-VANDAMM-HOUSE-in-%E2%80%98North-By-Northwest%E2%80%99|title=Connecting The Dots - THE VANDAMM HOUSE in 'North By Northwest'|website=Production Designers Collective|date=June 12, 2016|language=en|access-date=2019-05-08}}</ref>

===Costuming===
A panel of fashion experts convened by ''[[GQ]]'' in 2006 said the gray suit worn by Cary Grant throughout almost the entire film was the best suit in film history, and the most influential on men's style, stating that it has since been copied for [[Tom Cruise]]'s character in ''[[Collateral (film)|Collateral]]'' and [[Ben Affleck]]'s character in ''[[Paycheck (film)|Paycheck]]''.<ref>{{Cite web| agency=Reuters| date=October 16, 2006| title=Cary Grant's gray suit tops movie clothing list. GQ rates the most chic men's clothing on film
| url=https://www.today.com/popculture/cary-grant-s-gray-suit-tops-movie-clothing-list-wbna15295247| work=Today.com}}</ref> This sentiment has been echoed by writer [[Todd McEwen]], who called it "gorgeous" and wrote a short story, "Cary Grant's Suit", that recounts the film's plot, featuring the suit.<ref>McEwen, Todd. [http://granta.com/Cary-Grant%92s-Suit/ "Cary Grant's Suit"]. ''Granta'' (Summer 2006).</ref><ref name="LH">{{cite web |last1=McEwen |first1=Todd |url=https://lithub.com/the-real-star-of-north-by-northwest-is-cary-grants-suit/ |title=The Real Star of ''North by Northwest'' is Cary Grant's Suit |website=Literary Hub |access-date=March 7, 2023 |date=March 7, 2023}}</ref>

There is some disagreement as to who tailored the suit; ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' magazine claimed it was [[Norton & Sons]] of London,<ref>[http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/03/behindthescenes200803 It's the Hitch in Hitchcock] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080207065541/http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/03/behindthescenes200803 |date=February 7, 2008 }}, Jim Windolf, ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', March 2008</ref> although according to ''[[The Independent]]'', it was Quintino of [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]].<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/fashion-suits-they-are-achangin-774750.html Fashion: Suits they are a-changin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925035023/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/fashion-suits-they-are-achangin-774750.html |date=September 25, 2015 }}, Glenn Waldron, ''The Independent'', January 28, 2008</ref> Another article states that Grant used his [[Savile Row tailoring|Savile Row tailor]], [[Savile Row tailoring#Kilgour, French & Stanbury|Kilgour French and Stanbury]] for the suit. A label reading "Quintino" is visible on one of the suits in the film, but this is because Quintino made duplicate suits for scenes involving more activity or stunts.<ref>[https://www.grailed.com/drycleanonly/cary-grant-north-by-northwest-style Fashion: Suits they are a-changin Cary Grant's "North By Northwest" Suit Is the Greatest in Film History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121090618/https://www.grailed.com/drycleanonly/cary-grant-north-by-northwest-style |date=November 21, 2020 }}, Brenden Gallagher, grailed.com,  January 28, 2019</ref><ref>[https://bamfstyle.com/2012/09/26/north-by-northwest/ North by Northwest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125235248/https://bamfstyle.com/2012/09/26/north-by-northwest/ |date=November 25, 2022 }}, BAMF Style, September 26, 2012</ref>

Eva Marie Saint's wardrobe for the film was originally entirely chosen by MGM. Hitchcock disliked MGM's selections, and the actress and director went to [[Bergdorf Goodman]] in New York to select what she would wear.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1036/north-by-northwest#articles-reviews|last1=McGee|first1=Scott|last2=Stafford|first2=Jeff|last3=Thompson|first3=Lang|title=Why ''North by Northwest'' Is Essential|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=2017-10-03}}</ref>

===Editing and post-production===
In [[François Truffaut]]'s book-length interview, ''Hitchcock/Truffaut'' (1967), Hitchcock said that MGM wanted ''North by Northwest'' cut by 15 minutes so the film's length would run under two hours. Hitchcock had his agent check his contract, learned that he had absolute control over the final cut, and refused.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Truffaut |first=François |year=1985 |title=Hitchcock |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=[https://archive.org/details/hitchcock0000truf/page/251 251] |isbn=978-0-671-52601-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/hitchcock0000truf/page/251 |edition=Revised }}</ref>

One of Eva Marie Saint's lines in the dining-car seduction scene was redubbed. She originally said, "I never make love on an empty stomach", but it was changed in post-production to "I never discuss love on an empty stomach", as the censors considered the original version too risqué.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roman |first=James |year=2009 |title= Bigger than Blockbusters: Movies That Defined America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBHRxrM9u-oC&pg=PA93 |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood |page=93|isbn=978-0-313-33995-0}}</ref>

==Release==
[[File:North by Northwest trailer (1959).webm|thumb|thumbtime=0:09|Trailer for ''North by Northwest'']]
The film opened on July 1, 1959, at the [[United Artists Theatre (Chicago)|United Artists Theatre]] in Chicago.<ref name=Chicago /> It had a seven-week run at [[Radio City Music Hall]] in August and September 1959. One trailer for ''North by Northwest'' features Hitchcock presenting himself as the owner of Alfred Hitchcock Travel Agency and telling the viewer he has made a motion picture to advertise these wonderful vacation stops.<ref>DVD Extras – Original Trailer</ref> A new [[70 mm film|70mm]] restoration of the film, remastered in 13K resolution from the original VistaVision elements, premiered at the 2024 [[Tribeca Festival]] on June 12, 2024, to celebrate the film's 65th anniversary.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carson |first=Lexi |date=2024-04-30 |title=Tribeca Sets Conversations With Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and More |url=https://variety.com/2024/film/news/tribeca-festival-martin-scorsese-robert-de-niro-1235986891/ |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=North by Northwest {{!}} 2024 Tribeca Festival |url=https://tribecafilm.com/films/north-by-northwest-2024 |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=Tribeca}}</ref>

===Home media===
''North by Northwest'' was released on the [[Blu-ray]] Disc format in the United States in November 2009, by [[Warner Bros.]] with a [[1080p]] [[VC-1]] encoding.<ref name="IGN">{{Cite web|title=Release date from IGN.com|date=October 26, 2009 |url=http://bluray.ign.com/articles/103/1039253p1.html|access-date=July 30, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Wired.com">{{Cite magazine|title=Blu-ray Disc and DVD details from Wired.com|url=https://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/12/hitchcock-north-by-northwest-dvd|magazine=Wired | first=Scott|last=Thill|date=December 6, 2009}}</ref> This release is a special 50th-anniversary edition, restored and remastered from original VistaVision elements. A DVD edition was also released. A 65th anniversary [[Ultra HD Blu-ray|4K Ultra HD Blu-ray]] was released in 2024 by [[Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment|Warner Bros. Home Entertainment]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hunt |first=Bill |title=Hitchcock's North by Northwest is coming to 4K, plus a Se7en Ultra HD update, Panic Room, South Park, Team America, Civil War, and more! |url=https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/042224-1100 |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=thedigitalbits.com |language=en-gb}}</ref>

==Reception==
===Box office===
In its opening in Chicago, it grossed $46,000 in its first week and $35,000 the second week.<ref>{{Cite news|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=July 15, 1959|title=Chicago [Picture Grosses]|page=10|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/variety215-1959-07#page/n169/mode/1up|access-date=May 20, 2019|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The film grossed $209,000 in its opening week at Radio City Music Hall, setting a record opening week at the theater, as well as its record non-holiday week gross, and went on to gross a record $404,056 in two weeks.<ref name="auto">{{Cite magazine |url= http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,864921,00.html |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120530114819/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,864921,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= May 30, 2012 |title= Box Office: For the Books |date= August 31, 1959 |magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date= 2010-08-25|quote=Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall, riding the crest of the boom, reported its own record, a two-week non-holiday gross of $404,056, for Alfred Hitchcock's ''North by Northwest'', well over the total of runner-up ''[[High Society (1956 film)|High Society]]''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=July Spillover, Hot Newies Hypo Aug.; Top 2 Alone Rake in Tall $2,375,000; 'North,' 'Murder,' 'Hole,' 'Porgy' Aces|last=Wear|first=Mike|date=September 2, 1959|page=5}}</ref> Its opening at the Music Hall saw it become the [[List of 1959 box office number-one films in the United States|number one film at the US box office]], where it remained for its seven weeks at the Music Hall.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=National Boxoffice Survey|date=August 12, 1959|page=4|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety215-1959-08#page/n83/mode/1up|access-date=January 2, 2021|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> By the end of August, it had grossed $2,568,000 from 139 engagements (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|2568000|1959}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}} dollars{{Inflation-fn|US}}).<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title='Northwest' $2,568,000 In First 139 Stands|date=September 2, 1959|page=5}}</ref>

According to MGM records, the film earned [[theatrical rental]]s of $5,740,000 in the United States and Canada and $4.1 million elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $837,000.<ref name="Mannix" />

===Critical reception===
A contemporary in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' called the film "smoothly troweled and thoroughly entertaining".<ref>{{Cite magazine |url= https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,937893,00.html |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120530114820/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,937893,00.html |url-status= live |archive-date= May 30, 2012 |title= Cinema: The New Pictures |date= August 17, 1959 |magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | access-date= 2022-04-01 }}</ref> A. H. Weiler of ''[[The New York Times]]'' made it a "Critic's Pick" and said it was the "year's most scenic, intriguing and merriest chase"; he also complimented the two leads:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% | Cary Grant, a veteran member of the Hitchcock acting varsity, was never more at home than in this role of the advertising-man-on-the-lam. He handles the grimaces, the surprised look, the quick smile, ...&nbsp;and all the derring-do with professional aplomb and grace, In casting Eva Marie Saint as his romantic vis-à-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore. Although she is seemingly a hard, designing type, she also emerges both the sweet heroine and a glamorous charmer.<ref>{{Cite news |title= Hitchcock Takes Suspenseful Cook's Tour: ''North by Northwest'' Opens at Music Hall |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1959/08/07/archives/hitchcock-takes-suspenseful-cooks-tour-north-by-northwest-opens-at.html |date= August 7, 1959 |work=[[The New York Times]] |author=A. H. Weiler | access-date= 2010-08-25}}</ref>}}

Period film critic [[Charles Champlin]] saw the film as an "anthology of typical Hitchcockian situations" and was particularly taken by the scene and suspense in which Grant's character avoids death when attacked by a crop-dusting plane in the cornfields, which he believed was representative of Hitchcock's finest work.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Deschner|first=Donald|title=The Complete Films of Cary Grant|publisher=Citadel Press|year=1973|pages=22–23|isbn=978-0-8065-0376-9}}</ref> ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' critic [[Penelope Houston (film critic)|Penelope Houston]] called it "the purest piece of entertainment filmmaking".<ref>{{cite web|title=North by North-west archive review: pure entertainment that never puts a foot wrong|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/north-by-northwest-alfred-hitchcock-pure-entertainment|website=bfi.org|date=July 1959}}</ref>

''[[The Village Voice]]'' ranked ''North by Northwest'' at No. 49 in its "Top 250 Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/take/one/full_list.php3?category=10 |title=Take One: The First Annual Village Voice Film Critics' Poll |access-date=27 July 2006 |year=1999 |work=The Village Voice |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070826201343/http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/take/one/full_list.php3?category=10 |archive-date=26 August 2007}}</ref> 

''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' voted it the 44th-greatest film of all time in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|title = Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time|url = http://www.filmsite.org/ew100.html|publisher = [[Filmsite.org]]|access-date = 19 January 2009|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140331185517/http://www.filmsite.org/ew100.html|archive-date = 31 March 2014|df = dmy-all}}</ref> 

In 2002 author and journalist [[Nick Clooney]] praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clooney |first1=Nick |author-link1=Nick Clooney |title=The Movies That Changed Us: Reflections on the Screen |date=November 2002 |publisher=Atria Books, a trademark of Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7434-1043-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/moviesthatchange00cloo/page/85 85] |url=https://archive.org/details/moviesthatchange00cloo/page/85 }}</ref>

The London edition of ''[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]]'', reviewing the film in 2008, commented:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size:100% | Fifty years on, you could say that Hitchcock's sleek, wry, paranoid thriller caught the zeitgeist perfectly: Cold War shadiness, secret agents of power, urbane modernism, the ant-like bustle of city life, and a hint of dread behind the sharp suits of affluence. Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill, the film's sharply dressed ad exec who is sucked into a vortex of mistaken identity, certainly wouldn't be out of place in ''[[Mad Men]]''. But there's nothing dated about this perfect storm of talent, from Hitchcock and Grant to writer Ernest Lehman (''Sweet Smell of Success''), co-stars James Mason and Eva Marie Saint, composer Bernard Herrmann and even designer Saul Bass, whose opening-credits sequence still manages to send a shiver down the spine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/63522/North_by_Northwest.html |date=June 18–24, 2008 |title=North by Northwest (1959) |work=[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]] |author=Dave Calhoun |access-date=2010-08-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113175557/http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/63522/North_by_Northwest.html |archive-date=January 13, 2009}}</ref>}}

The film was voted at No. 28 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine ''[[Cahiers du cinéma]]'' in 2008.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=http://www.filmdetail.com/2008/11/23/cahiers-du-cinemas-100-greatest-films/|title=Cahiers du cinéma's 100 Greatest Films|date=23 November 2008}}</ref> 

In 2010, ''[[The Guardian]]'' ranked it as the second-best action and war film of all time.<ref>{{cite news|author=Thomson, David |date=19 October 2010|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/19/north-northwest-hitchcock-action|title= North By Northwest: No 2 best action and war film of all time|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=12 July 2021}}</ref> 

The film ranks at No. 98 in ''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'''s 2011 list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.empireonline.com/500/80.asp|title=The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time|work=Empire|access-date=August 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814081404/http://www.empireonline.com/500/1.asp|archive-date=August 14, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> 

In the [[British Film Institute]]'s 2012 ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' polls of [[The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012|the greatest films ever made]], ''North by Northwest'' was ranked 53rd among critics;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207035347/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 7, 2016 |title=Critics' Top 100 |year=2012 |work=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref> 

As of 2014 ''North by Northwest'' holds a 97% rating on the review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 9.3/10. The site states the critical consensus as: "Gripping, suspenseful and visually iconic, this late-period Hitchcock classic laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/north-by-northwest/|title=North by Northwest|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]}}</ref> On&nbsp;[[Metacritic]], it has a score of 98 out of 100, based on reviews from 16 critics.<ref>{{cite web|title=North by Northwest|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/north-by-northwest/critic-reviews|website=Metacritic}}</ref> In 1998, ''[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]]'' conducted a poll, and ''North by Northwest'' was voted the twelfth greatest film of all time.<ref>{{cite web |work=[[AMC (TV channel)|AMC Filmsite.org]] |url=http://www.filmsite.org/timeout2.html |title=Top 100 Films (Readers) |publisher=American Movie Classics Company |access-date=August 17, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718213202/http://www.filmsite.org/timeout2.html |archive-date=July 18, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

''North by Northwest'' was ranked 13th in [[BBC]]'s 2015 list of the 100 greatest American films.<ref>{{cite web|title=The 100 Greatest American Films|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150720-the-100-greatest-american-films|website=bbc|date=20 July 2015}}</ref> In 2022, ''[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]]'' named ''North by Northwest'' the greatest thriller film ever made.<ref>{{cite web|title=The 100 best thriller films of all time|url=https://www.timeout.com/film/best-thriller-movies|website=Time Out|date=23 March 2022}}</ref>

The [[Writers Guild of America]] ranked the screenplay No. 21 on its 2020 list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.<ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.wga.org/writers-room/101-best-lists/101-greatest-screenplays/list |author= Writers Guild of America West |date= April 9, 2020 |title= 101 Greatest Screenplays |access-date= April 9, 2020}}</ref> It is ranked the 40th-greatest American film by the American Film Institute.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/docs/100years/movies100.pdf |title= America's Greatest movies|website=afi.com |publisher=American Film Institute}}</ref>

[[The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022|The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022 poll]] ranked the film 45th among critics.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Greatest Films of All Time|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time|website=bfi.org}}</ref>

===Awards===
''North by Northwest'' was nominated for three [[Academy Awards]]—[[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]] ([[George Tomasini]]), [[Academy Award for Best Production Design|Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Color]] ([[William A. Horning]], [[Robert F. Boyle]], [[Merrill Pye]], [[Henry Grace]], and [[Frank R. McKelvy]]), and [[Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]] ([[Ernest Lehman]])—at the [[32nd Academy Awards]] ceremony.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/35655/North-By-Northwest/awards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080201172809/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/35655/North-By-Northwest/awards |url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-02-01 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2008 |title=NY Times: North by Northwest |access-date=2008-12-23}}</ref> Two of the three awards went instead to ''[[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|Ben-Hur]]'', and the other went to ''[[Pillow Talk (film)|Pillow Talk]]''. The film—and Lehman specifically—also won a 1960 [[Edgar Award]] for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Hitchcock received his second [[Silver Shell for Best Director]] award at the [[San Sebastián International Film Festival]]. (He was also awarded the Silver Shell the year before for ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]''.)<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220214031/http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/premios.php?ano=1958&id=51|url=http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/premios.php?ano=1958&id=51|website=[[San Sebastián Film Festival]]|archive-date=2016-12-20|title=6 edition. 1958 Awards}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231351/http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/premios.php?ano=1959&id=52|url=http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/premios.php?ano=1959&id=52|website=[[San Sebastián Film Festival]]|archive-date=2016-03-03|title=7 edition. 1959 Awards}}</ref>

In 1995, ''North by Northwest'' was selected for preservation in the [[National Film Registry]] by the United States [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In June 2008, the [[American Film Institute]] revealed its "[[AFI's 10 Top 10|10 Top 10]]"—the best 10 films in 10 "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. ''North by Northwest'' was acknowledged as the seventh-best film in the mystery genre.<ref name=afi1010>{{Cite news | publisher=[[American Film Institute]] | title=AFI's 10 Top 10 | date=June 17, 2008 | url=http://www.afi.com/10top10/mystery.html | access-date=2008-06-18}}</ref> It was also listed as No. 40 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/ |title=AFI 100 Years...100 Movies |access-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-date=July 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722041321/https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/ |url-status=live }}</ref> No. 4 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/100years/thrills.aspx |title=American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Thrills (winners) |access-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-date=June 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611142759/http://www.afi.com/100Years/thrills.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> and No. 55 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx |title=AFI 100 Years...100 Movies |access-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-date=June 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120604135712/http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Themes and motifs{{Anchor|Themes}}==
[[File:North by Northwest stars pose at Rushmore.jpg|thumb|right|[[James Mason]], [[Eva Marie Saint]] and [[Cary Grant]] at [[Mount Rushmore]] during filming. Studio [[mockup]]s were intercut with actual monument footage for the climactic scene.]]
[[File:Nxnwsign.jpg|thumb|right|Sign near Mount Rushmore]]
Hitchcock planned the film as a change of pace after his dark romantic thriller ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' a year earlier. In his book-length interview ''Hitchcock/Truffaut'' (1967) with [[François Truffaut]], Hitchcock said that he wanted to do "something fun, light-hearted, and generally free of the symbolism permeating his other movies."<ref>Hitchcock was not above inserting a [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] joke as the last shot, which, notably, eluded contemporary censors.</ref> Writer Ernest Lehman has also mocked those who look for symbolism in the film.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brady|1981|pp=199–200}}</ref> Despite its popular appeal, the film is considered to be a masterpiece for its themes of [[deception]], [[mistaken identity]], and [[moral relativism]] in the [[Cold War]] era.

Some{{whom|date=February 2025}} have mistaken the title ''North by Northwest'' as having come from a line in ''[[Hamlet]]''{{Citation needed|date=February 2014}} ("I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw"), a work also concerned with the shifty nature of reality.<ref>Act II, Scene ii. Hamlet thus hints to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his friends, that his madness is only an act to protect himself while he gathers information on his father's murder.</ref> However, Hitchcock explained in an interview with [[Peter Bogdanovich]] in 1963: "It's a fantasy. The whole film is epitomized in the title—there is no such thing as north-by-northwest on the compass."<ref>{{Citation | last=Bogdanovich | first=Peter | year=1963 | title=Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Alfred Hitchcock | url=http://zakka.dk/euroscreenwriters/interviews/alfred_hitchcock.htm | access-date=August 26, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920213226/http://zakka.dk/euroscreenwriters/interviews/alfred_hitchcock.htm | archive-date=September 20, 2013 | url-status=dead | df=mdy-all}}</ref> (The similar "northwest by north" is indeed one of 32 [[points of the compass]].)

Lehman states that he used a working title for the film of ''In a Northwesterly Direction'' because the film's action was to begin in New York and climax in Alaska. Then the head of the story department at MGM suggested ''North by Northwest'', but this was still to be a working title. Other titles were considered, including ''The Man on Lincoln's Nose'', but ''North by Northwest'' was kept because, according to Lehman, "We never did find a [better] title."<ref name="brady201" /> The [[Northwest Airlines]] was worked into the film, reinforcing the title.

The film's plot involves a "[[MacGuffin]]"—a term popularized by Hitchcock—which is a physical object that everyone in the film is chasing, but which has no deep relationship to the plot. Late in ''North by Northwest'', it emerges that the spies are attempting to smuggle [[Microform|microfilm]] containing government secrets out of the country.  The film's protagonist, Roger Thornhill, only becomes involved through a case of mistaken identity (with a spy that does not even exist, "George Kaplan"), and only becomes a target for elimination when he becomes a persistent nuisance as a result.

''North by Northwest'' has been referred to as "the first [[James Bond]] film"<ref>{{Cite web
| title=Hitching a ride with the Master of Suspense| url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/13/alfred-hitchcock-north-by-northwest| work=[[The Guardian]]| last=Patterson| first=John| date=June 13, 2009| access-date=2013-02-18}}</ref> because of its splashily colorful settings, secret agents, and an elegant, daring, wisecracking leading man opposite a sinister yet strangely charming villain. The crop-duster scene inspired the helicopter chase in ''[[From Russia with Love (film)|From Russia with Love]]''.<ref>{{Cite book | last=Rubin| first=Steven Jay| title=The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia | publisher=Contemporary Books, Inc. | year=1990| page=309 | isbn=978-0-8092-3966-5}}</ref>

The film's final shot—that of the train speeding into a tunnel during a romantic embrace onboard—is a famous bit of self-conscious [[Free association (psychology)|Freudian symbolism]] reflecting Hitchcock's mischievous sense of humor. In the book ''Hitchcock/Truffaut'' (pp.&nbsp;107–108), Hitchcock called it a "phallic symbol ... probably one of the most impudent shots I ever made".

==Influences==
The film was very influential on the [[James Bond|James Bond films]] and subsequent action-thriller films, as well as the TV series ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'', where Leo G. Carroll played the same sort of role as the head of a top secret intelligence agency.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Patterson|first1=John|title=Hitching a ride with the Master of Suspense|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jun/13/alfred-hitchcock-north-by-northwest|website=The Guardian|date=12 June 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Powell|first1=Peter|title=How Hitchcock's North By Northwest showed the way for James Bond-and summer moviegoing|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/opinion/2019/07/04/how-hitchcocks-north-by-northwest-showed-the-way-for-james-bond-and-changed-summer-moviegoing.html|website=The Star|date=4 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Milman|first1=Derek|title=How North by Northwest changed cinema forever|url=https://crimereads.com/how-north-by-northwest-changed-cinema-forever/|website=Crime Reads|date=6 August 2019}}</ref>

The film's title is reported to have been the influence for the name of the popular annual live-music festival [[South by Southwest]] in Austin, Texas, started in 1987, with the name idea coming from Louis Black, editor and co-founder of the local alternative weekly ''[[The Austin Chronicle]]'', as a play on the Hitchcock film title.<ref name="sxsw stays course">[http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/sxsw-stays-course-continues-growth SXSW stays course, continues growth], Alex Geiser, ''[[The Daily Texan]]'', March 18, 2010 {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110413020655/http://www.dailytexanonline.com/content/sxsw-stays-course-continues-growth |date=April 13, 2011}}</ref>

The third episode of the [[Doctor Who (season 14)|14th season]] of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial "[[The Deadly Assassin]]" (1976) includes an homage to ''North by Northwest'', when the Doctor, who like Hitchcock's hero is falsely accused of a politically motivated murder, is attacked by gunfire from a biplane piloted by one of his enemy's henchmen.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/deadlyassassin/detail.shtml |title=Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide – The Deadly Assassin – Details |publisher=BBC |access-date=April 19, 2013}}</ref>

The 2010 Spanish dark comedy film ''[[The Last Circus]]'' pays visual homage to the [[Mount Rushmore in popular culture#In North by Northwest|Mount Rushmore scene]] in its climactic [[Valley of the Fallen#In popular culture|scene atop a controversial Francoist monument]].<ref>AP. [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/last-circus-film-review-30071 "The Last Circus -- Film Review"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125235250/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/last-circus-film-review-30071/ |date=November 25, 2022 }} ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (10/14/2010).</ref><ref>[https://extracine.com/2010/12/balada-triste-de-trompeta-triste-poco "«Balada Triste de Trompeta», triste es poco"]. ''Extracine'' (Dec. 2010). Retrieved April 15, 2021.</ref>

==Adaptations==
''North by Northwest'' was adapted as a stage play by Carolyn Burns. The adaptation premiered at the [[Melbourne Theatre Company]] in 2015.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/theatre/north-by-northwest-review-slick-and-entertaining-adaptation-of-hitchcocks-iconic-film-20150605-ghhcsq.html|title=North by Northwest review: Slick and entertaining adaptation of Hitchcock's iconic film|last=Woodhead|first=Cameron|date=June 5, 2015|work=The Age|access-date=2017-05-07|language=en-US}}</ref>

Another stage adaptation, adapted and directed by [[Emma Rice]], opened at the [[York Theatre Royal]] in March 2025 before touring the UK, ending with a run at the [[Alexandra Palace Theatre]], [[London]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Akbar|first=Arifa|title=North by Northwest review – Emma Rice takes Hitchcock in delightful new directions|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/mar/27/north-by-northwest-review-york-theatre-royal|website=The Guardian|date=March 27, 2025|access-date=April 29, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=North by Northwest|url=https://www.wisechildrendigital.com/northbynorthwest|website=Wise Children|access-date=April 29, 2025}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of films considered the best]]
* ''[[The Man on Lincoln's Nose]]'', a 2000 documentary film
* "[[North by North Quahog]]", an episode of American animated sitcom ''[[Family Guy]]'' parodying the Hitchcock film
* ''[[Silver Streak (1976 film)|Silver Streak]]'', a 1976 action-comedy film with a similar tone and plot elements
* [[J. C. Backings]], holders of the Mount Rushmore backdrop<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2020-02-09 |title=Backdrops, front and center: These massive paintings by unheralded movie studio artists, which provided magical settings during Hollywood's Golden Age, are finding a new life - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rescuing-scenic-backdrops-from-hollywoods-golden-age/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Faires |first=Robert |title="The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop" Provides a Close-up on Cinema's Scenic Paintings |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2021-02-12/the-art-of-the-hollywood-backdrop-provides-a-close-up-on-cinemas-scenic-paintings/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=www.austinchronicle.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* {{Cite book | first=John | last=Brady | title=The Craft of the Screenwriter | year=1981 | isbn=978-0-671-25230-4 | location=New York | publisher=Touchstone Books | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/craftofscreenwri00joh_2tu }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|North by Northwest (1959 film)}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title}}
* {{AFI film}}
* {{TCMDb title}}
* {{Metacritic film}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
* [http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/NorthByNorthwest.pdf ''North by Northwest'' shooting script]
* [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/North%20by%20Northwest.leitch.pdf ''North by Northwest'' essay] by [[Thomas Leitch]] at [[National Film Registry]]
* [https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/voyager_7238842 ''North by Northwest'' copyright renewal] at the [[United States Copyright Office]]

{{Alfred Hitchcock |state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

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