North by Northwest

In the role of Roger Thornhill starred Cary Grant. Initially, the role was elected to James Stewart, but Hitchcock replaced him with Grant after a bad game in "Vertigo".

Studio MGM wanted starring Gregory peck and Led Ceriss, but Hitchcock insisted on nominees Cary Grant and Eva Maria Saint. In the same MGM Studio offered Hitchcock in the main female part Sophia Loren, in this question the Grant has supported the Studio because at that time harbored tender feelings towards Lauren. It is noteworthy that seven years later, Sophia Loren starred in the movie "Arabesque", the plot and structure strongly reminiscent of "North By Northwest", where her partner was Gregory peck (in a role originally intended for Grant).

Cameo Hitchcock — the man in the beginning of the film trying to jump on the bus.

According to rumors, the role of Roger Thornhill was offered to William Holden.

Cary Grant at first refused to play Thornhill, because at the time of filming he was fifty-five, and he was much older than his character.

Hitchcock was not allowed to shoot the final scene on this Monument Rushmore, so as not to endanger a monument of American culture. The Studio was recreated an exact copy of this monument.

In the story the main characters fall in South Dakota. Hitchcock decided not to spend money on a trip there, and to recreate a wooded area of South Dakota, on a certain area of the Studio was transplanted to a hundred pine trees.

The title of the painting, probably addressed to Shakespeare's play "hamlet". In one scene, hamlet utters the phrase "I am mad only North-North-West" to convince people you're sane (does the same thing the hero of the film). Also at the end the characters are going to fly to the West on the plane "Northwest Airlines".

For the role of Philip Vandamm considered Patrick Mcgilligan and Yul Brynner.

The scene at the train station were filmed at the Central Terminal in new York. Among the spectators watching the filming were future Directors George A. Romero and Larry Cohen.

When Roger is waiting in room IV, it goes in the shower and whistling a tune. This song is from "singin' in the rain" (1952), released as "North By Northwest", by the Studio MGM.

One day Martin Landau, the then novice actor noticed that Hitchcock and then gives instructions Cary Grant, James Mason and Eva Maria Saint. When he asked Hitchcock why he is not helping him, the Director replied that when he says nothing to the actors, that means they are doing their job fine, if it follows any comments, respectively, the actors played something wrong.

In additions to DVD Eva Marie Saint remembered that Hitchcock, unhappy with the provided for her costumes, personally went to Bergdorf Goodman chose for her clothes.

Many of the cars in the early scenes of the film (new York taxi, patrol car, the car of the detectives) is a Ford Sedan in 1958.

In 2007 the American Film Institute put the film "North By Northwest" on the 55th place in the list of the greatest films of all time.

Edward Platt, who played in the movie Victor Larrabee, and later appeared in the television production of "Get smart" (1965), where his character had an assistant by the name of Larrabee.

The original idea was to be the next episode — hero Cary Grant slips down the nose of Lincoln and hiding in his nostril. Suddenly he sneezes, and thus professes to be. This scene was never filmed, but it explains one of the working titles of the film — "the Man in Lincoln's nose".

House Vandamme mount Rushmore, which is shown in the final layout of a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright — American architect and architecture theorist, the founder of organic architecture, according to the principles which the building should organically fit into the environment.) Part of the house was recreated for a scene where Thornhill is walking in circles around him.

The name of the protagonist of the film, Roger O. Thornhill. It was not chosen randomly. Thornhill College is the place where the agent socket in the popular political Thriller "the Dream". The letter O in the name, which "means nothing", a reference to producer David O. Selznick, which O also meant nothing.

The story of the commercial agent, which is mistaken for a secret agent, Alfred Hitchcock was filed by the journalist Otis L. Guernsey. Guernsey was very impressed with the real story, which happened during the Second world war. The Brits for a laugh invented a mythical agent and brilliantly led by the nose of the Germans who killed many forces in search of the "spy".

The scene when eve Kendel and Roger Thornhill meet me in the woods after she shot him in a cafe near mount Rushmore, the film could not be. In the Studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from Hitchcock demanded that he took this long scene at the end. But Hitchcock took a strong stance, because I thought this scene is very important — it's a first date eve and Thornhill from the moment he found out that she is the mistress of Vandamm and the employee of intelligence services. Helped to defend the episode is the fact that the agents Hitchcock, who signed a contract with MGM without his knowledge included the right to direct artistic control over the film. Hitchcock recalled: "It gave me a reason to politely but firmly say: I'm Sorry, but this episode you must leave".

Since the disposal of the UN Secretary-General hammarskjöld films in the UN building were banned, Hitchcock had to make a number of tricks. Managed to shoot one episode, when Thornhill is included in the UN building — a hidden camera in the back of a truck. Then Hitchcock got permission to make a few color pictures inside the building and he accompanied the photographer as an ordinary visitor, quietly whispering instructions to him from what place to shoot. Later these pictures were used to build the pavilion in the Studio decorations. The scene when they kill the "real" Townsend, was reproduced exactly. The action took place in the living room for delegates, but in order not to harm the prestige of the United Nations and to justify the appearance of a man with a knife, in the movie it is called "the hall for the audience." (Permission to film inside the building of the UN General Assembly for the first time in 2004 were directed Sydney Pollack (Sydney Pollack) for her picture "the Interpreter" ("The Interpreter"). To shoot it allowed the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan).

In recognition of the Hitchcock the final shots of the film, with the train disappearing into the tunnel carry a traditional Freudian symbolism. Their piquancy in the fact that at this time in one of the cars needs to happen in a romantic scene involving the main characters... Later, the Director said that it was one of the most daring scenes he ever filmed.