Writing 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''. 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.
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: 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." Hitchcock had been working on the story for nearly nine years prior to meeting Lehman.
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
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. 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.
Casting 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. MGM wanted
Cyd Charisse for the role of Eve Kendall. Hitchcock stood by his choice of Saint. The opening title sequence by graphic designer
Saul Bass made
North by Northwest the first film to feature extended use of
kinetic typography in its opening credits. 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. 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. 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". The British film magazine
Empire ranked it as the "greatest movie moment" of all time in its August 2009 issue. Among the locations used in the film are: • 430 Park Avenue • This is the building used by 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 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. • Commercial Investment Trust Building (650 Madison Avenue, New York) • 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 and Abramovitz and constructed in 1957. •
Plaza Hotel (768 Fifth Avenue, New York) • After taking a cab with his secretary, Thornhill has a drink in the
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. For space reasons, most of the shots in and around the Oak Room were actually done on a set. •
Old Westbury Gardens (71 Old Westbury Road,
Old Westbury, New York) • 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. •
United Nations headquarters • 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. 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. •
Grand Central Terminal (89 East 42nd Street, New York) • 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) • 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 • The famous "crop duster scene", which the film sets in rural Indiana, was actually filmed near
Wasco, California. Hitchcock added square signs to the location to replicate those found in Indiana. •
Ambassador East Hotel • Thornhill returns to Chicago in a stolen truck that he parks outside the Ambassador East Hotel. The hotel, designed by Robert S. DeGolyer and Co., opened in 1926. Today, it continues to be operated as a hotel, under the name The Ambassador. •
Chicago Midway Airport • 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. • Memorial View Building,
Mount Rushmore • 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. 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. •
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—at the time the most popular architect in the United States—using the materials, form, and interiors associated with him. 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 paintings, while interior shots were filmed using a set built in
Culver City, California, where MGM's studios were located.
Costuming A panel of fashion experts convened by
GQ in 2006 declared the gray suit worn by Cary Grant throughout almost the entire film 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 and
Ben Affleck's character in
Paycheck. 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. There is some disagreement as to who tailored the suit;
Vanity Fair magazine claimed it was
Norton & Sons of London, although according to
The Independent, it was Quintino of
Beverly Hills. Another article states that Grant had his
Savile Row tailor,
Kilgour French and Stanbury, make 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. Eva Marie Saint's wardrobe for the film was originally 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.
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. 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. ==Release==