Release Dates
United Kingdom: October 20 2017
United States: August 06 1959
Ranking
Ranking: 1,362 out of 16,914 movies (up 1293)
Plot
Director
Cast North by Northwest
Videos
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Reviews North by Northwest
Trivia North by Northwest
While filming 'Vertigo', Alfred Hitchcock described some of the plot of this project to frequent Hitchcock leading man and 'Vertigo' star James Stewart, who naturally assumed that the director meant to cast him in the Roger Thornhill role, and was eager to play it. Actually, Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant to play the role. By the time Hitchcock realized the misunderstanding, Stewart was so anxious to play Thornhill that rejecting him would have caused a great deal of disappointment. So Hitchcock delayed production on North by Northwest until Stewart was already safely committed to filming Otto Preminger's 'Anatomy of a Murder' before "officially" offering him the role. Stewart had no choice; he had to turn down the offer, allowing Hitchcock to cast Grant, the actor he had wanted all along.
While on location at Mt. Rushmore, Eva Marie Saint discovered that Cary Grant would charge fans 15 cents for an autograph.
Thornhill appears on the left side of the screen for almost the entire movie.