A Hitchcock classic hits 50

VIDBITS | 'North by Northwest' still sets pulses racing a half-century later

What happens when a dashing ad agency exec is mistaken for a U.S. secret agent, chased across the continent by enemy spies, tempted by the beautiful woman he meets on a train, chased down by a machinegun wielding, crop-dusting plane, and dangled from the faces of Mount Rushmore?

Alfred Hitchcock at one of his finest moments is what happens, and it all comes together in "North by Northwest" (1959), one of the most suspenseful thrillers ever to come out of Hollywood. The film was released this week on Blu-ray in a special 50th anniversary edition (Warner Home Video, $34.99), and this may very well be the definitive version of the film. The gorgeous color cinematography of Robert Burks is lush and rich; the score by Bernard Herrmann will send your pulse racing.

Cary Grant, in one of his best performances, stars as Roger Thornhill, the definitive "wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time," who is thrown into a life-and-death chase involving planes, trains and automobiles. James Mason co-stars as the supposed boss of the enemy spies with Martin Landau (in his first film) as Leonard, his creepy henchman. Eva Marie Saint, fresh from an Oscar-winning performance in "On the Waterfront," is the mysterious woman Roger meets on a train, who may or may not be working for the bad guys.

Hitchcock spared no expense with the filmmaking, building large-scale replicas of Mount Rushmore, and flying his cast and crew to various locations including Chicago's Ambassador East and Mag Mile for several key scenes. Even his stars' wardrobe was purchased outside of the studio's garment mill.

"MGM of course had created the clothes I was to wear, but Hitch didn't like them," Saint said in a phone interview. "He called me and said, 'We're going to Bergdorf Goodman.' We got there and models would come out wearing the most gorgeous dresses, coats and shoes, purses, hats, and he said, 'Whatever you like, you get.' I remember that black dress with the roses; it was the most beautiful dress I'd seen. He simply told the sales girl to 'please wrap it up for Miss Saint.' Unfortunately, I didn't keep it after filming ended. But you know, if you look at those fashions that I wore, you could absolutely wear them today. That was part of the genius of Hitch. He wanted the film to have a very timeless look, right down to the fashions. And it did."

Landau concurred. "With the exception of maybe the ties that Cary and I wore, and the automobiles, the movie really could be today," Landau said in a separate interview. "It had this very contemporary feel and look."

Part of Hitch's interest in the clothes his stars wore came from the man's personal penchant for style. "Hitch didn't dress like an [Elia] Kazan or John Ford," she said. "Hitch wore the most gorgeous suits on set."

Saint, who had worked with Kazan on "On the Waterfront," found Hitchcock to be a vastly different type of director. "Hitch would talk to you, but he was very subtle -- things like 'don't move your hands when you talk,' or 'lower your voice.' And it was pretty much only if you weren't doing quite what he had in mind."

"I remember feeling a little left out of things in Hitch's directing style because I was used to working very closely with directors [on the stage]," Landau said. "I remember in the auction scene, he whispered something in the ear of each of the other three actors, and he just walked past me. And so I asked him, is there anything you want to tell me? And he said, [affecting a Hitchcock impersonation], 'Martin, only if I don't think I like what you're doing.' "

Landau's characterization of Leonard did manage to take even the director by surprise. "I'd seen the storyboard he had of the film. I can tell you he didn't deviate from those storyboards one bit. But I wanted a slight deviation from Ernest Lehman's script in that I chose to play Leonard, however subtly, as a gay character. That was how I saw him. Why else would he want to get rid of the Eva Marie Saint character with such vengeance? He was attracted to the James Mason character, that's why.

"And I was thrilled when Ernie [Lehman] added a line -- not in the original script -- and a very daring line in the '50s -- for my character right before he exposes that the gun shot blanks. My character says, 'Call it my woman's intuition if you will.' Hitchcock loved it."

Saint may not have kept the lovely black dress, but she did walk away with something perhaps even better: the famous matchbook that Roger uses to signal that the spies are on to her.

"Of course, we've moved so many times, I have no idea where it is," she said with a laugh. "I'm sure it will turn up again one of these days."