Where to watch North by Northwest (1959)

Trivia & production notes

• Hitchcock conceived of the original concept as a chase across Mount Rushmore only after screenwriter Ernest Lehman threatened to quit due to writer's block on a different MGM project.
• The core plot device of mistaking an innocent man for a fictional spy came from an idea pitched by journalist Otis Guernsey, which Hitchcock purchased for $10,000.
• The famous crop-duster sequence evolved from Hitchcock's original concept of villains killing the hero with a tornado, which Lehman deemed impractical.
• Eva Marie Saint credited her mother's advice to wear beige clothing and white gloves to her casting meeting with Hitchcock, which helped her win the role of Eve Kendall over MGM's preferred choice, Cyd Charisse.
• Hitchcock cast Martin Landau after watching him perform in the play Middle of the Night, despite initially intending to observe Edward G. Robinson's performance.
• North by Northwest was the only Hitchcock film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and it was shot in Paramount's VistaVision widescreen process at Hitchcock's insistence.
• The iconic crop-duster scene, set in rural Indiana, was actually filmed near Wasco, California, with Hitchcock placing replica square highway signs to match the actual landscape.
• The opening title sequence by Saul Bass made North by Northwest the first film to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.
• Hitchcock filmed the United Nations headquarters sequence without permission, using a hidden camera to capture Cary Grant exiting a taxicab and walking across the plaza after two failed attempts to obtain official filming rights.
• Production delays pushed Cary Grant into the penalty phase of his contract, requiring him to be paid an additional $5,000 per day before filming even began.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article North by Northwest, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.