TCM movie alert: "North By Northwest"(1959) at 12:00 AM EST

TCM ^ | 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock

[ReformationFan]

TCM is continuing its weekend of great movies by following their present airing on "Ben-Hur" with MGM's other big hit of 1959: Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest"-

One of my 2 favorite Hitchcock films("Vertigo" is the other) and my favorite of his 4 with Mr. Grant.

[ReformationFan]

Trivia sidenote:

James Stewart and Gregory Peck were also rans for the character of Roger Thornhill while Cyd Charisse, Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor were contenders for the role of Eve Kendall. I would've still been a great movie with any of these actors but I'm quite happy with the heroine and heroine casting we got.

[ReformationFan]

The original trailer-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRfmTpmIUwo

and a pretty good fan trailer-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS7eiBIbot0

[GunRunner]

Thanks for the update; just set the DVR. I watched Vertigo in HD a few weeks ago, my favorite Hitchcock film. Truly creepy. NXNW is much more silly fun, and helped invent the spy film McGuffin. In this case, the sought after “microfilm”.

[TonyInOhio]

North by Northwest is a masterpiece. The casting is superb, the direction, exceptional, and the score may be the finest ever written for a Hollywood movie.

Thanks for the reminder!

[Sherman Logan]

For years the version of this film shown on TV left off the first half hour or so, starting with Cary meeting the guy at the UN who then gets murdered. Made absolutely no sense. Hope they show a more complete version.

[PieterCasparzen]

Good tip, RF.

If anyone would like some nice reading to go along with the theme of the movie, here’s a nice PDF, 8.8 MB, from an old Senate hearing that will bring back some memories (from real life) about the CIA of that era.

http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs/95mkultra.pdf

Makes the troubles of poor Roger O. Thornhill pale in comparison.

[ReformationFan]

I consider “Vertigo” and “North By Northwest” the yin and yang of each other or the sour and sweet respectively in the Hitchcock film canon. That’s why they’re my top 2. A dark and tragic tale in the 1958 film and a fun, lighter adventure in the 1959 film.

[ReformationFan]

It was probably to make the film fit into a 2 hour time slot. It’s on now and showing the first half hour as it should. Thornhill has just been kidnapped by Vandam’s henchmen.

[ReformationFan]

You’re welcome!

[Delphster]

Thanks for the heads up watching now.

[MurrietaMadman]

Alfred Hitchcock: What is real?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_7Es1h0eQ

[Thorliveshere]

I am particularly fond of this film, because it is the one and only film I actually sat and watched with my grandmother, and she knew I would like it.

[Rodamala]

They need to remake this movie.

They could revamp the whole biplane buzzing Stewart scene and have a drone circling far above lauching Hellfire missles at Matt Damon.

If I weren’t on my damned phone reading FR... I would have a promo poster doctored up to go with my post.

[ReformationFan]

Neat story. I like it when people are able to introduce classic films and tv shows with their grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc., and start a love for them for those in a younger generation.

They’re just at the point where Grant and Miss Saint are having dinner and flirting in the dining car when the police show up.

[GunRunner]

Interesting use of opening titles. Very innovative, and repeated by Fincher in Panic Room.

[CaptainK]

The brilliant Bernard Herrmann music ties them together.

[norwaypinesavage]

I spent most of my life living close enough to the railroad in the movie to hear the trains at night. The farm my father grew up on sold part of its land to make the railroad. “North by Northwest” is the only movie I’ve watched in the last ten years, after I bought the 50th aniversary DVD.