Benzadmiral
Call Me a Cab
- Messages
- 2,815
- Location
- The Swamp
Caught the last 1.5 hours of Hitchcock's North by Northwest again yesterday. Charming, fast-moving, and exciting as usual. Points to dwell on:
1) People have complained about the title, saying there is no compass point called "north by northwest." Well, fine, but in the last act of the film, Grant's Roger Thornhill travels from Chicago to Rapid City, SD, on an airline labeled in multiple shots as "Northwest." So, north by Northwest.
2) The movie has long been hailed as the direct ancestor or inspiration for TV's "Man from U.N.C.L.E." It features:
a) A good-looking, well-groomed hero. Norman Felton, the exec producer of the series, said at the start he wanted a "Cary Grant type" for the lead.
b) An innocent person caught up in spy intrigue (in this case it happens to be the hero, Grant's Thornhill).
c) Dry humor (when the nosy station clerk asks the sunglasses-wearing Thornhill if something is wrong with his eyes, Thornhill counters, "They're sensitive to questions!").
d) Considerable travel over the U.S., from New York to Chicago, Indianapolis, and South Dakota.
e) Leo G. Carroll's "Professor," the spymaster for the unnamed government agency and the model for his later Alexander Waverly of U.N.C.L.E. (I'm positive Carroll's wearing the same fedora he sports in one or two U.N.C.L.E. episodes a few years later.)
1) People have complained about the title, saying there is no compass point called "north by northwest." Well, fine, but in the last act of the film, Grant's Roger Thornhill travels from Chicago to Rapid City, SD, on an airline labeled in multiple shots as "Northwest." So, north by Northwest.
2) The movie has long been hailed as the direct ancestor or inspiration for TV's "Man from U.N.C.L.E." It features:
a) A good-looking, well-groomed hero. Norman Felton, the exec producer of the series, said at the start he wanted a "Cary Grant type" for the lead.
b) An innocent person caught up in spy intrigue (in this case it happens to be the hero, Grant's Thornhill).
c) Dry humor (when the nosy station clerk asks the sunglasses-wearing Thornhill if something is wrong with his eyes, Thornhill counters, "They're sensitive to questions!").
d) Considerable travel over the U.S., from New York to Chicago, Indianapolis, and South Dakota.
e) Leo G. Carroll's "Professor," the spymaster for the unnamed government agency and the model for his later Alexander Waverly of U.N.C.L.E. (I'm positive Carroll's wearing the same fedora he sports in one or two U.N.C.L.E. episodes a few years later.)
