Hitchcock's directorial techniques as seen in the ultimate entertainment of the 1950s, ``North by Northwest''

A story built by combining ideas from scratch

This work is not an original work. It was created from scratch by screenwriter Ernest Lehmann and Hitchcock. The original idea came from Hitchcock's idea, ``I want to do a chase on Mount Rushmore!'' Mount Rushmore is the place where the faces of four of the most prominent presidents in American history are carved.

“North by Northwest” (c)2009 Turner Entertainment Co. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.

In other words, there wasn't a solid original plot from the beginning, but Hitchcock and Lehmann came up with various ideas one after another, selected them, and combined them. The story revolves around a man who heads north-northwest to Mount Rushmore, chased by a mysterious organization. During that process, there seemed to be countless attractive ideas that were unfortunately scrapped. To give an example...

Example 1) United Nations chamber. The person on the podium suddenly interrupts his speech and says, ``Unless the Ambassador sitting there stops falling asleep, I won't speak anymore.'' However, even if we shake the ambassador, there is no sign that he will wake up. Because he's not sleeping, he's being killed. And next to it is a picture of an elk's antlers (which seems to symbolize the direction ``northwest''). With this as an opportunity, the story moves forward to the "northwest".

Example 2) Automobile factory. Cary Grant and the workers are walking and talking while the conveyor belt assembly line is in the background (this is filmed endlessly using dolly photography). Behind the scenes, the framework is completed, parts are installed, and a car gradually takes shape. When the two of them finish their conversation, they open the door of the finished car and the corpse of the person they were just talking about falls out.

What a quality idea! It's like seeing an actual image. As for why it was rejected, the book `` The Art of Cinema '' includes the master's words, ``No matter how interesting a scene is, you can't use a meaningless scene completely.''

The legendary “invasion of small planes” scene that is still talked about to this day.