'North By Northwest' movie scenes

Last Saturday and Sunday, it was shown on Turner Classis Movies' "The Essentials". Afterward, was a half hour show hosted by Eva Marie Saint that discussed the making of this movie with many of Hitchcock's production team.

It appears that all the shots in GCT, except platform, were done on location. By the way, the shot of Grant and one of his pursuers arriving at the UN was done undercover. UN did not give permission and they hid in a delivery van across the street and shot the sequence. No location for platform shots given.

Eva Marie Saint did not start until production arrived in Chicago to film at LaSalle Street Station and the Ambassador East Hotel. Some of the interior train shots were done at LaSalle Street with background film edited in behind the windows later.

The compartment scenes were done in studio using a mock up that may have been slightly larger than real, but still cramped.

A fascinating discussion of a great movie . . . The GCT platform scene is authentic, even to having the famous red carpet. So, if that's a "set," then the production crew must have had a dup of that carpet made for it.
If it is GCT, then let the record show it's track 34 which for many years was the Century's departure track.

Incidentally, the ticket agent was played by Ned Glass who for years was a good character actor in a number of films and TV shows. One film you may recall was Charade, in which he also played oposite Cary Grant.

The Century scene in that picture embodied everything that was beautiful and romantic about long distance rail travel.

Conversation in Saint's bedroom:

Grant: "Why are you looking out for me? You hardly know my face."

Saint: "Well, as I said before, it's a nice face."

Grant: "I'm not a killer."

Saint: "I don't know that."

Grant: "What makes you think 'm not going to kill you?"

Saint: "Please do . . . ." [fade out . . . , and cut to La Salle Street the following morning]

It's nearly amazing that Hitch, who (according to more than one biographical item I've read about him) was noted for his own sexual repression, could direct a scene like that so magnificently.

Speaking of character actors, the gentleman who played the porter also did a porter in a Fred Astaire movie. A portion was set was on the eastbound 20th Century Ltd into GCT.

I am new to this forum. Since joining it I have noticed with more than passing interst the previous comments pertaining to the movie "North by Northwest." It has been a favorite of mine since first seeing it in 1959. As with any Alfred Hitchcock picture, the story as well as the acting were superb. Also the role that the New York Central played in it was of particular interst too.
As noted before, the actor who played the porter on the Twentieth
Century Limtied was said to be the same person who played the same role in another MGM movie from 1953 "The Bandwagon" starring Fred Astaire. It was rumored that he wasn't really a professional actor but an NYC employee recruited for the part in each instance.
Another coincedence to both movies mentioned is the GCT platform scenes. In each of those pictures those scenes were said have been shot at the studio. The interior scenes of GCT in NBNW were authentic location shootings.
There were quite a few other location shootings in and around New York City too such as the scenes at the PLaza Hotel, the UN building and the mansion at the Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island. The LaSalle Street Station, Ambassador Hotel and Midway Airport terminal scenes were the real thing too
On the Twentieth Century Limited the interior of the club lounge was not one that was recognizable as anything that the NYC owned or oprerated. The dining car, on the other hand, was certainly that belonging to the Century.
During the scene in the dining car, over the dialogue between Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) and Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) and the background music, the sound of the dual note E8 air horns is frequently heard. The scenery from the dining car windows suggests that the train is still on the Electric Division and the diesel power would not have been added until the train reached at Harmon. Secondly, in those days the light weight passenger cars were made with an abundance of soundproofing material so that most ambient noise from the outside was not heard in the interior of those cars.
In this forum someone asked about the locomotive units pictured in this production and their history. At LaSalle Street Station we saw a brief shot of E8A 4044. Three years earlier, in 1955, that same unit was leading train # 1, the "Pacemaker," when it was involved in a terrible accident at Schodack Landing on the Hudson Division. Moments before reaching the point of impact, a rock slide had occurred without warning. The train was traveling at the ruling speed at that time. The second locomotive unit was 4067. The lead unit landed on its side in the river killing the engineman. There were no ther fatalities but quite a few people were injured as other cars of that train left the rails. Within the year the diesel units were back in service and went on to finish out their lives with PC then Amtrak.

This was not the first time that Alfred Hitchcock used the NYC in one of his movies. The 1946 release "Spellbound" had a segment where the characters portrayed by Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck board #39 the "North Shore Limited" and travel from GCT to Rochester. All that is visible, when the train is under way, is the darkness of the Park Avenue tunnel until it emerges on to the viaduct above the avenue where Gregory Peck becomes entranced by the parallel pattern of the adjoing tracks. Leo G. Carroll was in that picture too.

I recently learned that the actor(?) who played the part of the NYC porter in the "Bandwagon" and "North by Northwest" was a gentleman by the name of Ernest Anderson. Whether or not he was really a NYC employee is still an unanswered question. He has since passed away.

This is Alfred Hitchcock week on TCM. If you wish to see "North By Northwest" again, it will be on Saturday at 8PM Eastern Time.

I know I will be watching!

Me too....for what will be my 50th plus time !

BTW, the sounds of jointed rail 'clickity-clack' under the 20th Century is a 'lost sound' in this age of welded rail....

BTW II....how do ya make a 'Gibson' ???

BTW III....what was George Kaplan's room # at the Plaza ?

Regarding a "Gibson": It is a Martini with small cocktail
onion(S) instead of an olive.

A "Gibson" is essentially a Martini, with small onions as a garnish, rather than an olive.

JR

During the dining car scene, you see the train pass under the Tappan Zee Bridge. Don't know whether this was edited it, but the angle looks accurate. Still a mystery where they filmed the train stopping to let the state troopers on. As it was still daylight, I would guess somewhere between Harmon and Poughkeepsie. Cold Spring is a good possibility, but that's just a guess.

All scenes of the train interiors were done on a soundstage. Everything visible from the windows was filmed by a second unit, and then rear-screen projection was used during the filming of the actors. At La Salle St. Station, a mix of second-unit process footage (during dialog scenes on the platform) and first-unit location footage was used.

As for the steam sounds at La Salle St. Station, Hitchcock would often not use most (if any) of actual location sounds, as they were too difficult to control. The steam whistle sound was almost certainly a canned sound effect, dubbed into the soundtrack during post-production.

The GCT platform scene was shot somewhere in California, perhaps on a rail spur near a studio backlot. If you look closely, the car lettered "Imperial State" is actually an SP blunt-end observation car repainted for NYC.

I think it's appropriate to resurrect this old thread in view of an excellent --- really superb --- exhibition going on in GCT right now, as we speak BTW, don't wait too long, it only goes on till 6/22/07! The exhibit is about the history of New York city as "the world's biggest movie set." The exhibit contains a photo of Hitch filming Cary Grant in GCT (approximately at the foot of the Vanderbilt Ave. staircase). The existence of that photo will leave no doubt in anybody's mind that the "real" terminal was used in the film. Unfortunately the exihibit does not address the question (which is debated elsewhere in this thread) of whether the real terminal was used for the platform scene where the fleeing Grant boards the 20th Century.

This forum thread also mentions the murder scene shot at the UN (Those familiar with the film will know this sequence immediately precedes the GCT scene). The exhibit includes the full, actual matte painting used in the film to recreate the lobby of the UN General Assembly building. It is explains the UN would not allow the murder to be filmed at the real location.

My wife and I spent yesterday afternoon viewing this exhibit and we both strongly recommend it.

BTW (This has nothing to do with the NYC or GCT) the exhibit also contains another full, actual matte painting, of a portion of Penn Station, used in a 1940's film that I forget the name of.

Time Warner Corp. is sponsoring this free exhibit. Thanks are due to them.

I'm shocked that the lobby shot is a backdrop. The shot of the info desk is most convincing to me, as I've been in and out of the place for years.

The murder scene was supposed to be in the delegates lounge on the 2nd floor, and they had the layout and decor of it right down to the furniture. I always liked the design of the house in the last scene, a Frank Lloyd Wright?

I always assumed the platform getaway scene was on a real platform, perhaps staged on the lower level as to not attract attention while filming. Then again, the Central might have wanted the real McCoy for promotional value. Think about it; they had from arrival time until two hours before departure to stage it at Tracks 34/35.

D/

The NYC did a small article about filming North by Northwest on NYC property in their July 1959 Headlight:

http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/head ... 759-18.jpg

Great!!! Many thanks for posting that