North By Northwest
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Did you know James Stewart was nearly cast as the lead? Find out why not, with host Mikayla Daniels.
Did you know James Stewart was nearly cast as the lead? Find out why not, with host Mikayla Daniels.
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SATURDAY NIGHT CINEMA is a local public television program presented by KSPS PBS
North By Northwest
Clip | 2m 48sVideo has Closed Captions
Did you know James Stewart was nearly cast as the lead? Find out why not, with host Mikayla Daniels.
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“In the world of advertising, there's no such thing as a lie.” Mikayla Daniels here with my web comments on the Saturday Night Cinema broadcast of North by Northwest from 1959.
This film is both critically and audience acclaimed and was nominated for three Oscars, which it didn't win.
But the film won eight other awards from various sources.
To be fair to North by Northwest, films in the thriller or horror genre often don't win Oscars, but it's always nice to see them nominated to get some bit of recognition.
Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman conceived of North by Northwest after suffering from writer's block while working on an adaptation of the Hammond Innes novel, The Wreck of the Mary Dear.
As with most films, not everything ran smoothly.
The production went severely over budget because a delay in filming activated a penalty clause and Cary Grant's contract.
That clause resulted in him being paid an extra $5,000 per day.
Part of the reason for the delay is that Hitchcock accidentally led James Stewart to believe that he'd be cast as the lead.
To mitigate Stewart's disappointment, Hitchcock waited until Stewart was busy filming 1959 anatomy of a murder before “offering” the part.
Hitchcock was one who pushed the line with the film and studio censors at the time.
In the original cut of the film, Eva Marie Saint actually says, “I never make love on an empty stomach.” But the studio insisted on redoubling her line.
If you watch her lips, you can see that they don't match what she said.
There's also a reference to a homosexual relationship between Vandamm and his primary henchman, Leonard, played by Martin Landau.
Leonard tells Vandamm about his “women's intuition” that something's not right.
And Vandamm responds by accusing him of being jealous.
Hitchcock had a lot of his own issues, but I must respect someone who pushes the line with arbitrary censorship like that.
Now for a fun piece of trivia about the film, according to the Visit Austin web page.
This film inspired the famed music, film and media festival South by Southwest.
The festival was almost named Third Coast instead.
Thank you for checking out my extended comments on Saturday Night Cinema's broadcast of North by Northwest.
And be sure to check around our Facebook page and ksps.org for what's coming up and insight from movie maverick Mike.
Don't forget to tune into Saturday Night Cinema on KSPS PBS for your weekly movie night.
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