North by Northwest (1959)

I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest on the weekend for the first time. From the famous opening title sequence by Saul Bass, to the climax of the film on Mount Rushmore, I had a sense that I’d seen this film before.

A number of directors have paid homage to Hitchcock’s creative genius in a number of films. Here is what I’ve been able to spot in North by Northwest.

• The Saul Bass title sequence where the titles share the same perspective as the Manhattan skyscrapers is completely reproduced for the opening title sequence of David Fincher’s Panic Room.
• James Bond film, From Russia with Love borrows heavily from the crop duster scene where Cary Grant is almost run down by an airplane.
• John Woo borrows from the same scene in Paycheck where a subway train is substituted for the crop duster
• The English Patient where Ralph Fiennes is almost run down by a plane in the desert
• Hitchcock reveals Cary Grant in the reflection of a TV set near the end of the film — M. Night Shyamalan shows the reflection of an alien in a TV set at the climax of his film Signs

If you have any other examples from North by Northwest or any other Hitchcock films I’d be interested in hearing from you. Send me an email.

Posted in DVD Reviews at 9:48 PM