Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest is the sleek, stylish spy thriller that basically invented the modern action movie and laid the blueprint for the Mission: Impossible / James Bond franchises. We break down its iconic set pieces, paranoid energy, and why Cary Grant running from a crop duster still rips. This is a 5-minute sample from our full #1 Boy Movie Club episode. To hear the entire deep dive, head to our Patreon below.
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Episode Transcript
The hello welcome to the Extra Credits Plus of Alfred
Hitchcock's North by Northwest. I'm Trey and I'm Kelsey.
This is our second installment of the Number One Boy Movie
Club. Yeah, I also have not heard my
podcast voice today. I'm realizing this is going to
be a nasally episode. Trey is sick.
(00:35):
I am sick and you're getting here already.
Yeah, I apologize for the sick man ASMR that will be happening
throughout the next two episodes.
So number one boy movie club, this is our monthly series on
Patreon where we pair one of ourliving plus deep dives with a
classic film that complements it.
And so later today we're going to be covering Mission
Impossible from 1996, directed by Brian De Palma, starring a
(00:58):
mid 90s electric Tom Cruise. And when thinking about that
movie and the anticipation that we've had for the new Mission
Impossible coming out in about two weeks, we were like, OK,
what inspired the spy genre? What would fit for this new
series that we're running on Patreon?
And we went back, we looked at Hitchcock, and North by
(01:19):
Northwest is really the movie that I think most people land on
as the blueprint for modern spy thrillers.
We had never seen it before. This was our first time watching
it. We've seen about 5 or 6
Hitchcock's, so we've not gottenthrough his whole, whatever it
is, 30 to 40 movie filmography. Which I'm sure will cover a lot
of his in the number. One boy club I think so probably
I would have, I would guess two to three a year.
(01:41):
It would just pop up. Let's just say we're 2 for two.
OK, the. Apartment was so fun and
unexpected and North by Northwest had some great comedy
in. Here, Yeah.
Not expecting that out does eventhings like like Mission
(02:02):
Impossible. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall like
Tom Cruise, looking in the camera of Mission Impossible
Three. Like the the cheese ball Huber.
Not like the Mission Impossible movies are a little bit more
screwball comedy. This North by Northwest is
screwball, but it's different. It's no, it's more absurd.
It's like the IT basically it ithas elements that I also enjoy
in the apartment where, you know, without because you I
(02:25):
mean, there are stunts at the end that we'll talk about that
are really cool. And I don't know how that
happened with Mount Rushmore, but in terms of like the
beginning, you know, there aren't stunts to like keep you
really engaged in the obviously in the way that they're like in
Mission Impossible. I mean, of course, if you've
(02:45):
seen North by Northwest, hopefully you watched it before
listening to the pod. But there are like the the plane
shooting scenes, like there are a lot of action sequences that
are great and really like are are gripping.
But at the same time, you have like the physical comedy and
this is the very beginning that works so well.
And I think is it's like my kindof humor.
(03:08):
It's like skit humor or something, right?
Yeah, Cary Grant is doing a lot of physical comedy.
I mean, he's really known for that.
He's been in movies that allow him to use his tall, slender
build, and he looks like a guy. He looks like a suit.
But he also leans into this ideathat he might be this kind of
blumbering idiot, you know, but also might be a genius.
I don't know. Like this movie in a fun way
(03:30):
presents him as somebody who's like super clever on his toes
but also is kind of up to no good.
He's like self interested minded.
Don Draper vibe, you know? Yeah, yeah.
You know, so this was an interesting movie to choose
because we thought about maybe covering some early Bond films.
We thought about Jason Bourne, we thought about Cold War noirs,
(03:53):
we thought about other espionagemovies.
But I think this really stood out because Brian De Palma and
documentaries about him and behind the scenes about him talk
so much in the 90s about Alfred Hitchcock influencing his style
and making Blow Out, or Scarfaceand Her Leader's Way and Mission
Impossible, obviously. And Tom Cruise handpicking the
(04:13):
Palma because he wanted a Hitchcockian style in this
original film, this adaptation of ATV series.
So I was really excited to pick this movie.
It's a little bit, it's a littlebit intimidating to do Billy
Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock back-to-back because you know,
these movies come out within a year of one another.
And these are two of the biggestfilm makers of this era.
And Hitchcock is, I don't think,someone we've ever talked about
(04:36):
on this show. No, Yeah, I don't think so.
I mean, maybe we've talked a little bit about like rear
window with another. Probably the David Fincher
episode. Yeah, we discussed Hitchcock
about. Some like influences but not not
really a a full episode ever. Well, he's probably the most
famous director ever, right?
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