History Trivia / NorthByNorthwest

** Legend has it that Hitchcock denied Creator/JimmyStewart the part of Thornhill because he thought he was too old for it... so instead he got Creator/CaryGrant, who was even older than Stewart. (Another theory is that the less-than-spectacular box office results for ''Film/{{Vertigo}}'' caused a falling-out between Hitchcock and Stewart, hence no ''North by Northwest'' for the latter. ) Other actors considered or suggested for the role included Creator/GregoryPeck, Creator/WilliamHolden, Music/FrankSinatra, and Music/DeanMartin.

* ImageSource: This film provides the page image for:
** AudioDiegesis
** BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon
** RevealingHug

** The entire crop duster scene was supposedly set in Indiana southeast of Chicago, but actually filmed near Bakersfield, California.

** MGM wanted Creator/CydCharisse to play Eve Kendall (since she was under contract to the studio) and Cary Grant pushed for Creator/SophiaLoren (who he'd reportedly fallen for while working together on ''Houseboat''). Hitchcock also considered Creator/ElizabethTaylor and Creator/VirginiaMcKenna before settling on Eva Marie Saint. Creator/GraceKelly would have gotten the role if she weren't busy being Princess of UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}}.

** While the film was still in the early scripting stage, a scene taking place at an assembly line in Detroit was envisioned, where the camera would follow two men as they talked while a car was built behind them piece by piece... and at the end, one of the characters would open a door of the now-finished car and a corpse would fall out! Part of this sequence actually inspired one moment in Creator/StevenSpielberg's ''Film/MinorityReport''.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Movies: #40
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #4
** AFIS100Years100Movies10THAnniversaryEdition: #55
** AFIS10Top10:
*** #7, Mystery

* AFIS100YearsSeries:

** MGM wanted Creator/CydCharisse to play Eve Kendall (since she was under contract to the studio) and Cary Grant pushed for Creator/SophiaLoren (who he'd reportedly fallen for while working together on ''Houseboat''). Hitchcock also considered Creator/ElizabethTaylor before settling on Eva Marie Saint. Creator/GraceKelly would have gotten the role if she weren't busy being Princess of UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}}.

** MGM wanted Creator/CydCharisse to play Eve Kendall (since she was under contract to the studio) and Cary Grant pushed for Creator/SophiaLoren (who he'd reportedly fallen for while working together on ''Houseboat''). Hitchcock also considered Creator/ElizabethTaylor before settling on Eva Marie Saint. Creator/GraceKelly would have got it if she weren't busy being Princess of UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}}.

* DawsonCasting: Both leads were older than their characters. Eve is stated as being in her 20s, while Creator/EvaMarieSaint was in her mid-30s. It's not clear how old Roger is supposed to be, though his being a Madison Avenue executive with two failed marriages to his credit suggests late 30s or early 40s. Creator/CaryGrant was in his mid-50s at the time.

** MGM wanted Cyd Charisse to play Eve Kendall (since she was under contract to the studio) and Cary Grant pushed for Creator/SophiaLoren (who he'd reportedly fallen for while working together on ''Houseboat''). Hitchcock also considered Creator/ElizabethTaylor before settling on Eva Marie Saint. Creator/GraceKelly would have got it if she weren't busy being Princess of UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}}.

* TheDanza: A near-miss with Eva Marie Saint as Eve Kendall, but long before Saint was hired, the character actually ''was'' named Eva in the initial drafts of the screenplay.
* DawsonCasting: Both leads were older than their characters. Eve is stated as being in her 20s, while Eva Marie Saint was in her mid-30s. It's not clear how old Roger is supposed to be, though his being a Madison Avenue executive with two failed marriages to his credit suggests late 30s or early 40s. Creator/CaryGrant was in his mid-50s at the time.

* WriteWhoYouKnow: Even after basing the murderer in ''Film/RearWindow'' on David O. Selznick, Hitchcock couldn't resist a few more digs at his former boss-turned-nemesis. Roger Thornhill's middle initial is O but it doesn't stand for anything, which was also the case with Selznick's "O". Also, Thornhill dictating a memo even while he's leaving work was based on Selznick's habit of constantly dictating memos to secretaries while he was doing other things.

** MGM wanted Cyd Charisse to play Eve Kendall (since she was under contract to the studio) and Cary Grant pushed for Creator/SophiaLoren (who he'd reportedly fallen for while working together on ''Houseboat''). Hitchcock also considered Creator/ElizabethTaylor before settling on Eva Marie Saint. Creator/GraceKelly would have got it if she weren't busy being Princess of Monaco.

** Vandamm's house behind Mount Rushmore. Anyone who's been to Mount Rushmore knows there aren't any houses within several miles. Not to mention the topography is all wrong. It does make for a good climax, however.

** Audio Diegesis

** Hitch himself noted that he wanted the climax to involve the heroes interacting with the faces on Mt. Rushmore, rather than just climbing ''around'' them. Specifically, he wanted Cary Grant to hide for a moment in one of the noses...[[CrowningMomentOfFunny and then have a sneezing fit.]] While the scene was filmed on a sound-stage using a model of the monument, so there was no risk of damage to the monument, there was a small public outcry during the film's production, which complained that climbing over the presidents' faces would be disrespectful, so Hitchcock had to agree that the movie would not have characters actually touch any of the faces.

** In Germany, the movie's title is ''Der unsichtbare Dritte'' ("The invisible third one").

* WordOfGay: Martin Landau stated in interviews that he portrayed Vandamm's henchman Leonard as a closeted homosexual who was secretly jealous of Eve Kendall's relationship with his employer. In the scene where he revealed to Vandamm that Eve was secretly working for the Feds, he commented, "Call it my woman's intuition, if you will..."

** In Spain, it was released as ''Con la muerte en los talones'' ("With Death on His Heels").

* DawsonCasting: Both leads were older than their characters (actually it's not clear how old Roger is supposed to be, given that Creator/CaryGrant was in his mid-50s at the time).

* In Spain, it was released as ''Con la muerte en los talones'' ("With Death on His Heels").

* CaliforniaDoubling: The entire crop duster scene was supposedly set in Indiana southeast of Chicago, but actually filmed near Bakersfield, California because it's cheaper to film in California than take all the crew and equipment to Indiana.

** In Portugal, the film was released as ''Intriga Internacional'' ("International Intrigue").

* Future horror film director Creator/GeorgeARomero, then 19 years old, worked on the set as a gofer. He later said that he was turned off by what he termed Hitchcock’s “mechanical” directing style.

** TraitorShot

** The final shot of the film was to be the two leads climbing into bed on their train and sharing a passionate kiss with "The End" superimposed over it, but TheHaysCode objected, saying it implied that the couple were [[CoitusEnsues going to have sex]] (not an unreasonable conclusion) and demanded a change. In classic Hitchcock form, he obliged and changed it to a cut-away of their train [[FreudWasRight going into]] [[VisualInnuendo a tunnel.]]

* Future horror film director Creator/GeorgeARomero worked on the set as a gofer, but was less than impressed with what he later termed Hitchcock’s “mechanical” directing style.