North by Northwest (1959)
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
IMDb page about North by Northwest
Studio(s): Sony Pictures Studios
Dates: The filming of North by Northwest took place between August and December 1958 with the exception of a few re-takes that were shot in April 1959. Interiors were largely shot on stages at MGM Studios.
Format: Hitchcock insisted the film was shot using Paramount's VistaVision widescreen process.
Exterior Scenes
The car chase scene in which Thornhill is drunkenly careening along the edge of cliffs high above the ocean, supposedly on Long Island, was actually shot on the California coast.
However the Townsend estate is actually a Long Island Gold Coast mansion that is now the Old Westbury Gardens.
The sequence outside the United Nations building was shot 'guerilla-style' from a parked van as the UN prohibited film crews around it's New York City headquarters. Cary Grant and Adam Williams exited their taxis and entered the building surrounded by an oblivious general public. The interior of the UN building was a soundstage set.
Other New York locations included the Plaza Hotel, and the Grand Central Station.
The cropduster sequence was shot on location on Garces Highway (155) near the towns of Wasco and Delano, north of Bakersfield in Kern County, California.
The house at the end of the film was not real. Hitchcock asked the set designers to make the set resemble a house by Frank Lloyd Wright, the most popular architect in America at the time, using the materials, form and interiors associated with him. The interior set and parts of the exterior were built in Culver City, at the MGM Studios. The long-shot exterior views were a matte painting.
Trailer: