Great Scene: “North by Northwest”

It was one of the scenes which inspired Hitchcock to make the movie.

I’m sure there are Hitchcock experts out there who can correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall that the genesis of North by Northwest (1959), the classic thriller written by Ernest Lehman and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, began with two images from Hitchcock’s imagination: A chase scene atop Mt. Rushmore and the crop duster chase scene. The latter is today’s Great Scene.

A few things:

• First, note how closely the movie tracks per the script, almost shot for shot. Hitchcock was known for blocking out his movies, every shot beforehand — this sequence supports that point.
• Next notice how well the sequence builds in tension — a flyover, another flyover only this one with machine gun fire, another flyover with machine gun fire, only closer, the mad dash to the cornfields, then a flyover with poisonous dust, the race to the highway and the approaching tanker, building to the climax — each event bigger than the previous.
• Finally, for all those screenwriting “literalists” who say that you can only write what an actor can act and a viewer can see, check this out:

Thornhill stands alone and helpless in the middle
of the highway, waving his arms. The plane draws
closer. The tanker is almost upon him. It isn’t
going to stop. He can HEAR THE KLAXON BLASTING
him out of the way. There is nothing he can do.
The plane has caught up with him. The tanker
won’t stop. It’s got to stop.

“It’s got to stop.” How can Cary Grant act that? How can a viewer see that? They can’t. This is a case of the screenwriter Lehman breaking free and providing some commentary on the moment, he is expressing what Thornhill has got to be thinking — and perhaps even what Lehman and Hitchcock hoped the viewer would be feeling: “My God, stop!!!” Lehman makes a ‘novelistic’ choice at possibly the most important point in the story. Therefore, if any of your screenwriting instructors tell you you can’t do this, just steer them to Lehman’s script. At the end of the day, who would you rather trust: Your instructor or a screenwriter who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing 5 times?

Here’s the movie version of the scene.

Almost no dialogue. Great visual storytelling.

You can read Lehman’s thoughts about working with Hitchcock here.

For more articles in the Great Scene series, go here.