James Bond Directed By Alfred Hitchcock

[@1ank1im]

North by Northwest tells an otherwise absurd story in such a dry sense that it really feels natural. A genius work by Hitchcock

[@classic_movie_trailers]

Yes Mr Hitchcock always had his tongue firmly planted in those chubby cheeks. Knew exactly how and when to flip from comedy to suspense, to drama to thriller all wrapped up in a loving bundle.

[@1ank1im]

@@classic_movie_trailers this is a great explanation for how I feel about Hitchcock

[@leftcoaster67]

Proof there are no small roles only small actors. Patricia Cutts plays the hospital patient. The wonderful double entendre of "STOP!" as in get out of my hospital room. To "Stop" when she see's its Carey Grant. And doesn't want him to leave her hospital room, is funny and brilliant.

[@kallegrabowski8972]

👍👍👍👍 Agree 100%, absolutely genius from Hitch. How she switched from "hold the Thief-Stop" to "Come and sit down to my bed-Stop, you male Bombshell". Great!

[@fanboydee]

A perfect summation of the commonalities between these films. Interesting that the heir apparent to the Bond franchise, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series, was launched by Hitchcock student Brian De Palma, and a lot of those films revolve around a plot where Ethan Hunt is disavowed, allowing for a narrative structure that more closely resembles Hitchcock’s “wrong man” stories.

[@breengreg]

Gave a lecture last year on this exact topic. I love this film and how it created not only the Bond template but the western big-budget action film formula. Never bettered.

[@sandrashevey8252]

As you probably know Hitch was asked ot direct the first Bond film but turned it down.

[@sticky59]

@@sandrashevey8252 Thank the baby vishnu.

[@wyattweed]

I would also say that Raiders Of The Lost Ark followed the formula of NxNW, maybe even more so - Spielberg and Lucas and the writer sat down and spat out random cool ideas, then figured out how to link them together. And then of course, the chase that takes them from one interesting locale to another.

[@jean6872]

I trust you pointed out the major contrast with Bond since Thornhill was more of a Bond girl.

[@peterpimpzzyou]

I just watched this film for the first time and got bond vibes through out

[@aadityabhattacharya]

Everyone on youtube - let's make a Bond Ranking. TROFS- Kids let me tell you about North by Northwest.

[@MariaVosa]

And that's why he has my upvote

[@hunmiliengtipi9218]

British humour is really something else!!!

[@richardw64]

Cary Grant films were all full of one-liners. And he knew how to deliver those lines. It was a shame he never got to do a Bond film.

[@thomaspearmain]

Cary Grant turned down the opportunity to be the first James Bond. Sean Connery became an icon because Cary Grant had no interest in doing multiple films being the same character.

[@oobrocks]

My favorite Hitch film: damn near perfect!

[@scotthallgv]

I imagine Grant would say something along the lines of...."Well I hope you dont think that means Im going to put on a dress, I look dreadful in them".

[@catherinelw9365]

But he already did that in I Was a Male War Bride!

[@gabrieleplukaite950]

@@catherinelw9365 Don't forget Bringing up Baby, where he wore a woman's négligée and, asked as to why by Katharine Hepburn, replied: "Because I just went gay all of a sudden!" I do think he looked swell in 'em garments

[@reyaz8531]

N-N-N-NOTORIOUS. the 39 steps. It’s so cool how he built man in a suit on the run genre and then completely turned it on its head by making it a panamerican adventure.

[@dangelo1369]

Good point. I would also throw in a bit of Orson Welles' "The Third Man"

[@georgeiporgie]

Damn, a Royal Ocean and Nerdwriter premiere on the same day! Today's starting off on the right note

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Hitchcock essentially created the form of the cinematic spy thriller as we think of it with The Man Who Knew Too Much but most especially The 39 Steps. The 39 Steps is as if you’re seeing the rudiments of Bond on the screen before your very eyes. It was with good reason of course that he was then courted to direct Bond multiple times through the 50’s and 60’s. Many Hitchcock films set the stage for Bond with the biggest examples being The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, Notorious and N by NW. Since the parallels are more obvious with the latter it becomes the one everyone focuses on when the earlier films are just as important. The connection is always there to Hitchcock and Fleming himself name checks N by NW in the Thunderball novel. However in the films the most direct connection is in the writing of Richard Maibaum (who was a writer on Foreign Correspondent) and the direction of Terence Young. It was Young who had the harder and more adventurous edge no one else has replicated. He had many Hitchcock esque flourishes but in Bond found ways to build upon them with his innate cynicism that became an integral part of the cinematic Bond. It is this cynical sense of danger that was so fresh and groundbreaking to audiences in the 60’s and what made Bond films an event. It is thus interesting to note the stylistic shift in Goldfinger where the combination of Guy Hamilton and Paul Dehn creates a lighter touch that gives the film more of a N by NW tonality. This is interwoven and blended into the established Bond style by Maibaum and Peter Hunt to try and keep a sense of Bondian continuity with the previous two films. The key films that best explain the DNA of the Bond series are The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, Notorious (Devlin is essentially a complete Bond precursor), N by NW and some of the more modern cynicism felt in The Guns of Navarone. Outside of these the key influence in both style and primary crew would be the Warwick films of the 50’s produced by Cubby Broccoli and Irving Allen. Had a Hitchcock Bond film actually been made it likely would have been a one off and Hitchcock would have tried to assume control over the scripting process to make it more of a Hitchcock picture. It is wonderful to think of the Master of Suspense doing a serious take on Bond pre-EON with either Cary Grant or more likely David Niven both of whom would have been perfect.

[@Enshohma]

Cary Grant: The Original Bond Girl... Put that on a t-shirt, stat! BTW, North By Northwest has recently become a huge film favorite of mine and it's awesome to see it get some positive love from your awesome channel.

[@rlkinnard]

I think by NWW has always been highly appreciated as part of the Hitchcock golden era.

[@arthurafonsodeandradesoare5360]

Loved how you've matched Hitchcock's iconic silhouette with James Bond's gun barrel scene!

[@kapilsethia9284]

I was watching NBN and felt james bond definitely got inspired by this. seach bond and hitchcock to land hear.

[@clumsydad7158]

i recently finally saw Marnie, interesting that Connery was in that one ... i rather like his performance as he was vulnerable there, mostly un-Bond like

[@griffinmitchell3882]

I was so happy when I saw this. North by northwest was my first and favorite Hitchcock film

[@aaronsmith6104]

Wow, that last transition of Hitchcock presents 007 ending with the psycho-esque blood drip was amazing. Really great work!

[@highwind1991]

My favorite film of all time is basically a four-way tie between the four best Hitchcock movies. All chosen for different reasons. Vertigo for the way that it basically feels like the bridge between classic and modern Cinema. Rear window and it's Innovative use of voyeurism that test the boundaries between form and the audience. Notorious for its incredible ahead of his time style that brilliantly mixes film Noir and it's truly romantic love story. And then you have North by Northwest, which is simply the most fun and entertaining motion picture ever made in my opinion. I'm that one weird guy who secretly claims that North by Northwest is the best James Bond film similar to how I say that Galaxy Quest is secretly the best Star Trek movie.

[@SirBlackReeds]

An ardent practitioner of separating the art from the artist, eh?

[@highwind1991]

@@SirBlackReeds meaning?

[@bighands69]

One thing they all have in common is that they are interesting and willing to try new things and take risks.

[@hallisb]

as a young kid we were discussing what movies to watch that night. I said I wanted to watch James Bond and my mother's boyfriend said North By Northwest was a better version of James Bond. I thought he was full of it, but ended up loving the movie more than any Bond film I'd ever seen, before, or since.

[@bighands69]

Have you seen Rear Window or Vertigo. They are two of the greatest films of all time and they both drip with tension as you never know where they are going.

[@hallisb]

@@bighands69 Oh yes, two absolute favourites of mine.

[@Pancrasio-it9qd]

@@hallisb and psycho 😎👌🏻

[@davidunderwood1773]

@MisterHB Don't forget "Notorious." A film that sympathetically portrays the girl being used, and the evil man who is not really that evil.

[@lesgoe8908]

Never ever made this connection. Well-said. Bravo!

[@Maverick8t88]

One of my top 5 all time favorite movies. Simply spectacular in every single scene. Especially the silence leading up to the biplane chase. The tension builds so effortlessly I just can’t get enough of the movie.

[@tricerapots3190]

With this and “Notorious” (which is a very different type of spy movie), Hitchcock really laid the groundwork for every kind of modern espionage thriller.

[@classic_movie_trailers]

As other commenters have pointed out there were many more, particularly from his early British period.

[@darryl3422]

Hitchcock invited Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton to lunch and told him how much he enjoyed it That's high praise indeed

[@WayTooClose]

"Jokey, ridiculous waters." Cut to Brosnan kitesurfing around ice floes. Nice.

[@ianrogerburton1670]

James Bond "on paper" was not a cold-hearted killer but an agent who seriously considered the morals of his actions.

[@howardmckenna]

Has always been a favourite of mine. Forget McQueen, Cary Grant was the king of cool before "cool" was a thing.

[@RuiBarEdits2]

This is absolutely brilliant!

[@pdlagasse]

The corollary to that line of reasoning, of course, is that Eva Marie Saint was the first Bond. (cue Roger Moore in Moonraker: “…a woman!”)

[@paulware4701]

First saw this film when I was about ten (more than fifty years ago!) It's still one of my all time favourites.

[@SirSmoldham]

THANK YOU! I'll never forget everything about this film... including my first taste of big screen chases and explosions. It's score is magnificent and when the screenwriter told our film class about a rejected idea that took place in Disneyland we saw their fire.

[@richardt.buryan5820]

YES, THIS IS THE FIRST 'BOND' FILM.

[@juansorel]

Maybe, your greatest video essay until now... I salute!

[@garrysnowcreative]

I had no idea that North came before Bond?! I’ve always said that each scene in North was a lesson in building suspense. I think the auction scene is often forgotten in the mix of so many good ones.

[@greglapointe1311]

I've always thought that North By Northwest was like a Bond movie. It's probably Hitch's best movie, I never get tired of watching it.

[@spyboy1964]

Love this video, great analysis. I also think that Sean Connery's Bond seems like a composite of the Cary Grant and James Mason characters of North by Northwest (Grant's relative good guy with Mason's ruthless one.)

[@Agustinibarlucia]

This video is great! It made me think that North by northwest feels like a parody of a James Bond movie. It's as if the parody was made before the original thing, which is an amazing role reversal. The thing is Hitchcock always had a soft spot for comedy. That makes me think about the similarities between comedy and suspense. The bomb under the table isn't that far away from a clown hidden in the stage while the other clown is looking for him and all the kids are screaming "IT'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" I think that "Get Smart" and the "The naked gun" movies are heirs of this kind of Hitchcock comedy, while "Mission: Impossible" is a direct descendant of the "hey, what if we put Pierce Brosnan kitesurfing to the main theme?" kind of fun (Oh, Brian De Palma, I love you).

[@Wired4Life2]

“Parody...made before the original thing”? The term you’re searching for is probably “unbuilt trope”.

[@SirBlackReeds]

Actually, there is a Bond film that predates North by Northwest.

[@mikea.6121]

Yeah, it’s called “Foreign Correspondent.” :)

[@dylanmcartoonell1536]

The name’s Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock

[@robertprice2148]

Thanks for posting this very enjoyable video. In addition, I think Ernest Lehmam contributed dialogue to Dr No, Hitchcock was suggested for Thunderball, which would have then been the first Bond movie and Hitchcock worked with Connery on Marnie. In which he gets him to look very much like Grant!

[@ebertsisko5185]

Funny how at the beginning the cuts between North by Northwest and From Russia with Love are less jarring than the actual cuts within From Russia with Love.

[@johannes914]

Watched it again yesterday...

[@robjones2408]

Cary Grant was the template for Bond, as far back as "Notorious". NBN was the template for spy films/TV series in the 1960s, notably The Man From UNCLE and Mission Impossible. Leo G Carroll and Martin Landau went to major success in both shows.

[@Wired4Life2]

_North by Northwest_ is my all-time favorite Hitchcock film. =D

[@RiCsoundbox]

Putting it mildly, a super time period, with no message! The magic of going to the theaters!

[@gazza2933]

The storyline is very similar to John Buchan's "39 Steps" I think. Both great films. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

[@PogieJoe]

Your work shines above the rest!

[@bbunny1940]

Excellent piece

[@SaturnCanuck]

What a great video. I had never thought of this before but I see it now. Thanks.

[@GhostStealth590]

When I watched this film in class, definitely made me think of 007 straight away. Except this is some random dude from the street that walked in on a spy job.

[@rubytroy7756]

Spot on ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@jerryschramm4399]

Very clever, very interesting, very well done. Good job, as usual.

[@5cloudwalker]

Good point👍😊

[@LelekPLN]

Mission: Impossible is the modern day example of this approach.

[@UFOBobTV]

You’re ending was sublime. You had rolling in the ailses.

[@UFOBobTV]

Well, I just noticed I made a similar comments about 10 months ago. What more can say. Your writing and editing is clever and witty, just like Bond.

[@johnkean6852]

Brilliant, thank you.

[@joeespin4377]

glad you made this new look on bond

[@adrianbhola2767]

Great vid. 'The Thousand Eyes of Dr Mabuse' directed by Fritz Lang in 1960 is also noteworthy, as it hits familiar accents later to be seen in Bond films as well

[@nelsonx5326]

Must see this movie.

[@762x69]

My friends favorite movie and what I consider to be one of the best movies ever made :) you make my day

[@jesustovar2549]

When I first watche North by Northwest, I thought the aesthetics and visuals were similar to those of the first Bond films, I already watched all 007 films (one of my relatives is a fan, he has all dvds), at first I even mistook Cary Grant with Sean Connery, but a coincidence knowing that Connery worked to Hitchcock in Marniel, also Bond has adapted to the type of action that on each decade, if the Connery phase has the air of a Hitchcock film, then the Craig phase looks like a Chris Nolan movie. Great video to mix with all the hysteria caused for the new Bond movie.

[@elviskleber10]

I love all of the Hitchcock spy-thriller movies. There's a lineage of these kind movies like foreign correspondent, the man who knew too much (1956), To catch a thief and North by Northwest that all share the same basis on the 39 Steps (1935) and have similar set pieces and story beats, but North by Northwest is the final iteration on this formula and the most well made. I know people don't like Torn Curtain (1966) but it's one of my favorites from Hitchcock because it goes against some of the glamour of james bond movies which by association makes it the anti north by northwest, it's really interesting to see it in comparison to these other Hitchcock films

[@ChristophersRants]

This is why Hitchcock had unsuccessfully had a "realistic" spy films era, during the Bond craze because he was pissed his style and tone was being ripped off.

[@bcpjw]

Still my fav Hitchcock film!

[@Mastertist]

Always love your content. Need more videos like this.

[@gabrielidusogie9189]

Also can we talk about how funny it looked when Cary grant was running from the gas tanker explosion?

[@natalie6501]

Watching this at college so people know I’m a hot film gal. This is what royal ocean is for.

[@UFOBobTV]

Loved the ending. You have a great sense of humor.

[@queenslander954]

‘Becoming Bond’ best doco about Bond & how George Lazenby stitched up the vastly experienced Bond producers into giving him the Role even though he’d never acted before in his life.. a Aussie knockabout outsmarted the smart. He was only in London visiting from Australia at time chasing girls.

[@ElmosUniverse]

amazing as always

[@guidograndi7285]

North by Northwest is the best Hitchcock movie. Change my mind

[@fabiengerard8142]

Very much the same dream-like quality as in - especially - DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, personally my favorite 007 achievement ever. Almost perfect Magic Realism. 👌

[@latenightlogic]

Cary Grant is 26 years older than Sean Connery - yet they look roughly the same age.

[@rubytroy7756]

Just to clever you guys ❤…… love it ❤

[@rubytroy7756]

Bond Girl ❤😂❤ made my morning breakfast ❤

[@XavierKatzone]

Well done! 👍👍👍👍

[@QueerOkie]

‘The Original Bond Girl’. Cary Grant no doubt would’ve had something quite witty and very quotable to say about it

[@DavidGreen_au]

Interesting essay. I liked the mock up of Hitchcock in the gun barrel.

[@dariolinardic9395]

Cary Grant starred in "I Was a Male War Bride". I think he would have been fine with the "The Original Bond Girl" status.

[@SirBlackReeds]

There actually is a Bond film that predates North by Northwest.

[@isabelaoliveira9270]

Really interesting essay 👍

[@abraxamovic]

Nice!

[@julesdingle]

always a treat to see a new post from ROFS

[@georgekaplan4696]

Great video.Love NBNW. This all makes sense 👌👋👍

[@Kurzula5150]

I Was a Male War Bride (1949) I Was a Male Bond Girl (1959)

[@classic_movie_trailers]

Truth in plain sight

[@pdzombie1906]

Now you have to make a video on directors making their own Bond movie, such as Jarmusch with The Limits of control, and Nolan with Tenet (both also the first black Bonds). Great video!! Thanx!!!

[@SirBlackReeds]

Don't forget Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

[@tskmaster3837]

I thought of this notion of "Bond by Hitchcock" when I saw Danny Kaye's forgotten Knock on Wood, a Hitchcock style "wrong man on the run" spy comedy from 1953... whose attempt at creating an entire genre is buried by Kaye's antics. It also could have used a James Mason or Martin Landau style villain to pull the whole thing together rather than just some random character actors. 3:13 Yeah, that.

[@RossM3838]

You can’t kidnap me. I have two ex wives and three bartenders who are depending on me.

[@rocanrolafx2179]

What a wonderful theory! I always loved that movie, it has it all! ✨💖

[@Derek_Smallshorts]

No. Frtiz Lang's 'Spies' (1928) was the first 007 film. So much so that the influence of all of Lang's early thrillers can be seen in Fleming's books.

[@Tmanaz480]

Roger thornhill was not 007, but Carey Grant would have made a perfect Bond if he had taken the role. Especially with his acrobatic background.

[@malcolmherbert5127]

In a similar but slightly different vein, Cary Grant was always the first choice of Leslie Charteris to play The Saint.

[@arpitdas4263]

North by Northwest is the best Bond film

[@mooveeluver]

Hitchcock was using some of these elements going back to his films in the '30s.

[@marcelorolandi4150]

Check Fritz Lang's "Spies" (1928) for the very first Bond-style film. Hitchcock actually worked as an assistant for Lang in the 1920s, and he surely learned a thing or two in those years.

[@thekingofcool2105]

Daniel Craig: I'd rather slit my wrist than playing another Bond. Producers: Here's 50M Daniel Craig: Shaken not stirred.

[@christianbjorck816]

And then they crap on Bond by killing him off.

[@carlosc3768]

There is another film that also set the standards that many films would follow but for underwater action, even James Bond. I'm referring to Louis Malle`s ``Silent World``.

[@tubularap]

Wow, that was a twist at the end :-)

[@NOCTURNUSFILM]

Nice! I always thought that Hitchcock nailed that kind of humor a bit better than most of the Bond films. The similarities are definitely striking. Thanks for fleshing them out a bit more. Great video, as always.

[@simonwood1461]

Good work. Very interesting video.

[@chammondmccoy2726]

Interesting theory. I really need to see some Hitchcock films.

[@reidflemingworldstoughestm1394]

"We have to climb down the face of this smooth granite cliff." "Good thing I wore my rock climbing pumps tonight."

[@classic_movie_trailers]

Just posted a link to an interview we did with Eva Marie Saint where she mentions the heels!

[@gangsterd.gastino5292]

From Russia with Love is so similiar to North by Northwest