It should’ve been in there. In the movie, “North by
Northwest.” David Trotter writes about it in the June 4, 2015, edition of the
London Review of Books, entitled “Hiatus at 4 a.m.”
Alfred Hitchcock was being interviewed around this time of
year in 1962 (yeah, 53 years ago!). He was 62. (I like to think part of his
reason for giving so much in these talks with Francois Truffault was the irony:
62 in ’62 – he wouldn’t be 63 until later that summer.)
Imagine this scene: Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is on
his way from New York to Chicago. He stops in Detroit in its Motor City heyday …
Here’s what Hitchcock tells Truffault:
“I wanted to have a long dialogue
scene between Cary Grant and one of the factory workers as they walk along the assembly line. They might, for
instance, be talking about one of the foreman. Behind them a car is being assembled, piece by piece. Finally,
the car they’ve seen being put together from a simple nut and bolt is complete, with gas and oil, and
all ready to drive off the line. The two men look at it and say, “Isn’t it wonderful!” Then they open the door
to the car and out drops a corpse!”
Hitchcock, he never stopped … What a man! An inspiration to us all.
This too, is a great takeaway from the Trotter essay of four
books, including one by our friend Michael Wood: “Alfred Hitchcock: The Man Who
Knew Too Much”:
“The transitions between films
became almost as swift and as seamless as the transitions within them.”
Words to live by. If only this great were still with us!
Next: Running for Your Life: Are You STILL Running?
