Eva Marie Saint. James Mason's modern/rustic mansion. And Cary Grant's skinny ties. "North by Northwest" is one of the scariest and most stylish films in the movie vault.
It is no shocker then that the 50th anniversary of "North by Northwest" and the film's release on Blu-ray have been getting much ballyhooed of late.
And if there was every ballyhooing to be done, this is the film. In fact, there are so many things we like about this Hitchcock thriller that we feel we must focus on just a slice, so we're going to make that slice specific to Southern California: Garces Highway.
You know Garces, which is not far from Bakersfield, as that empty road in the cropduster scene. We wanted to highlight it, both for its presence in one of the most famous (and frightening) scenes in all of moviedom, but also because when people think of "North by Northwest" locations, they often think of the Plaza Hotel or the United Nations or Mount Rushmore.
Beautiful spots, all of them. But let's add Garces Highway, and California, to the known-by-all "North by Northwest" location list.
