Question 1

True or false: The Mount Rushmore scenes were largely shot on a soundstage using detailed scale models.

Accepted Answer

True. To avoid damaging the monument and for safety, Hitchcock built massive plaster models and rear-projection sets. Only a few establishing shots used real footage.

Question 2

True or false: The screenplay for North by Northwest was originally titled 'The Man on Lincoln's Nose.'

Accepted Answer

True. Ernest Lehman's working title referenced a scene idea where the hero dangled from Lincoln's nose on Mount Rushmore. The studio rejected it.

Question 3

True or false: Eva Marie Saint was not Hitchcock's first choice for the female lead; he wanted Grace Kelly to return.

Accepted Answer

True. Hitchcock wanted Grace Kelly, but she was then Princess of Monaco and her subjects disapproved of her acting again. He reluctantly cast Saint.

Question 4

True or false: The film's iconic crop duster chase scene was actually shot in the middle of a real cornfield.

Accepted Answer

True. Hitchcock filmed the sequence in Bakersfield, California, using a real biplane that flew dangerously low. No CGI or studio tricks were used.

Question 5

True or false: Cary Grant was originally supposed to be killed off in the final scene at Mount Rushmore.

Accepted Answer

False. Hitchcock never planned to kill Grant. The ending was always meant to be a rescue, though he considered a more ambiguous finale.

Question 6

True or false: The film's famous 'crop duster' scene was originally written to take place in a desert, not a cornfield.

Accepted Answer

False. The script always set the scene in a vast, flat agricultural area. The cornfield was chosen for its visual isolation, not a last-minute change.

Question 7

True or false: Alfred Hitchcock makes his cameo in the film as a man missing a bus, but he appears twice.

Accepted Answer

False. Hitchcock appears only once—as a man who just misses a bus near the beginning. Some fans mistakenly think he appears again in a crowd.

Question 8

True or false: The character of Roger Thornhill was named after a real advertising executive Hitchcock once met.

Accepted Answer

False. Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman invented the name. It was not based on a real person, though it sounds plausible for the era.

North by Northwest Trivia Questions