I know what you’re thinking. Last year for April Fools I doctored up the infamous joke ending of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest in order to make it just a taaaad more obvious. Y’know, for the people that only felt the rush of wind as the original joke sailed right over their heads. So you might be expecting that this post will be a joke too, right? Well, here’s the thing: last year was somewhat of an anomaly. I’m not really a big April Fools kinda guy. But just because this isn’t an April Fool (hey, it’s only March 31st!) that doesn’t mean that this post won’t have funny bits. And, yeah, I might even doctor up another video so stick around ’til the end.

Continue reading…

In a surprise announcement, Warner Bros. pictures has revealed that the original edit of the climactic scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest has turned up in the studio’s archives. This newly found footage, a far less subtle—and far more vulgar—version of the film’s classic "train entering the tunnel" joke (a visual pun referring to the couple’s sexual activity) existed mostly in film circles as a rumor of mythic proportions. Few have heard of the original ending because it has not only been long lost in the Warner archives, but because the only reference to the footage exists in the first editions of the interview book, Hitchcock/Truffaut (later editions of the book omitted the reference to the original North By Northwest ending because of Hitchcock’s disparaging words about the film’s star, Cary Grant). Because of this, first editions of the book have become a hard-to-find collector’s item. The following exchange regarding the original ending occurs on page 257:

Continue reading…