[North by Northwest] is about a man who is surrounded by the trappings of wealth, power and prestige – none of which are of any use to him whatever in his incredible adventure. … He’s kidnapped from the least likely place on the planet- right out from under the Everett Shinn murals in the Oak Bar of the Plaza Hotel. … The assassins take Thornhill to the Phipps Estate on Long Island in a Cadillac limousine. He’s nearly killed later in a Mercedes roadster. He escapes back to the Plaza, then to the new United Nations Building. His adventures take him to Chicago via the Twentieth Century Limited, where he meets a female spy who possesses a Bergdorf Goodman wardrobe, a ruby necklace from Van Cleef & Arpels, and a new 1958 Lincoln Continental Mark III convertible. From there, Thornhill’s adventures culminate in a visit to Mount Rushmore, where he finds the mastermind behind the assassins in a luxurious Modernist eyrie built almost on top of the monument.

sandy mclendon on the unlikely monument-topping house in hitchcock’s north by northwest.  i think this point is easily overlooked.  as interested as hitchcock was with wealth and pedigree, they only serves to put characters in a certain narrative position; they do not let the characters control their destinies.  via coudal partners.