Wednesday Matinee
Destination: United States, London and Marrakesh
Movies: Three Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
By Jane Boursaw
My teenage son spent his spring break watching Alfred Hitchcock movies with his buddy, and I couldn’t be more proud. As a mom and a movie critic, my world is now complete.
It reminded me that not only is Hitchcock a master of suspense, he’s also a great filmmaker when it comes to sense of place. All of his films offer a great travelogue for a specific place, or more often, a series of places. Let’s take a look at three Hitchcock films, and I’ll show you what I mean.

1. North by Northwest (1959)
What better way to show off America than turn Cary Grant into a hapless New York ad man who’s mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies, then pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive?
The scene where Grant is being chased down that desolate road by a crop-duster plane is one of the most iconic in cinematic history. In the movie, it takes place in the farmlands of Illinois or neighboring Indiana, but the scene was actually filmed north of Bakersfield, California, outside the towns of Wasco and Delano, just east of the intersection of Corcoran Road and Garces Highway 155.
While much of North by Northwest was shot on a Hollywood sound stage, there were many establishing shots of interior and exterior locations, including Grand Central Station in Manhattan, the Plaza Hotel and United Nations in New York City, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.
However, the final chase scene was NOT shot on Rushmore, because Hitchcock couldn’t gain permission to shoot an attempted murder on a national monument. Instead, the scene was filmed in a studio on a replica of Mount Rushmore. Everything was carefully shot, so as to avoid associating the faces of the monument with the violence.
Likewise, Hitchcock couldn’t get permission to film inside the United Nations, so footage was made of the interior of the building using a hidden camera, and the rooms were later recreated on a sound stage. And rather than go to the expense of shooting in a South Dakota woodland, Hitchcock planted 100 Ponderosa pines on an MGM sound stage.

2. The Birds (1963)
There’s something very mesmerizing about this film wherein a wealthy San Francisco socialite (Tippi Hedren) pursues a potential boyfriend (Rod Taylor) to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin attacking people with increasing viciousness.
It’s partly because of the locations. An adaptation of a short story by Daphne Du Maurier, The Birds begins in San Francisco and migrates north to Bodega Bay, California, where the exteriors of the schoolhouse and town were shot. Well, I’ll qualify that and say that the schoolhouse used for those shots is actually located five miles southeast and inland of Bodega Bay in the separate township of Bodega, California.
Known as the Potter Schoolhouse and used as such from 1873 to 1961, the building is now a private residence. It’s also rumored to be haunted. According to Tippi Hedren, the entire cast was spooked to be there, and she said that while there, “the building was immensely populated … but there was nobody there.”
Hitchcock was famously reluctant to shoot on location, and recreated scenes on a studio sound stage whenever possible. In one of the first scenes where Tippi Hedren is seen crossing the street to the pet shop, she disappears behind a sign and reappears on the other side. Hitchcock used that moment to seamlessly cut to a studio shot.

3. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
There were all sorts of issues with this film, not the least of which was Doris Day’s fear of flying, stemming from Bob Hope tours in the 1940s which resulted in some close calls during winter weather. Day nearly turned down the role because it required travel to London and Marrakesh, but her husband-manager Martin Melcher talked her into accepting it (and that’s a whole other article!).
When she traveled to London to film some of the location scenes, she was so popular with the British that mobs of fans greeted her at the hotel, causing the hotel management to ask her to leave.
The Ambrose Chapel scenes were filmed at St. Saviour’s Church Hall in St. Saviour’s Road, Brixton Hill, London. During the 1970s, it was sold off by the Church of England and has since been torn down.
Got a favorite Hitchcock film? Tell us below and include whether the movie has a good sense of place.
Jane Boursaw is a monthly contributor to A Traveler’s Library bringing us her knowledge of movies that make you want to travel. Other days you can find her at Reel Life With Jane.
Your selections are on target. For additional Hitchcock movie watching, “Strangers on a Train” and “Rear Window” have to be on the list. And, although it is not on my top list, “Psycho” would be on most lists for Hitchcock. Looking at the other comments, it is obvious that Hitchcock provides a slightly different favorite list depending on the purpose, but this just exemplifies his accomplishment, I think.
Growing up in Illinois, I knew that no place in Illinois looked like that, and assumed it must be Indiana, as we were prepared to believe anything about Indiana.
That’s so funny, Davis. Growing up in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana seemed interchangeable—but West Virginia, now that’s where all the dumb people came from!
so interesting – i’ve not seen ANY (can you believe it?). i am such a wimp,i don’t like being nervous or stressed. great post, jane – i’ll have to watch some!
This post and the photos bring back memories of summer break and watching the (was it?) the 3:30 afternoon movie…all holed up inside, it pouring outside.These are such classics. Great post, Jane!
Thanks, Jane for memories of a favorite director!
I have to vote for The Trouble With Harry, which made me long to revisit Vermont. Although in researching the location, I learned that when they arrived to shoot, the leaves had already fallen and they had to tape leaves on the trees and then shoot Harry lying on the ground back in the Hollywood studio.
And then there’s Vertigo,located in San Francisco. The hotel used in the film recently refurbished and renamed itself the Hotel Vertigo. I love their motto. “Equilibrium is overrated.”
Oh that’s cool about the Hotel Vertigo and motto. If I’d expanded to five movies, Vertigo and To Catch a Thief were the next two on my list.
I’ve got a compilation of lesser-known Hitchcock films on DVD here that my son and I are going to watch. I will look and see if The Trouble With Harry is on there.
Forgot to mention that The Trouble With Harry is also loved because it was Shirley MacLaine’s first movie! For some reason, that movie sticks with me more than any other Hitchcock I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot.
That is so cool about watching the afternoon movie, Merr. I don’t think we were a big enough town to get afternoon movies (we had, like, 2 stations), but I feel the same way about The Monkees and That Girl, which I watched every day after school.