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Plaza Hotel, New York City, New York

The Plaza Hotel, located in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel that occupies the west side of Grand Army Plaza, from which it derives its name, and extends along Central Park South in Manhattan.

Hitchcock's Films

North by Northwest (1959)

The Plaza Hotel is used twice during the film — firstly near the start, where Roger Thornhill is abducted from the Oak Bar, and then later when he is searching George Kaplan's hotel room with his mother.

Whilst the hotel's exterior and lobby were used for filming, the Oak Bar and Kaplan's hotel room were studio sets.

During filming, a visiting journalist noted that Hitchcock shot the scene of Grant crossing the hotel lobby without providing any direction or comments to Grant. The director quipped, "Oh, he's been walking across [hotel lobbies] by himself for years!"[1]

Producer Herbert Coleman later recalled an amusing incident that occurred whilst they were filming the master shot of Thornhill, his mother and the two assassins exiting the elevator into the lobby:[2]

Suddenly, the elevator doors next to our elevator opened, and two bewildered people started to step out. When they saw all of us staring at them, they didn't know whether to step back into the elevator and close the doors or to run for the outside — or what the hell to do. So they just stood silently staring at the mob of people. Those two beautiful people were Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher. It was the first time their affair was revealed to the public. Eddie was still married to Debbie Reynolds.

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Notes & References

  1. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, page 570
  2. The Man Who Knew Hitchcock: A Hollywood Memoir (2007) by Herbert Coleman, pages 281-82