Alfred Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" to be Presented in Celebration of the Master's 100th Birthday; New 35mm Print Featuring Restored, Remastered Original Stereo Soundtrack.

LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Aug. 13, 1999--

Newly Struck Print To Bow At Los Angeles' Cecchi Gori Fine Arts

Theatre On Aug. 18 With Film's Star, Martin Landau, In Attendance

With the upcoming 100th birthday of the filmmaker universally hailed as the master of suspense, Warner Bros. is proud to issue a special 40th Anniversary print of Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest."

The new print of the triple Oscar-nominated classic thriller will be presented in stereo as it was originally recorded.

A special opening night screening (kicking off a nine-day engagement at the theater) of the Anniversary print will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 18 at Landmark's Cecchi Gori Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles. Oscar-winner Martin Landau, who played Leonard, henchman of the evil Phillip Vandamm (James Mason), will introduce Hitchcock's Cold War masterpiece. Landau will also answer questions from the moviegoers in attendance. As befitting a true birthday celebration, the first 100 patrons will be presented with a slice of a special 100th birthday cake (topped with the famous silhouette of the Master himself), courtesy of Landmark Theatres.

An extensive audio restoration and soundtrack re-mastering (into 5.1 Surround Stereo) was completed for the 40th Anniversary print. While the film's score was originally recorded in stereo sound, theaters of the time were not equipped with systems capable of reproducing the then-cutting edge technology. Now, the entire audio -- from Bernard Herrmann's driving score to Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint's witty repartee to the sound effects of the crop-dusting plane charging overhead -- is heard as Hitchcock originally intended (digitally reproduced for today's advanced theatrical sound systems).

A bellman's overheard page. An identity misconstrued. Two thugs eager to follow orders. And with that, New York ad man Roger Thornhill (Grant) is drawn into a Byzantine world of international espionage with all roads leading to a nefarious figure named Phillip Vandamm (Mason). Perceived as a spy by the men that want him dead and as a murderer by the police, Thornhill is forced to follow Vandamm from New York to Chicago to Mt. Rushmore -- north by northwest across the country -- to clear his name. En route, he crosses paths with Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), an icy femme fatale who may hold the key to bringing down Vandamm and who proves a worthy ally in Thornhill's quest.

Originally released in 1959, the motion picture (which, during production, bore Hitchcock's working title, "The Man in Lincoln's Nose," but was ultimately changed to "North By Northwest" -- a reference to Shakespeare's "Hamlet") garnered acclaim, box office success and three Academy Award nominations (for Best Color Art Direction, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay). The compelling Bernard Herrmann score was recorded in stereo, but audiences of the period heard it in monoaural sound.

Nearly 40 years later, Warner Bros.' Ned Price, vice president of mastering in technical operations, undertook the supervision of the audio restoration of the film, returning to the original magnetic soundtrack recordings (which were in tenuous condition) as source materials. Burbank's Chace Productions was charged with the painstaking task of restoring and re-mastering the audio identity of Hitchcock's film, using numerous source elements to ultimately re-master the soundtrack into 5.1 Surround Stereo. (The new 35mm print was struck from an internegative, with color correctors referencing an original dye-transfer Technicolor(R) print to match Hitchcock's palette as closely as possible.)

Now, Hitchcock's original vision of a man confronted with the specter of Cold War espionage -- and the monoliths of the 20th Century (both steel skyscrapers and national monuments) -- will be presented as the consummate filmmaker intended.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Hitchcock -- from Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Presents Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason in Alfred Hitchcock's "North By Northwest," Co-starring Jessie Royce Landis. It is written by Ernest Lehman and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In Technicolor(R). "North By Northwest" is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture. Distributed by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Entertainment Co.