10 Movies That Took Extreme Measures To Shoot Scenes
3. A Photographer Secretly Took Pictures Inside The United Nations' HQ - North By Northwest
A significant sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's masterful 1959 thriller takes place inside the U.N. General Assembly building in New York, but after reviewing the script, the U.N. refused to grant Hitchcock permission to film in and around the real building.
As a result, the shot where protagonist Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) pulls up in a taxi outside the General Assembly building was filmed in secret, with a camera crew filming it from across the street with a long lens. Look closely and you can even see a regular civilian do a double take as Grant walks past.
While the scenes set inside were filmed on a soundstage, Hitch nevertheless went to dubious lengths to accurately recreate the interiors of the U.N. building.
The production hired a photographer to secretly take photos inside the U.N. against regulations, which were later used as reference materials for the film's production designers.
The end result is certainly convincing enough, even if Hitch risked getting one of his crew members arrested.