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Why did Thornhill's mother accompany the police to Townsend?

posted 9 years ago by rbnn
10 replies | jump to latest

After Thornhill is arrested for drunk driving, he is able to persuade several policemen to accompany him to the Townsend mansion to check his story that he was kidnapped.

But why is Thornhill's mother along? I can't envision a situation, even in the 1950s, where police would ask the elderly mother of a possible kidnap victim to accompany them in a search of the kidnapper's residence.

The very next scene shows Thornhill conducting his own investigation of Kaplan in the hotel, instead of asking the police, and then enlisting his mother in this search for Kaplan, equally unlikely.

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 9 years ago

His mother is in on it . . . she's his contact . . .

[–] jzc008 9 years ago

When Thornhill was arrested for drunk driving he telephoned his mother to ask her to arrange for his lawyer to represent him at the hearing and it's only natural for her to be there as well. Having heard his story that he was kidnapped she would also be curious to also go with them to the place where it happened to know first hand whether what he claimed could be verified or not. Rather than the police asking her to accompany them she would have asked if she could accompany them. If my son was in trouble with the police I would want to be present in the court and at the subsequent investigation at the mansion as well. Rather than persuading the police the judge asked them to check out his story before passing judgement.

After visiting the mansion the police obviously don't believe he was kidnapped so Thornhill decides to investigate himself and as his mother is already with him she would also be curious enough to tag along despite her scepticism.

[–] Doghouse-6 9 years ago

The short answer is that she makes the scene more entertaining.

If anyone really wants to nitpick, it's probably equally unlikely that Roger himself would have been there. He's charged with drunk driving and probably auto theft, and his story at the arraignment is that he was kidnapped and forcibly intoxicated, so the judge orders detectives to investigate.

Now, I don't know how they did things in Nassau County in the late '50s, and perhaps their detectives were unusually courteous and accommodating, but in general, I wouldn't expect investigating detectives to be bringing a defendant and his lawyer along while they did so, and in most municipalities, they'd do that on their own. Their interest, after all, is not in helping a defendant substantiate his story. They might have interviewed Laura Babcock as well, in which case the whole cover story about a party at the Townsend house would have been blown (along with the rest of the film).

But as Hitchcock himself often pointed out, realistic police procedure can be boring. The one time he observed it seriously throughout a film was in The Wrong Man, a realistic and semi-documentary treatment.

But North By Northwest is for fun: a thrill ride. So Roger and his mother were there because it was simply more fun that way.

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] movieghoul 9 years ago

I always accepted that they took Roger along to see if anyone at the house could ID him. Back in those days before cell phones, they wouldn't have had a photo handy.

As for Laura, it wasn't stated that she was at a party at the Townsend house, only that she was a nieghbor whose car was taken by Roger. No cover story blown.

What the police could actually have ascertained, however, is that Townsend was a widower, so who's this woman passing herself off as Mrs. T?

[–] Doghouse-6 9 years ago

I always accepted that they took Roger along to see if anyone at the house could ID him. Back in those days before cell phones, they wouldn't have had a photo handy.

Yes, there's some plausibility to it. As I indicated before, I don't know much about LEAs in tony Long Island communities, but wouldn't that be the sort of thing usually done with a lineup?

As for Laura, it wasn't stated that she was at a party at the Townsend house, only that she was a nieghbor whose car was taken by Roger. No cover story blown.

Yes, that's left entirely open. But inasmuch as they'd gone to that much trouble, they might well have trotted on over to her house on Twining Road to interview her as well, and the question of the existence of a "Mrs. Townsend" - and the familiarity hinted at ("You didn't borrow Laura's Mercedes") - would come up, as you go on to observe.

I recall that, once the abductors turned into the Townsend estate, it was quite a drive just to get from the road to the house. Assuming the Babcock home was similar, it would be a hike to get there even if it was next door. The illogic of Roger walking all that way even in his drunken state to steal a car, when he'd been at a house supposedly full of guests, might have raised red flags with the detectives, especially after Laura Babcock indicated she knew no such woman as "Mrs. Townsend," let alone to be on a first-name basis or for her to know what kind of car she drove.

But this is what happens when the plausibility or likelihood of Hitchcock stories start getting deconstructed: details like these didn't fit in with his film making philosophy, and it's enough to accept that whatever happens within them does so purely for entertainment.

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] rorysa 9 years ago

I could say the following on every thread that tries to break apart plot details in NNW:

Hitchcock said he was trying to present a nightmare on film, without the choppiness of an actual nightmare--not everything in a nightmare makes perfect sense. Not only that, but the entire film is tongue-in-cheek. This is a combination few filmmakers could even begin to pull off.

[–] Doghouse-6 9 years ago

That's as succinct a summation as any.

And I've read that he never concerned himself with questions that viewers might ask in the car on the way home or at the breakfast table next morning. Or, he might have added had he lived long enough, on internet message boards. Like the designer of an amusement park ride, he was interested only in the emotional reactions generated while on the ride.

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] oknar1977 8 years ago

But as Hitchcock himself often pointed out, realistic police procedure can be boring. The one time he observed it seriously throughout a film was in The Wrong Man, a realistic and semi-documentary treatment.

yep
that is the hollywood secret -
why american movies are good, watchable and entertaining - as opposed to european "art" crap, especially films from former communist countries

[–] TwoThousandOneMark 8 years ago

DVD writer's commentary taught me the actress playing his mother was 2 years younger than Grant.

...top 50 http://www.imdb.com/list/ls056413299/

[–] StevenSmithNYC 8 years ago

Glen Clove, NY is a real place. It's a small town. His mother came to bail him out. She could have easily asked to come along and the police as a courtesy offered her a ride there. By the way, she wasn't elderly as if she was fragile and couldn't make the trip which was in the same small town. We saw no evidence that she had trouble walking. The police didn't ask or require her to come along, she likely asked or Roger asked if she could come along.

He can't go back to the police, because they don't believe him and don't feel there is anything to investigate. He also doesn't have any new evidence himself, except being chased by these guys which doesn't happen again until he leaves hotel room of "George Kaplan".