8.3
North by Northwest
1959, 2h 16min -
Cary Grant teams with director Alfred Hitchcock for the fourth and final time in the superlative espionage caper, North by Northwest, judged as one of the American Film Institute's Top 100 American Films and recipient of three Academy Award nominations. Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of Hitchcock's greatest thrillers. While leaving New York's Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name "George Kaplan" is paged -- starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him... and by police who suspect him of murder. Pursued by spy (James Mason) and counterspy (Eva Marie Saint), Thornhill is variously abducted, framed for murder, chased and in another signature set piece, crop-dusted. He also holds on for dear life from the facial features of the Presidents on Mount Rushmore. It all adds up to another box-office smash from the Master of Suspense.
