My 150 Favorite Movies - #84

North by Northwest (1959)

This thrilling Hitchcock classic contains what may be one of the two or three topmost iconic scenes in all of American cinema - that of Cary Grant being chased by a cropdusting plane along a desolate stretch of highway. The rest of the movie is equally high-charged and suspenseful, with a major case of mistaken identity featuring Grant; James Mason as a very suave villain, Eva Marie Saint bringing up the rear as a very sexy femme fatale, and a climactic chase scene featuring the national monument,  Mount Rushmore.