One of my all-time favorite dialogue exchanges - James Mason and Cary Grant in North By Northwest - written by Ernest Lehman. It doesn't get much better than this:
"Has anyone ever told you that you overplay your various roles rather severely, Mr. Kaplan? First you're the outraged Madison Avenue man who claims he's been mistaken for someone else. Then you play a fugitive from justice, supposedly trying to clear his name of a crime he knows he didn't commit. And now, you play the peevish lover, stung by jealously and betrayal. Seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the F.B.I. and a little more from the Actors' Studio."
"Apparently the only performance that's going to satisfy you is when I play dead."
"Your very next role. You'll be most convincing, I assure you."
