film Home > Movie Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 psychological suspense drama met with a lukewarm reception when new, but today it stands as perhaps the master's greatest achievement. Combining themes Hitchcock had been toying with over the course of three dozen movies--identity, obsession, unjust persecution, the seductive qualities of masquerade and evil--Vertigo exposes in detail the director's complex fixations and psychoses. A recent restoration of the movie--its color revitalized and its soundtrack and score (by Bernard Herrmann) digitalized and remixed--helps make the case for Vertigo's greatness. The story, focusing on acrophobic police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) and his obsession with first a friend's wife (Kim Novak) and then a woman who resembles her (Novak again), is haunting and erotically charged, highlighted by one of Stewart's darkest performances and Novak's earthy aura.