Simply the best

Rating: 10/10 (18 August 1999)

Pretentious film scholars may say Citizen Kane, hopeless romantics point to Casablanca and Gone With the Wind, IMDB voters love the Godfather, and Brittany Spears fans choose Titanic, but for my money this Hitchcock movie is the all time best American movie. It was the first movie by the master I ever saw, and 26 films later, it's still my favorite. Anybody who only knows Hitchcock for Psycho or the Birds, or Stewart for overbloated Capra fare, should definitely check it out.
The basic story is one of voyeurism, and the first half hour has no real plot. But you'll find yourself engrossed in the lives of the people the wheelchair bound Stewart is peering at. This being a Hitchcock film, of course, there has to be a murder, too, and that's when the real fun begins. To reveal anything else would be criminal. The performances all around are astounding, particularly Thelma Ritter as Stewart's nurse. Grace Kelly is mesmerizing as always. But this is Stewart's movie. I am confounded by those who claim Vertigo to be his better performance. He was so disturbed and unlikeable in that film. This is *the* masterpiece of his, Hitchcock's, and all of film history.