My Personal Favorite - Dazzling and Incomparable

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2003)

After watching movies for almost forty years (is that possible!), I wondered what might qualify as my personal favorite. Sunset Blvd? Becket? Raiders of the Lost Ark? All About Eve? A Star is Born (37 version)? Dodsworth? Body Heat? Quite an eclectic mix, huh!
Vertigo heads my personal list. And I remember when first (finally) seeing this, after several years of it being unavailable. WOW! But that was only the initial viewing, with the plot captivating me. The movie had received only lukewarm reviews and was not considered top tier Hitchcock (perhaps this was in the early 1970's).
Delighted that so many IMDB members, and critics too, have altered their opinions over the past 30 years. Nice to be part of a majority for once LOL
What dazzles me about Vertigo is virtually everything! This score was not even nominated for an Oscar (we play the soundtrack every few weeks). The photography, use of color, of one of the world's best looking cities. Costumes, everything is classy Hitchcock.
I remember timing one of the early sequences, perhaps 5 full minutes go by without any dialog (guess Hitch wanted to briefly return to his early pre-talkie days!). I bet this movie would be quite a splendid experience to watch with the sound off!
Ok, the story is fantastic (in all senses of the word). But how did Hitch get Kim Novak to give this performance?
But let's talk about James Stewart, to my mind, the most talented of all movie actors (not that Cary Grant, Edward G. Robinson and Jack Nicolson are not right up there as well). Without repeating what everyone else has written, among the greats this is his greatest.
Color, script, acting, mood, music, photography --- Hitch, thank you for this masterwork. Hey, maybe we should watch it again tonite!