Very Intense!

Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2005)

This is not bad for a 50's movie. Especially if it's from Alfred Hitchcock. The beginning of the movie didn't look like anything from that era. I mean, the title and the background effects, it looked more scientific to any era. The affects of a phobia always impairs a person's work. And conquering them shouldn't be a problem. But if the person has "Vertigo", like the main character, conquering the fearing always have drawbacks. Scottie Fergerson(James Stewart) has vertigo and the fear of heights, that effected his work and cost a police officer's life. The guilt haunts him. Midge Woods(Barbara Bel Geddes, before DALLAS), is a designer and painter who seems to be the stronger characters in the movie. I thought is was funny when she painted the picture of the sitter with her likeness in it. For Scottie, he was not amused. SHAME ON YOU, SCOTTIE! However, the obsession made him too obsessed on finding out the mystery woman he's tailing. The woman(Kim Novak) was somehow just a pawn instead of the culprit when Scottie's friend hired him to look out. Guilt followed him again when she jumped off the roof, or so it seemed. The real pawn in the movie was Scottie himself. His own friend took advantage of his condition, and try to make him feel guilty again. Conquering the fear of heights is not easy, only if you let it persist. Like the old saying, The only thing you have to fear its fear itself. Rating 4 out of 5 stars.