Eerie, Electrifying, Pleasantly UnsettlingA Genuine Thriller of the Highest Quality

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2006)

Initially unprofitable at the time of release, VERTIGO may now be well-considered Alfred Hitchcock's most riveting masterwork and possibly his best. Told with such somber menacing tones, it establishes an overall ambiance of suspense and anticipation. With its premise taken from French novel "D' Entre Les Morts", it was executed exceptionally by the Master himself. It blends an outstanding revised screenplay, distinguished cinematography and noteworthy acting between two renowned leadsall intensified by a legendary Bernard-Hermann score.
John "Scottie" Ferguson is a retired San Francisco officer regularly suffering from acrophobia leading to the demise of one coworker. Hired casually as a detective by old schoolmate Gavin Elster (Tom Elmore), Scottie is asked to track Gavin's voluptuously icy wife, Madeline (Kim Novak). Gradually, Scottie is enticed by the unstable Madeline (whose suspicious behavior may be attributed to a dead ancestor's possession over her). Madeline then fatally plunges off a bell tower with Scottie helpless to save her and VERTIGO deviates completely. As Scottie, inebriated with angst, recovers from his loss, he meets Judy (Novak), a saucy brunette resembling the lost Madeline. He forcefully converts her physically to remind himself of the departed Madeline, leading to an alarming conclusion.
No other picture embodies the persona of an indisputable Hitchcock suspense story as well as VERTIGO does. In this terrifyingly personal movie, Alfred's passion to alter particular characters is exposed here. Another great aspect is how every meticulous detail, the lighting, the makeup, the score, the set etc., takes on significant meaning. The film boasts of numerous transcendental, platonic and emotionally devastating scenes. Among the well-known visuals, scenes and sounds first seen in VERTIGO, which are nowadays frequently used as homage, include the simultaneous zoom-in-zoom-out shot, the Golden Gate Bridge scene and the classic background music of Bernard-Hermann. We see that Hitchcock is truly the Master of establishing character development, mounting tension and pacing virtually everything in the silver screen. He successfully plays mind games with the audience until a shocking revelation four-fifths way into the film and even then we are still left guessing.
Only Jimmy Stewart can portray such an acrophobic private eye plagued with desire and necrophilia and make him as down-to-earth as Scottie. Kim Novak, in one of her most prominent roles, stars in a dual character conveying two opposite extremes. The way she plays a glacial elusive girl on one hand and a brassy independent woman on the other is remarkable. Both actors easily depict how two Hitchcock's characters are forced to run in a merciless, never-ending spiral of lust and deceit.
Surrealistic yet believable, VERTIGO is the supreme thriller, that induces delightful terror into the audience. Only this movie can bewilder and bamboozle even the most persnickety critic.
Worth mentioning also is Barbara Bel Geddes' underrated performance as the "normal" predictable woman in Scottie's life, Midge (whose love interest is none other than Scottie)