Not hitchcock's best

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2002)

Pros: Cinematography, characters, directing, score.
Cons: Dull.
Vertigo has been often discribed as Alfred Hitchcock's most personal movie and it shows. It stars James Stewart as a man who has vertigo, a phobia of some sort which makes him scared of heights. he is assigned by a friend to watch his wife (Kim Novak) who he believes is haunted by ancestral ghosts. Stewart falls in love with her but she dies on him. Distraught, he finds another girlfriend and tries to recreate Novak's appearance as closely as possible. Kim Novak and James Stewart prformances are brilliant and Barbara Bel Geddes is amazing as Stewart's ex-lover midge. The only quibble I have for this film is that it is remarkably slow and at times dull. But it picks of at the last hour. Not the master of suspense best, but it rounds up his top five. The plot twist at the end is probably better than the twist in Psycho.
Premise: Stewart, who suffers from vertigo, is assigned to protect Novak.
Vertigo was nominated for two Academy awards.
Grade: 8.7/10 (Great but not the master's best).