Eternally haunting movie, with perfect performances.

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 1999)

I first saw this movie the year it came out; I was 14. I must have seen it at least a half-dozen times since, and it still intrigues me. I thought from the beginning that it was a masterpiece; what took the U.S. critics so long to figure it out? (The Europeans were way ahead of us!) How strange, also, that Kim Novak's performance was trashed by critics; now she is praised. Also, what a tribute it is to her performance and Stewart's that they are totally believable as lovers, though he's a good twenty-five- to thirty years her senior. And Bernard Herrmann's music is so dominant a factor, without overpowering the performances or the story. This, on a scale of 1 to 10, deserves a15.