Haunting

Rating: 10/10 (1 February 2000)

There is so much to this movie that an amateur watcher like myself can not come close to doing it justice, but I'll try. This movie is one of the 10 best of all time, and without a doubt Hitchcock's best. Here are the top things about it. 1. The Themes: The theme of Madeliene (The gorgeous Kim Novak in an absolutely haunting performance)getting her mind inhabited from a lost woman of a past, the theme of Scottie (Jimmie Stewart in an equally impressive performance) falling hopelessly in love with this shadow of a woman he knows so little about and becomes obsessed with rescuing her, and finally, the theme of Judy, who to Scottie is a portrait of Madeleine, a voice calling to him from beyond the grave, but possibly most importantly, the theme of Scottie's vertigo, which prevents him from "Saving" his love that final run up the church tower 2. The Beauty: The movie was nominated for a Best Art Direction Oscar. I have no idea what it lost to, but I'm sure Vertigo was more worthy of it. Hitchcock's "San Francisco" is as haunting as the rest of the movie, from it's ironically beautiful graveyards to the shape of the church from which Madeleine takes the deadly plunge. It is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen 3. THE SCORE: This is the most important of all of them. The one reason that movies like Psycho and North By Northwest are better in my opinion than movies like Rear Window and Rebecca is the fact that Psycho and North By Northwest had shrieking Bernard Hermann scores, the most memorable of all movie scores (Taxi Driver was also a highlight for him). But VERTIGO is the best of all of them. Vertigo's score almost makes us feel like we are Scottie, so confused, so sad, and yet so scared. It is the most memorable of all movie scores, even more the so then the more famous Psycho score.
See this movie---it is one of the most wonderful experiences you can enjoy.