slow 1st half, good obsessive 2nd half

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2013)

San Francisco police detective Scottie Ferguson retires after suffering vertigo during a roof top chase. A college friend Gavin Elster is a wealthy shipbuilder who hires him to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak). He thinks she is being possessed. Scottie finds her obsessed with a dead ancestor, and attempting suicide. He rescues her and falls for her.
This movie does move a bit too slow especially in the first half. The difficulty lies in all the following in the car. It's not the most exciting thing to drive around. In a modern movie, those scenes would be severely edited down. It's not like they were exciting car chases.
It's not my favorite Hitchcock movie. I did like James Stewart when he gets obsessive. He's good in that section. As for being too old for the part, that to me seems to work for him in this movie. His obsession becomes more self-destructive. It has a creepiness to it.
I have to admit that I didn't recognize Novak as Judy Barton. It confused me a bit at first. I think people of that era would have an easier time recognizing Kim Novak. As homage to its importance and inventive camera work, I'll add an extra point or else I would have given it 7/10.