Great film if you don't think too much about the plot

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2019)

'Scottie' Ferguson (Jimmy Stewart) is a retired detective with the titular disability who has been hired to follow beautiful but unstable Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak). Needless to say, nothing is as it seems. Hitchcock's direction is excellent as usual, the music moody, the cinematography is outstanding (especially the famous 'vertigo' scenes on the bell-tower stairs) and the plot is clever, albeit far-fetched (significant suspension of belief is require to buy into Ferguson's growing obsessions and his target's response). Jimmy Stewart is fine playing his standard stammering, low-key every-man but, at twice Novak's age, the 'magic' between them is a bit hard to swallow. Although I liked Barbara Bel Gedde's "Midge', I'm unsure as to why the character was included. 'Vertigo' is more an entertaining yarn than a brilliant psychological drama, but well worth watching.