Hitchcock at his dizzying best

Rating: 10/10 (5 January 2000)

This is a film to watch again and again, savoring all its complexities and delirious richness. How far can a man go in a quest for a fantasy woman? Why is Scottie compelled so? And what does this movie say about its creator, a guy who continually created fantasy women (and men in dire psychological straits) for us on the screen?
You can think about questions like that, or you can just immerse yourself in the fluid, mesmerizing story that Hitchcock has fashioned. And when Scottie has Judy appear in that hotel room as the reincarnation of his beloved Madeleine and they embrace as the camera circles and Bernard Herrmann's haunting score rises to a crescendo, if you don't feel a rush of empathy and pity and foreboding that rivals anything you've experienced watching any film--well, I guess this isn't your movie, my friend. It just knocks me over....