A psychologically fragile detective becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman he's hired to follow.
Alfred Hitchcock was at the peak of his commercial power in the mid-1950's, already a name brand for suspense films with high production values and Hollywood's biggest stars. After three collaborations with style icon Grace Kelly, the actress quit her vocation to marry Prince Rainer of Monaco. Some feel that the director never recovered from this perceived betrayal, and spent years trying to mold other actresses to fill Kelly's absence.
Hitchcock selected a book by two French authors for adaptation, and the material went through several writers before the final script by Samuel Taylor, who discarded previous versions and ignored the novel, working only from Hitchcock's notes.
Previous collaborators returning to work with the director were lead actor James Stewart (in a complex, disturbing role far removed from his "regular-guy" public and cinematic persona), cinematographer Robert Burks, costume designer Edith Head, composer Bernard Herrmann, and production designer Henry Bumstead (all Oscar winners). Younger actress Kim Novak weathered the difficulties of Hitchcock's extremely specific instructions to turn in a memorable dual role.
While much of the film was shot on studio sets, Hitchcock made great use of Bay Area location shooting, and the film is considered to be a valentine to the city of San Francisco, featuring many of is notable landmarks. Scenes in the Big Basin Redwoods State Park and the Mission San Juan Batista were also shot.
The film was not initially popular with audiences or critics (for the most part) compared to previous Hitchcock films, likely because of the story's ethereal atmosphere, and the director's deviation from his standard whodunit schematic. Withdrawn from circulation for many years, the film was received enthusiastically upon re-release in the mid 1980's, restored ten years later, and became widely-regarded as the director's finest achievement.. In August of this year, Vertigo passed Citizen Kane on the highly -respected Sight And Sound international critics' poll to be named the #1 film of all time, a position Kane held since 1952.
Running time is approx. 2 hrs.
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