Vertigo (1958)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes

Synopsis:
A retired police detective suffering from acrophobia takes a job following the wife of an old friend who is believed to be possessed.

Impressions:
This is one of Hitchcock's best known films from a director who has a lot of prominent titles under his belt. I won't spoil whether or not it was legitimate, but I wasn't expecting a supernatural angle. Also, I thought I had witnessed the finale of the film when it was just the end of the second act. The third act goes on to turn things around and do some interesting stuff. As Scottie Ferguson, Jimmy Stewart takes his normal good guy persona and does really compelling work turning into an obsessive freak. I liked the dynamic between Scottie and Midge, but unfortunately that ball gets dropped entirely in the third act (though I guess there's no way you could cleanly integrate it in without taking the story in another direction). I was starting to wonder if the eponymous vertigo was even going to play into the story until the false climax of the second act and later the real climax of the third. I also want to note the rather trippy nightmare sequence well before the psychedelic fad of the 60s took hold. I highly recommend giving this one a watch if not adding it to your collection.

Rating:
Watch It