Hitchcock exposes himself!

In one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest and most complex films, Jimmy Stewart is in peak form playing a man obsessed who is also a former detective afflicted acrophobia. Asked to keep an eye on the wife (Novak) of a friend (Tom Helmore), things go awry when he actually meets and falls for the wife, and the feeling is mutual. And is then unable to stop her falling to her death from a bell tower due to his acrophobia, which leads to Vertigo. Some time later, a tortured Stewart catches a glimpse of a woman (also Novak) who looks strikingly similar to the love he lost. Who is she?...Is the whole thing just a dream, perhaps?

And that's all of the plot you're going to get out of me, though the film has been much discussed and analysed over the years, surprises should still remain as such.
Whether you see this film as Hitchcock's admission that he had the like TOTAL hots for Grace Kelly and everything, it's still a damn fine movie without such a reading. This is without question the Master's most personal, and possibly most thought-provoking and disturbing film. And yet, it stars everyone's favourite movie star, Jimmy Stewart. And he's absolutely shattering in this film, a truly gut-wrenching performance as a man whose affliction prevented him not only from doing his job (keeping an eye on Novak), but from saving the woman he dearly and obsessively loves. His 'Scottie' Ferguson is one of the most memorable screen characters, a likeable but tragic figure, whose outrage of the whole thing the audience shares. On first viewing, you probably won't have a clue as to the conclusion, and you're unraveling the mystery with 'ol Jimmy all the way. Also worth mentioning, by the way, is the lovely Barbara Bel Geddes, as another of Hitch's perky, glasses-wearing girls, ala Patricia Hitchcock in "Strangers on a Train".

Excellent title design by Saul Bass and one of Bernard Herrmann's most haunting scores, plus some brilliant, still-discussed cinematographer (by one of the best in the business)Robert Burks (the lighting and colour, especially the 'Green' that Quentin Tarantino seems to love so much, is superb, especially in the recently restored print), help create one of The Master's standout works.