Vertigo

Watched: 26th November 2015

Top 250 Position : 70
Rating: 8.4/10 from 231,533 users              
Source IMDb.com, correct at 5th Janaury 2016

Who's in it:
James Stewart
Kim Novak
Barbara Bel Geddes
Tom Helmore
Henry Jones

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock

Year: 1958

Duration: 2 Hours 8 Minutes

Accolades: Nominated for two Oscars (Best Art Direction- Set decoration and Best Sound)

Plot: After watching a fellow police officer fall to his death, John 'Scottie' Ferguson (Stewart) is suffering from acrophobia (a fear of heights). An old friend (Helmore) asks him to watch his wife (Novak) who he believes has been acting suspiciously. As Ferguson undertakes his task he becomes obsessional about her, is this obsession healthy, and is everything as it seems? 

Interesting facts about the movie:
- There is a 25 year age difference between James Stewart and Kim Novak, who were 49 and 24 respectively when the film was shot in 1957.
- Alfred Hitchcock was embittered at the critical and commercial failure of the film in 1958. He blamed this on James Stewart for "looking too old" to attract audiences any more. Hitchcock never worked with Stewart, previously one of his favorite collaborators, again.
- Uncredited second-unit cameraman Irmin Roberts invented the famous "zoom out and track in" shot (now sometimes called "contra-zoom" or "trombone shot") to convey the sense of vertigo to the audience. The view down the mission stairwell cost $19,000 for just a couple of seconds of screen time.
- Poorly received by U.S. critics on its release, this film is now hailed as Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece.
- On-location filming lasted 16 days.
(Source IMDb.com)

Review:
Well I have never seen a Hitchcock film before and I have to admit when the sinister title sequence kicked in I was a little bit apprehensive.
But my goodness this movie is very good.

It is full of intrigue, suspense and drama with lots of unexpected twists and turns.

After watching this I would feel happy to watch another Hitchcock movie. So I best start working my way through the top 250 a bit quicker because I know there are a few in there.

So on to the acting, both Novak and Stewart are very well used in this movie, I don't quite see what some do that Stewart was too old for this romantic part. If anything I think it adds to the obsessional side of his character's personality.
I only really know James Stewart from a handful of movies unfortunately but I think again I'm going to actively try to watch more of his movies.

The sound track is very haunting which adds to the suspense and drama of the whole movie.

You might even say that this uses a modern way of filming i.e the panning shots, circling around the characters; which from reading more into this movie seems to be the brain child of a member of the crew who went uncredited, Irmin Roberts. Well done Mr Roberts.

Added to this it really didn't seem like it was just over 2 hours. The time flew by.

This truly is a haunting and romantic thriller which I would recommend to anyone who has not yet seen it. Worthy of its place in the top 250 and I'm glad to see it has only moved one place since I watched it in November (when it was ranked #69).

For more infoamtion about the film have a look at the IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1