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intereact!Actors: Isabel Analla, Raymond Bailey, Barbara Bel Geddes, Paul Bryar, and Ellen Corby
Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Retail Price (not our price): $19.98
Release Date: 1998-03-31
Theatrical Release Date: 1958
Studio: Universal Studios
Run Time: 128 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Discs: 1
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com essential video
Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the most recent survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed woman fall ("fall" is indeed the operative word) in love and...well, to give away any more of the story would be criminal. Shot around San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are significant locations) and elsewhere in Northern California (the redwoods, Mission San Juan Batista) in rapturous Technicolor, Vertigo is as lovely as it is haunting. --Jim Emerson
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
1) the fear factor 50 years later [Rating: 4 out of 5]
With fifty feature-length films to his credit, Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) churned out nearly a film a year for the better part of his adult life. 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of Vertigo, a film of dark dreams, obsession of a type that is more like possession, madness, fear, love and guilt. And no small amount of mystery and intrigue until the final minutes. Set in San Francisco, Jimmy Stewart stars as Scotty, a detective who had to retire from the police force because of a traumatic experience with heights. We know what his vertigo begot in the first minutes of the film, but not in the very last scene. Scotty does his college friend Gavin a favor, which is to tail his wife Madeleine who has been "possessed" by the long-dead Carlotta Valdes. That kindness turns out to be a distinctly bad idea. The scenery, the ominous musical score, the now quaint roles of gender and justice, and Hitchcock's genius for mining the depths of the human psyche all make Vertigo well worth watching fifty years on.2) Still keeps its balance [Rating: 4 out of 5]
Vertigo, like many films of the 1950s, is showing its age a bit. The movie conventions of the day -- in which a man follows a strange woman into her hotel room and then strong-arms her into distant buildings -- do seem quite dated (not to say sinister) to modern eyes. Still "Vertigo" retains the creepy charm that Hitchcock intended, and results in a psychological thriller of surprising darkness.Scotty Ferguson is a police detective whose recent near fall from a tall building during a chase gave him an unshakable case of acrophobia and forced his retirement from the force. With plenty of time on his hands, he takes a commission from an old college chum to tail his wife, Madeleine Elster, an attractive blond with an unhealthy interest in a mysterious, long-dead California woman. Unlike her husband, Scotty doesn't believe that the wife is actually possessed by the dead woman's spirit. But he is strangely and increasingly intrigued by her beauty, melancholy and evident suicidal tendencies. After she takes a plunge into San Francisco Bay, the two fall in love, for reasons unclear to me, until tragedy parts them. Scotty, in grief over his lost love, becomes obsessed with her, seeing her in every light-haired woman he meets. Soon, he latches onto red-headed Judy Barton, and can't stop trying to change her, piece by piece, to resemble Madeleine.The premise of romantic obsession is pretty strange, but is quite watchable. Jimmy Stewart handled the role adequately, often seeming unsure of how to express his twisted emotions. I was disappointed that Hitchcock's directorial style left out so much of his characters' emotional development. Perhaps it was acceptable in the '50s for characters to move suddenly from disinterest to obsession, with none of the intermediate stages. But for me it was weird and distracting. Still, I had to admire Kim Novak's range, moving from pathetic to earthy over the course of the film.The neat twist in the middle of the film, coinciding with Stewart's switch from Madeleine to Judy, revived my flagging interest in the movie whose plot line was seemingly set. The abrupt ending did not have the impact it was evidently supposed to have (as indicated by loud and desperate cues from the musical score) but was pleasing enough."Vertigo"'s biggest misstep was Stewart's silly long-lost love interest, Midge, played by Barbara Bel Geddes. That she and Jimmy were old college sweethearts, and that both were unmarried and still palling around years later was hard to believe. I assume that this otherwise unnecessary plot line was added only to titillate (she drew underwear ads!) and as a red herring to suggest a potential love triangle. The "special effect" -- which attempted to depict Stewart's vertiginous malady -- were almost comically obvious, obviously shot with interlocking, telescoping boxes that represented a stairwell.The DVD extras were limited to a viewing of the censor's lame ending to the movie, plus some short descriptions of the movie's psychological aspects. The colorizing was fairly good, except in very dark scenes (including one in which a character was completely obscured) and when one scene faded into another.All told, "Vertigo" was worthwhile to watch. In fifty years, it has lost a bit of its weird punch, but gained more thanks to a change in American culture and film conventions, but it is still entertaining, creepy and worth a watch.3) great movie...but no anamorphic?!?! [Rating: 3 out of 5]
I love Vertigo, and there's no reason for me to go on about how great it is, as everyone else has taken care of it. I'm simply here to gripe that this dvd is not anamorphic which is a shame since it is for one of the most stunning looking films. If you have a standard television, it's a non-issue, but HDTV owners may want to steer clear. It's certainly a picky gripe, but as hdtv's grow more and more popular, i'm sure it is something that others will care about. Of course, most HDTv's can zoom and stretch the image so that it fills up the 16x9 frame (same ratio as the film), but it definitely doesn't have the clarity of an anamorphic transfer.4) "Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere." [Rating: 4 out of 5]
John Ferguson (James Stewart) is a retired cop; he's got a severe case of vertigo and remorse after his friend fell off a building to his death in an attempt to save John. Now, he mopes around the house all day with his admiring friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) in tow, hoping he'll snap out of it. He gets his chance when he is approached by Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), a man concerned about his wife. It seems Madeleine (Kim Novak) has been going into trances and wandering around town. Gavin wants John to follow her around to gauge the severity of the situation and to determine whether she should be institutionalized. John takes the job reluctantly, and begins to fall for Madeleine in the process. She seems to be channelling a doomed ancestor, and John's fondness for her makes him all the more adamant at finding the cause of the problem instead of sending her away. However, things are not as they seem. This is an interesting role for Stewart, who normally plays a wholesome good ol' boy with a heart of gold. His character here is much more realistic, but since he is the eyes of the viewer, he is still likable. John is an imperfect character, so it is an interesting part to see him play. Stewart's blue eyes photograph really strangely so they create a haunting effect, the way blue eyes looked on the silent screen. Hitchcock most likely used this to his advantage to show the viewer that every character is suspect regardless of how pure they seem. There are many twists in the plot, as is typical of Hitchcock. Not all of them are welcome twists. The subject begins with a psychological and paranormal context, but ends in realism. This descent from one extreme to the next is somewhat disappointing, but it is certainly an interesting ride.5) Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Alfred Hitchcock made "Vertigo" at the height of his creative power. I first saw it in 1984, during its first release in almost twenty years, and viewed it over a hundred times since. In 1996, James Katz and Robert Harris painstakingly restored it, and although I have some issues with the restoration of the audio tracks (there are some sound cues missing, a couple obvious tape drop-outs from Herrmann's soundtrack), "Vertigo" would've disappeared without the TLC they put into saving it from total deterioration. It is this restoration that is on this DVD.What really makes "Vertigo" stand out is its synthesis of both pure technique and pure emotion. This is a rare combination in any art form, as the technical is often equated with cold, objective detachment, and emotion is equated with sloppiness.Hitchcock was probably more personally involved with the making of "Vertigo" than any other film, and it shows. Beginning with Madeleine Carroll, Hitch obsessively cast cool blondes as his heroines. Following Carroll were Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich and Anne Baxter. But it was Grace Kelly whom Hitchcock felt most represented ideal woman. She starred in three of his movies ("Dial 'M' For Murder," "To Catch a Thief" and "Rear Window"). When she married Prince Rainier of Monaco, Hitchcock felt the loss deeply, and tried to recreate Grace in the form of other actresses. He attempted to groom Vera Miles to fill Grace Kelly's shoes (literally, Hitch was a foot fetishist you know), but Miles got pregnant as shooting got underway on "Vertigo". Hitch then brought in Kim Novak from Columbia studios, and found an actress with depth, beauty and empathy far beyond what Grace Kelly ever achieved. It is eerie, watching Jimmy Stewart re-create a love lost, realizing all the while that Hitchcock was attempting to recreate and monumentalize his own unrequited love for Grace Kelly. Strangely, Hitch's molding of Tippi Hedren into Grace's double during the filming of "Marnie" (1964) mirrors Stewart's obsessive attempt to bring Madeleine back from the dead.The acting is stellar across the board: Jimmy Stewart's fear, depression and cold sweat come across as real, not as some "method" acting technique. You sense that he brought out a lot of his own hidden fears, desires and obsessions in fleshing out Scotty Ferguson. The supporting actors, Barbara Bel Geddes as Stewart's plain, practical girlfriend, Tom Helmore as the suave, manipulative Gavin Elster and Konstantin Shayne as Pop Liebl, the bookstore owner with a knack for oral history, are all perfectly cast.But what makes "Vertigo" is more than just acting. To have realized this film, Hitchcock's crew was so in-sync with each another that "Vertigo" is experienced as the singular vision of one mind. Samuel Taylor's screenplay, which was worked out in writing sessions with Hitchcock, is intelligent, yet emotional, and the actors' lines resemble poetry more so than everyday conversation. Yet, the lines are delivered naturally.Saul Bass' iconic whirling abstract titles open up the movie and set its tone. You realize that you are in for a movie unlike any other you've experienced.Robert Burks was Hitchcock's cinematographer, and on no other film, was Hitchcock's visual sensibility so keenly felt. Burks was a DP at Warner's, and his impeccable craftsmanship can be seen in such non-Hitchcock movies as "The Fountainhead" (dir: King Vidor) and "The Spirit of St. Louis" (dir: Billy Wilder). But, it was his work with Hitchcock that his potential was most realized, and "Vertigo" has got to be the most beautifully filmed movie ever seen. The infinite perspectives, the jarring angles and the surreal lighting attest to Burks' visual genius. Working with editor George Tomassini, who cut this film really tight, and Technicolor advisor Richard Mueller, "Vertigo" shows what is possible in color moviemaking. The scene in which Kim Novak is dropping broken flower petals into San Francisco bay with the Golden Gate Bridge receding in the distance, silhouetted before a cerulean blue sky is reminiscent of a Vermeer painting, and just as skillfully executed. The interiors were designed by Henry Bumstead, and are expressions in simple elegance. Bumstead had to design the bell tower for the Mission scene, and its staircase is a visual expression of the vertigo that haunts Scottie.Edith Head was Hitch's favorite costume designer, and Kim Novak's severe yet sensuous gray tailored suit is the most beautiful woman's costume I've ever seen in any movie. Much talk is made about how Head won the Oscar for "Sabrina" when Audrey Hepburn was really wearing a Givenchy gown, but Kim Novak's entrance in that gorgeous emerald evening gown always makes every head turn, and makes Hepburn look like a gawky teenager in a rented formal by comparison.But it is Bernard Herrmann's beautifully Romantic and polytonal score that really completes Hitchcock's artistic vision: It is a haunting and obsessive score, and the ostinato of the swirling strings accentuates the vertiginous feelings Robert Burks' complex camerawork instills in the viewer. In the scene in which Scottie finally has recreated Judy in Madeleine's image, the kissing and caressing that is a prelude to their lovemaking is set to Herrmann's Wagnerian "Scene d'Amour," which runs over five minutes with only a few seconds of dialogue. However, Herrmann's scoring was so integral to the film that the scene never seems like a showcase for the music; instead, one can really understand how Hitchcock was a master of silent film, and how Herrmann composed music that was the perfect counterpart to the action onscreen.It is really astounding when one considers how all these masterful artists' talents are so seamlessly woven together. "Vertigo" is truly larger-than-life and unrepeatable, despite its numerous imitations.