Vertigo

Origin: U.S(Alfred J. Hitchcock, Paramount) 1958
Length: 128 minutes
Format: Technicolor
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Samuel A. Taylor, Alec Coppel, from the novel d'Entre les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
Photography: Robert Burks
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, Konstantin Shayne, Lee Patrick
Oscar nominations: Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer, Frank R. McKelvy(art direction), George Dutton(sound)
Links:Vertigo Wiki, d'Entre les Morts Wiki

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Though director Alfred Hitchcock was then at the height of his critical success and commercial fame, Vertigo was not a well-liked film at the time of its release. Most criticism focused on the intricate and unlikely plot dependent on a fiendishly implausible murder scheme on the part of a thinly characterized villain, whose exposure is about as much of a surprise as the ending of your average Scooby-Doo episode. The climax is so concerned with something else that the killer seems to get away with it-though Hitchcock shot an unnecessary tag, in the spirit of his TV narrations, to reveal that he was brought to justice. Closer to the mark, there was a genuine feeling of discomfort at the nasty little relationship between Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak around which the film turns. But during a lengthy period in which Vertigo was unavailable for copyright reasons, the film was critically reassessed. Now it is held to be one of the Master's greatest works.