Vertigo (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock was considered the master of suspense, with almost every movie he made. And for a very good reason. His films always kept the audience guessing, keeping them on the edge of their seats, and wondering what was going to happen next. Plus, there was always a hint of tension with each production Hitchcock worked on, giving the audience something to be invested in. With 1958's “Vertigo”, which could be argued as Hitchcock's greatest masterpiece, is a prime example of what he brought forth to the big screen. However, there are a couple of issues surrounding the film, but the majority of the movie is definitely worth checking out. “Vertigo” may not be the master's greatest work, but it is definitely one of his finest.

The story involves a San Francisco cop named John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart), who has acrophobia, or a fear of heights resulting in vertigo, causing the sensation of being dizzy. Hence the title. One day, an old friend asks John to spy on his wife, whose behavior has suddenly changed. The wife, Madeline (Kim Novak), is overseen by John, who wants to learn more about her, yet becomes slightly attractive to her in the process. What follows next is, John soon realizes that Madeline might be involved with something even bigger.

For many aspects the film has, “Vertigo” can be considered a high class mystery that lives up to the genre.

For starters, the story is one of most invested narratives that audiences will thoroughly enjoy. It keeps the audience guessing as to what might happen next, until the big final reveal at the end of it all. Especially, considering that the film runs at a little over two hours in length. However, in order to fill the void, we have a brilliant orchestrated score from Bernard Herrmann that more than enough sets the tone of the movie. Complemented with the brilliant direction of Hitchcock, who sets up the scenes with great detail, one has to wonder how he did it.

Take, for example, the opening scene of the movie. It perfectly sets the mood for the character of John, and details some great camera work, including the panning and zooming out of the background creating the vertigo effect.

Fortunately, this can be attributed to the brilliant set design, and cinematography representing a nice glimpse into the 1950s. Plus, the costumes fit well onto each actor and actress giving a nice nostalgic look to the film.

Finally, both Stewart and Novak deliver some great performances, that truly make “Vertigo” a classic. In fact, this film right here, just may be one of their best movies of all time.

With that being said, there is one major and minor problem presented with the movie. The minor problem is that the story does get somewhat jumbled in the middle, where things do get complicated and major plot elements occur, and there are certain plot points which do not have a clear conclusion. More importantly, there's a subplot involving John and his girlfriend which starts off nicely in the beginning, but doesn't seem to go anywhere near the conclusion.

The major problem is with the film's pacing; it's slow and definitely drags like a rock moving across the road. However, the film does use this as an advantage to keep the progression of the story more in tact, but it just feels that if there had been some more fast sections, then it would have been fine.

Overall, “Vertigo” is a great movie from Alfred Hitchcock, despite it not being his masterpiece, and yet, is still a classic nonetheless.