Vertigo (1958)

The American Film Institute says this is Hitchcock's best film and the 9th greatest movie ever. Other places don't put it quite that high, but most everyone agrees this is one of Hitchcock's best. Let's find out.

Wow! What an amazing movie this was.

Let's start with the plot. Without revealing much detail, there's a guy who develops a fear of heights and has to quit his job in police work. He's hired to follow a guy's wife because the guy thinks there's something wrong with her. That's about all that can be said. This film, like all of Hitchcock's films, is very difficult to explain without completely giving away the plot so suffice it to say the plot is very good.

The acting is pretty good as well. Novak does a good job especially after the midpoint in the film where a major plot twist occurs. James Stewart also delivers a pretty good performance especially in the final scene.

The final scene is quite memorable and somewhat shocking as well. Again, I won't reveal much in the way of plot here but the ending is very well-done.

94/100
A

UP NEXT: Time to switch genres completely. Let's try 1930s gangster movies. Up first is The Petrified Forest.

I just watched this...

Wow! What a great movie! Great plot, great acting, overall a great movie. There's only one other Jimmy Stewart/Hitchcock movie that I haven't seen yet, Rear Window. I really enjoyed Rope and this one and didn't care that much for The Man Who Knew Too Much, so it will be interesting to see how good Rear Window is. It was interesting to see that North By Northwest was written with Jimmy Stewart in mind, but Hitchcock changed his mind and went with Cary Grant.

That went off-topic a little, but catbox already explained the plot.

95/100

I watched this a second time with my sister and her friend. They hated it

catbox_9 wrote:

I watched this a second time with my sister and her friend. They hated it

How can anybody hate anything with James Stewart?

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

I watched this a second time with my sister and her friend. They hated it

How can anybody hate anything with James Stewart?

Because they're stupid

We were going to watch Psycho but my sister's friend had already seen the "good version"....the remake with Vince Vaughn as the villain. The problem with Vertigo was the boring plot and bad acting according to them. My sister knows I like movies and always tries to get me to see modern ones. The thing is every time I come home she tells me what the greatest movie she's ever seen is...it's different every time I see her

Since I started reviewing movies, only 3 movies have been #1 on my personal ranking system. The first movie I saw (Citizen Kane) obviously started out #1. It stayed until The Maltese Falcon which was later passed by M which has been #1 since May 3.

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Back to the movie, did that nun scare you at the end?

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

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Back to the movie, did that nun scare you at the end?

Actually that nun is scarier than everything in Psycho. "Scare" isn't really the right word for all this. More like startled. I mean if all the sudden my light goes out since the bulb died I'm not scared, just startled or surprised. Psycho has a moment that's close, but I'd give the advantage to that nun.

Oh yeah, you need to see Psycho....yesterday!

catbox_9 wrote:

Oh yeah, you need to see Psycho....yesterday!

Was is on yesterday? I want to see that one. Hey, they're showing that tomorrow on TCM! I'll have to get my VCR ready.

Back to Vertigo, what made this movie great was all the twists and turns. As soon as I thought I figured it out, I didn't!

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Oh yeah, you need to see Psycho....yesterday!

Was is on yesterday? I want to see that one. Hey, they're showing that tomorrow on TCM! I'll have to get my VCR ready.

Back to Vertigo, what made this movie great was all the twists and turns. As soon as I thought I figured it out, I didn't!

No, that's an expres​sion(I think). If you really need to do something instead of saying right now you can say yesterday (I guess ).

Hey, tomorrow is close enough to yesterday. As long as you aren't burned out on one-word titled Hitchcock films you'll be fine. I'd rank Psycho either 3rd or 4th among Hitchcock films....NxNW, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train are the others.

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Oh yeah, you need to see Psycho....yesterday!

Was is on yesterday? I want to see that one. Hey, they're showing that tomorrow on TCM! I'll have to get my VCR ready.

Hey, they're also showing the original Angels in the Outfield (9:45AM) and The Naked Spur (12:00AM) tomorrow. I've already seen The Naked Spur, but I know you haven't yet. You need to see that one They're also showing Touch of Evil, should I tape that one too?

catbox_9 wrote:

No, that's an expres​sion(I think). If you really need to do something instead of saying right now you can say yesterday (I guess ).

Hey, tomorrow is close enough to yesterday. As long as you aren't burned out on one-word titled Hitchcock films you'll be fine. I'd rank Psycho either 3rd or 4th among Hitchcock films....NxNW, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train are the others.

Oh yeah, I've used that before :haha:. I need to see Strangers on a Train and re-watch Dial M for Murder.

bobrob2004 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Oh yeah, you need to see Psycho....yesterday!

Was is on yesterday? I want to see that one. Hey, they're showing that tomorrow on TCM! I'll have to get my VCR ready.

Hey, they're also showing the original Angels in the Outfield (9:45AM) and The Naked Spur (12:00AM) tomorrow. I've already seen The Naked Spur, but I know you haven't yet. You need to see that one They're also showing Touch of Evil, should I tape that one too?

My DVR is dead and I have school from 8:30-1, and 6-10:30 (with a 3 hour drive after each block of school) so it won't really work out.

Touch of Evil is supposed to be great. I thought it was good but most people say it was great. I'd say see it. Maybe I wasn't paying proper attention while watching. It's a good follow-up to Psycho as they both star Janet Leigh and they're both in black and white.

bobrob2004 wrote:

and re-watch Dial M for Murder.

See it in 3-D

catbox_9 wrote:

My DVR is dead and I have school from 8:30-1, and 6-10:30 (with a 3 hour drive after each block of school) so it won't really work out.

Still?

catbox_9 wrote:

Touch of Evil is supposed to be great. I thought it was good but most people say it was great. I'd say see it. Maybe I wasn't paying proper attention while watching. It's a good follow-up to Psycho as they both star Janet Leigh and they're both in black and white.

Ok. They're showing it right before Psycho, so I'll be watching it 1st.

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

and re-watch Dial M for Murder.

See it in 3-D

That would be neat! But I don't think I will

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

My DVR is dead and I have school from 8:30-1, and 6-10:30 (with a 3 hour drive after each block of school) so it won't really work out.

Still?

Yep. I'm too lazy to get it fixed. As I'm about ready to move out and only in LA about 1 day a week now I'm going to cancel my cable on Wednesday.

bobrob2004 wrote:

Ok. They're showing it right before Psycho, so I'll be watching it 1st.

That works, too. It has Charlton Heston and Marlene Dietrich - it'll be the first time you've seen them as far as I can remember.

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

and re-watch Dial M for Murder.

See it in 3-D

That would be neat! But I don't think I will

On the DVD special features they talked about it being in 3D. It would be really neat. From time to time theaters in big cities show it in 3D. It doesn't really require any fancy technology - you just need the film (in film format) along with 2 projectors and some 3D glasses which can be found in zillions of places.