The Critics' Corner on VERTIGO

"The measure of a great director lies in his ability to inspire his associates to rise above their usual competence and Hitchcock exhibits absolute genius in doing this in Vertigo [1958]...Stewart gives what I consider the finest performance of his career as the detective. He portrays obsession to the point of mania without the least bit of hamming or scenery chewing. The skill with which Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor constructed their screenplay, proves two things - 1) that an audience will buy any startling change in human behavior if you give it time (with montages and subtle buildups) to believe the transitions and: 2) that a murder mystery can be the greatest form of emotional drama if one concentrates on the feelings of the characters rather than the plot mathematics - Vertigo is one of the most fascinating love stories ever filmed." - Jack Moffitt, The Hollywood Reporter, May 12, 1958.

"Vertigo is prime though uneven Hitchcock. James Stewart, on camera almost constantly, comes through with a startlingly fine performance as the lawyer-cop who suffers from acrophobia. Kim Novak, shopgirl who involves Stewart in what turns out to be a clear case of murder, is interesting under Hitchcock's direction¿ Unbilled is the city of San Francisco, photographed extensively and in exquisite color. Through all of this runs Alfred Hitchcock's directorial hand, cutting, angling and gimmicking with mastery. Unfortunately, even that mastery is not enough to overcome one major fault --- that the film's first half is too slow and too long. This may be because: (1) Hitchcock became overly enamored of the vertiginous beauty of Frisco; or (2) the screenplay just takes too long to get off the ground. By [the end] Vertigo is more than two hours old, and it's questionable whether that much time should be devoted to what is basically only a psychological murder mystery." - Variety, May, 1958.

"Hitchcock has dabbled in a new, for him, dimension: the dream - but he has taken too long to unfold it. The twice-told theme, hard to grasp at best, bogs down further in a maze of detail; and the spectator experiences not only some of the vertigo afflicting James Stewart, the hero, but also - and worse - the indifference." - Phillip K. Scheuer, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1958.

"Alfred Hitchcock, who produced and directed this thing, has never before indulged in such farfetched nonsense." - John McCarten, The New Yorker, June 7, 1958.

"Unfortunately, the story, as adapted for the screen comes off less praiseworthy, for most of the time the picture is not a little confusing. The story line is not easy to follow...Vertigo is technically a topnotch film. Story wise, little can be said. Hitchcock does as well as he can, considering the script, in a directorial capacity. Vertigo is not his best picture." - The Los Angeles Citizen-News, May 29, 1958.

"Brilliant but despicably cynical view of human obsession and the tendency of those in love to try to manipulate each other...The bleakness is perhaps a little hard to swallow, but there's no denying that this is the director at the very peak of his powers, while Novak is a revelation. Slow but totally compelling." - Geoff Andrew, TimeOut Movie Guide.

"Why has a film dismissed by the keenest minds of 1958 become an icon of modern cinema? Were they crazy or are we? Or is it simply that Vertigo defines the concept of art that is ahead of its time, a motion picture whose virtues resonate much more strongly with contemporary viewers than they could have done four decades past...what connects most impressively to today's audiences is the strange darkness of Vertigo's themes, its moments of obsessive eroticism, its tipping of the hat to sadism, masochism, fetishism, necrophilia, and more garden-variety neuroses. The film's continued ability to unsettle and disconcert without resorting to graphic visuals underlines how modern and timeless its themes and execution remain." - Kenneth Turan, The A List: The National Society of Film Critics' 100 Essential Films.

"What attracted Hitchcock to the project is that Scottie wants to indulge in necrophilia by resurrecting a dead woman and making love to her. He's also showing through Scottie how many directors can turn a simple girl like Kim Novak into a haunting screen presence. Hitchcock sets up distinctions between elegant Madeleine and Judy and between Madeleine and Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), the pert, down-to-earth fiancée whom Scottie dumps for Madeleine. Hitchcock states that, given a choice of women, men are so weak they'll always pick the helpless over the independent, the attractive over the plain, the frigid over the accessible, and the illusionary over the real." - Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic.

"¿this is certainly one of Hitchcock's most poetic films, a meditation on the destructive power of romantic illusion." - Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films

"Less a performance than a helpless confession of herself, Novak's contribution to [Vertigo] is one of the major female performances in the cinema. Among its many themes, Vertigo is about a rough young woman who gives a superb performance as a kind of Grace Kelly blind to being watched, and then finds herself trapped. The "Judy" in Vertigo loves Scottie, but it is her tragedy that she can only meet his desire for her by returning to the dream woman, "Madeleine." Vertigo contains a very subtle analysis of the ordeal and the self-obliteration in acting, and it works all the better because Novak was so direct, unschooled, and slavelike." - David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.

"It's remarkable that, considering all its plot twists, Vertigo should work even better after a first viewing. Once the secret's out, it's a completely different film, and a better one - no longer a harrowing ghost story, it is a profound study of sexual obsession, tied together by the city which best displays the essential acrophobic metaphor." - Scott Simmon, The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers.

"A film as unsettling as the phobias it deals with, keeping its audience dizzy and off balance throughout." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

Awards and Honors

Vertigo received only two Oscar® nominations in 1959. They were for Best Sound and for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration. Hitchcock was also nominated for the Best Director award by the Directors Guild of America.

Not given its due reward at the time of release, Vertigo has received the highest of praise in recent years. It was placed on the National Film Registry in 1989, and in 2002 it was named the 2nd best film ever made (behind Citizen Kane, 1941) on Sight and Sound's every-ten-year survey of international film critics.

Compiled by John M. Miller & Jeff Stafford