Vertigo | 1958

Name: Vertigo | 1958 | Critics.com
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Released: April, 10. 2021
Rating: 5

Updated April 9, 2021

Critical Consensus

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Summary & Info

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A former police detective (James Stewart) suffering from acrophobia and vertigo is hired to follow a woman (Kim Novak), who is supposedly behaving oddly. After they fall in love with each other, he becomes obsessed with her, and after she falls to her death in an apparent suicide, he becomes convinced that she’s still alive. Cast: Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. [2:10 – PG]

Dueling Critics

“Hypnotised and hypnotic, mad and maddening, surely no commercial studio film (admittedly, a commercial and critical flop on its release) has ever offered and withheld such intricacy of intent and interpretation as Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo.’ This strange, frustrating story of a haunted pervert, Hitchcock’s Byronic opus, still evades capture, and refuses to be something it’s not.”

– Rhik Samadder

“The storytelling isn’t up to much. It drags and drags. (The first half is a dull schlep around San Francisco as we follow the world’s most obvious stalker.) It’s riddled with plot holes. It’s creepy, but not in a good way. It manipulates its women and then thrills in coldly punishing them while the men walk away. I have seen ‘Vertigo’ on a number of occasions and every time I like it less.”

– Deborah Ross