My Favorite Movie

My favorite movie is Alfred Hitchcocks' Vertigo. By the age of 23 I was already a Hitchcok enthusiast and had seen Psycho, The Birds, To Catch a Thief, Dial M For Murder, Strangers on A Train, North By Northwest and other classics many times. But Vertigo, along with Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble With Harry and Rope had been unvailable for years and they had become the Holy Grail for Hitchcock fans.The films had been out of distribution for because of legal problems. In 1983 the issues were resolved and the film was re-released to theatres and I had the opportunity to see it and fall in love with it.

When I first saw Vertigo I did not know it had been considered a failure upon it's initial release in 1958. It received mixed reviews from critics and audience reponse was tepid. This was one of Hitchcock's most personal films and he blamed the casting of Stewart at the age of 50, and new comer Kim Novack for the films failure.

Since it's release in the 80's the film has been viewed and hailed as a masterpiece and is considered Hitchcock's crowning achievement. It is regularly named in the Top 10 of all time best movies.

I saw the film at the Hicksville Fox Plaza North and South and then in 1984 I bought my first home video copy on RCA Videodisc. The film was not letterboxed (I didn't even know what letterboxing was). I have since watched the film many times and I always found something new.

It was a revelation in 1996 when a "restored" version of the film was released to theatres and then home video. I saw the restored version at the Ziegfeld Theatre (one of my favorites in NYC) and then purchased the laser-disc version. This new version was almost like seeing the film for the first time. Both the use of color and the musical score really seemed to come alive.

When I saw the film in '83 I fell in love with the city of San Francisco. Sadly you can no longer stand under the Golden Gate Bridge, the way Madeline does, but you can still visit most the locations used in the film.

I own a DVD copy of the restored version and I am sure I will purchase a Blu-ray when it comes out. I never grow tired of watching this movie. The haunting score is one of my favorite pieces of film music. Hitchcock's tale of love and obsession is a timeless classic and my all time favorite movie.