Vertigo [1958]

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1957
Running Times: 128 mins     129 mins [1996 restored version]
Format: Technicolor     35mm      70mm [1996 restoration from the VistaVision originals]
Ratio: 1.85:1     Vistavision      Super VistaVision [1996 restoration]
Sound: DTS [1996 re-release]     Westrex

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions / Paramount Pictures
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer [1996 Restoration]: James C. Katz
Associate Producer: Herbert Coleman

SCRIPT
Script: Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor [NOTE: Coppel didn't actually write any of the script but is credited for contractual reasons]
Novel: D'entre les morts by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac

DIRECTION
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Assistant Director: Daniel McCauley

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Robert Burks
Colour Consultant: Richard Mueller
Cameras: Mitchell VistaVision Cameras
Labs: DeLuxe, Hollywood, California, USA [1996 restoration]

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: George Tomasini

MUSIC
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Conductor: Muir Mathieson

SOUND
Sound: Winston H. Leverett, Harold Lewis
Supervising Sound Editor [1996 Restoration]: Richard Legrand Jr [uncredited]
Assistant Sound Editor [1996 Restoration]: Samuel Webb [uncredited]
Foley Editor [1996 Restoration]: Michael Ferdie [uncredited]
Sound Effects Editor [1996 Restoration]: William Hooper [uncredited]

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Wally Westmore
Hair: Nellie Manley
Costume Designer: Edith Head

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: John P. Fulton
Special Sequence: John Ferren
Process Photography: Farciot Edouart, W. Wallace Kelley
Cinesite Digital Restoration Producer: Scott Dougherty [uncredited]
Cinesite Digital Restoration Supervisor: Jerry Pooler
Cinesite Digital Restoration Co-Ordinator: Tiffany Smith

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead
Set Decorators: Sam Comer, Frank R. McKelvy
Title Desiger: Saul Bass
Titles: John Whitney

MISCELLANEOUS
1996 Reconstruction and Restoration: Robert A. Harris

LOCATIONS
Locations: San Francisco, California, USA; South of San Juan Bautista, California, USA; Empire Hotel [now the York Hotel], 940 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California, USA; Brocklebank Apartments, 2000 Mason Street, San Francisco, California, USA

CAST
James Stewart [John 'Scottie' Ferguson]
Kim Novak [Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton]
Barbara Bel Geddes [Marjorie 'Midge' Wood]
Tom Helmore [Gavin Elster]
Henry Jones [coroner]
Raymond Bailey [Scottie's doctor]
Ellen Corby [manageress of McKittrick hotel]
Konstantin Shayne [Pop Leibel]
Lee Patrick [older mistaken identity]
John Benson [salesman - uncredited]
Margaret Brayton [Ransohoff's saleslady - uncredited]
Paul Bryar [Captain Hansen - uncredited]
Roxann Delman [Ransohoff's model - uncredited]
Mollie Dodd [beautician - uncredited]
Carlo Dotto [Ernie's bartender - uncredited]
Bess Flowers [uncredited]
Joanne Genthon [Carlotta Valdez - uncredited]
Don Giovanni [salesman - uncredited]
Roland Gotti [maitre d' at Ernie's - uncredited]
Fred Graham [death fall officer - uncredited]
Buck Harrington [Elster's gateman - uncredited]
Alfred Hitchcock [man walking past boatyard - uncredited]
June Jocelyn [Miss Woods - uncredited]
Miliza Milo [saleswoman - uncredited]
Julian Petruzzi [San Francisco flower seller - uncredited]
William Remick [jury foreman - uncredited]
Jack Richardson [escort - uncredited]
Bruno Santina [waiter at Ernies - uncredited]
Nina Shipman [younger mistaken identity - uncredited]
Dori Simmons [middle-aged mistaken identity - uncredited]
Ed Stevlingson [inquest attorney - uncredited]
Sara Taft [nun - uncredited]
Isabel Analla, Jack Ano [bit parts - uncredited]

San Francisco detective Scottie Fergusson is traumatised by the death of acolleague who falls to his death during a rooftop chase when Scottie succumbs to a serious attack of vertigo and acrophobia. Forced to retire from the police, he finds himself hired as a private detective by Gavin Elster, an old college friend who wants Scottie to to track his wife Madeleine whose behaviour is becoming increasingly strange and obsessive. But Scottie finds himself drawn into a bizarre plot that sees him falling for Madeleine, losing her in an accident then trying to recreate her in lookalike Judy.

A quite extraordinary film that brilliantly balances commercial concerns with an arthouse sensibility. The dreamlike quality of the film and its unflinching exploration of obsession and the exposing of deep psychological flaws in all of the leading characters alienated many in the late 50s and staggeringly this masterpiece was virtually 'lost' for many years. Its restoration has returned to us Hitchcock's finest work, a haunting, deeply strange film that remains more thought-provoking than any other of his films. Quite simply, one of the finest films ever made.

Germany
DVD Distributor: Universal [31165- Collector's Edition]

Portugal
Theatrical Distributor: Atalanta Filmes [1996 restored version]

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount Pictures; Universal Pictures [1984 re-release]; Alfred J. Hitchcock Trust / Universal Pictures [1996 re-release]
Video Distributor: MCA
Laserdisc Distributor: Pioneer [PLFEB 37111]; MCA Home Video [43212]; [42941 - 1996 Restoration]; [40082]
DVD Distributor: Universal [20183 - Collector's Edition]

Finland
Rating: K-16 [1958] K-12/9 [1995 and 1997]

France
Rating: U

Germany
Rating: 12

Norway
Rating: 15

Portugal
Rating: M/12

Sweden
Rating: 15

USA
Rating: PG

AWARDS

1958
San Sebastián International Film Festival
Silver Seashell [Alfred Hitchcock] - winner
Zulueta Prize: Best Actor [James Stewart - tied with Kirk Douglas for The Vikings [1958]] - winner

1959
Academy Awards, USA
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color [Henry Bumstead, Sam Comer, Frank R. McKelvy, Hal Pereira] - nominated
Best Sound [George Dutton (Paramount SSD]] - nominated

1989
National Film Preservation Board, USA
Added to the National Film Registry

1996
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Most Distinguished Re-issue - winner

1957
September
30: USA - filming begins

December
19: USA - filming ends

1958
May
9: USA - theatrical premiere in San Francisco

December
19: Finland - theatrical release

1959
January
13: Portugal - theatrical release

February
3: West Germany - theatrical release

March
16: Sweden - theatrical release

1960
January
4: Denmark - theatrical release
4: Greece - theatrical release

1996
May
5: UK - shown at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London [on a double bill with Victim [1961]]

October
4: USA - theatrical release [restored version]

1997
March
13: New Zealand - theatrical release [restored version]

April
22: USA - laserdisc release [MCA Home Video [42941 - 1996 Restoration]]
25: UK - theatrical release [restored version]

June
13: Norway - theatrical release [restored version]
18: USA - laserdisc release [MCA Home Video [43212]]
20: Denmark - theatrical release [restored version]

September
12: Finland - theatrical release [restored version]

1998
March
Day Unknown: USA - laserdisc release [Pioneer [PLFEB 37111]]
31: USA - DVD release [Universal [20183 - Collector's Edition]]

April
17: Portugal - theatrical release [restored version]

1999
January
26: Hungary - video release [restored version]

May
2: Germany - DVD release [Universal [31165- Collector's Edition]]

Alfred Hitchcock engulfs you in a whirlpool of terror and tension!

From Among the Dead - working title
Illicit Darkening - working title
Listen Darkling - working title
Vertigo - Aus dem Reich der Toten - German title

SEE ALSO
Abre los ojos [1997]
Basic Instinct [1992]
Batman [1989]
Body Double [1984]
Dark City [1998]
Dellamorte dellamore [1994]
Dressed to Kill [1980]
Free Enterprise [1998]
The Game [1997]
The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys [1996]
High Anxiety [1977]
Huihun ye [1962]
In the Line of Fire [1993]
Jaws [1975]
La Jetée [1962]
Last Embrace [1979]
The Legend of Lylah Clare [1968]
Lola rennt [1998]
Lost Highway [1997]
Matador [1986]
The Matrix [1999]
Mission: Impossible II [2000]
Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann [1992]
Obsession [1976]
Psycho III [1986]
Raising Cain [1992]
Re-Animator [1985]
Scream 3 [2000]
Shrek [2001]
La sindrome di Stendhal [1996]
Spy Kids [2001]
Twelve Monkeys [1995]
Wakko's Wish [1999]

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies [1998]
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius [1999]
Obsessed with Vertigo [1997]

MAGAZINES

The Dark Side no.73 [June/July 1998] p.21 [UK]
review

NEWSPAPERS

Correio da Manha 17 April 1998
review [by Vitoriano Rosa]

Diário de Notícias [17 April 1998]
review [bt Nuno Henrique Luz]

Diário de Notícias, DNmais [18 April 1998]
review [by Joao Antunes]

Empire September 1994 p.69
review

Empire May 1997 p.50
review [by Jake Hamilton]

Film Review May 1997 p.25
review [by Anwar Brett]

Positif no.400 [June 1994]
article [A free replay (notes sur Vertigo) by Chris Marker]

Total Film May 1997 p.98
review [by Simon Cox]

Trafic no.22 [Summer 1997]
review [Vertigo ou les puissances de l'imaginaire by Jean-Luc Alpigiano]

TV Times 19 December 1987 - 1 January 1988 pp.12, 75
review; credits, synopsis

BOOKS

The BFI Companion to Crime p.338
credits, review

The Films of Alfred Hitchcock - David Sterritt [Cambridge University Press (1993)]
article

Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic - Dan Auiler [St Martins Press (1998)]
illustrated production details

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.522
credits

vertigo, churches, phobias, obsession, flowers, forests, beaches, bridges, detectives, towers, book into film, swimming, graveyards, eyes, hair, san francisco, impostors, shipyards, acrophobia, suicide, bells, bell towers, men's clubs, portraits, hotels

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007