Vertigo, despite being hailed as Hitch’s masterpiece does not rank among my favourite films by the master of suspense. The story is quite interesting, although you can see the twists coming by a mile. The movie failed at box office and was shunned by critics. I would not agree that this comes down to James Stewart’s age as so many people claim but that the love interest between him and Novak is not believable. However, in my opinion this is due to Kim Novak’s strange performance, especially in the beginning of the film, when her character is “supposed” to be in a state of mental disorder. This kind of throws all the creditability of the character especially when it comes to emotional connection between her and Stewart. The direction was good, although the episodes of James Stewart trailing Novak are quite long and become a bit boring after a while, lacking interesting story elements or slick art direction to make up for. I am not sure why Hitch decided to set the Film in San Francisco instead of Paris, the latter would have suited the whole atmosphere better. My Kudos goes out to Hitch for the great ending which hit my personal taste like the hammer hits the nail, but it might not be everybody’s cup of tea. There was essentially no important supporting cast which is a shame. A best friend would have done the main character good or put more focus on Stewart’s other suitor, as played by Barbara Bel Geddes, her character and the role it plays pretty much vanishes halfway into the movie. I liked the psychedelic sequences, a vanguard of the decade to come and they were perfect means to convey Stewart’s mental state. Still, not my favourite Hitchcock and while it still stands tall over your usual thriller, id recommend many of his other movies first.