June 13, 2008

At 50, Hitchcock's Timeless 'Vertigo' Still Offers a Dizzying Array of Gifts

By DAVID STERRITT

Fifty years ago, Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Vertigo had its American premiere — in San Francisco, naturally, since that's where Hitchcock had filmed it. In his eyes, the city's timeless architecture and undulating streets were the perfect backdrop for a story of murder, treachery, and love so obsessive that the main character's mind spins out of control.

Today the film is widely regarded as a masterpiece of world cinema, but in 1958 its prospects didn't seem so bright.

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