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| Vertigo (Collector's Edition) |
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List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $13.64
You Save: $6.34 (32%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $11.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 289 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1275
Category: DVD
Actors: Kim Novak, James Stewart
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Label: Universal Studios
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 128 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0783226055
UPC: 025192018329
EAN: 0025192018329
ASIN: 0783226055
Release Date: March 31, 1998
Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 1958
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential video
Although it wasn't a box-office success when originally released in 1958, Vertigo has since taken its deserved place as Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, most spellbinding, most deeply personal achievement. In fact, it consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound international critics poll, placing at number 4 in the most recent survey. (Universal Pictures' spectacularly gorgeous 1996 restoration and rerelease of this 1958 Paramount production was a tremendous success with the public, too.) James Stewart plays a retired police detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (a superb Kim Novak, in what becomes a double role), whom he suspects of being possessed by the spirit of a dead madwoman. The detective and the disturbed woman fall ("fall" is indeed the operative word) in love and...well, to give away any more of the story would be criminal. Shot around San Francisco (the Golden Gate Bridge and the Palace of the Legion of Honor are significant locations) and elsewhere in Northern California (the redwoods, Mission San Juan Batista) in rapturous Technicolor, Vertigo is as lovely as it is haunting. --Jim Emerson
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Customer Reviews: Read 284 more reviews...
 Alfred Hitchcock at his best. June 19, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What can I say that hasn't already been said by the other reviewers, this film is a Hitchcock masterpiece and is considered to be one of his greatest achievments. The film is about how far a person can be pushed by obsession and whether it can take us over the edge of sanity, James Stewart does a great job with his role as a retired detective who is acrophobic has a fear of heights, he is hired to follow the wife of an old friend but then becomes increasingly obsessed by the beautiful blonde played by the brilliant actress Kim Novak. The woman actualy thinks that shes possessed by a ghost or old spirit called Carlota and as you'll see in one of the paintings in the art gallery she has the same hair and wears the same necklace, this being a Hitchcock film nothing is what it seems and there are plenty of twists and turns and the suspence is at an all time high. This film is a murder mystery as well as a romantic drama and it also helps that the music done by Bernard Herman is absolutely amazing and it feels very emotional. If you've seen Hitchcock's other films like Psycho, The birds or Rear window then its obvious that you need to watch this its fantastic and one of the greatest films ever made, everything from the direction to the memorable and weird dream sequence and the script is 100% pure genius. I got this film along with the Hitchcock collection boxset from Amazon.co.uk and I thought it was worth it now all I need is to get To catch a thief which I also heard was pretty good. Overall Vertigo was both very suspencefull and thrilling and is probably the one Hitchcock film that stands out from his other great films with all due respect it is absolutely perfect and I highly recommend this.
You Were a Very Apt Pupil June 2, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The script has James Stewart deliver this line not once but twice near the end of this once-in-a-lifetime movie.
The observation underscores a simultaneous strength and weakness of the movie. How plausible is it that someone could be so overtaken by a "job" of assuming someone else's identity, for money or love, that they would complete that job with such conviction? However, the movie's acceptance of that plausibility is itself questioned by Stewart's pleading and accusatory statement.
"You did such a good job that you convinced me to love the person you became," he says to her in these lines.
But the movie's greatest resonance is that we all do this when we fall in love. Love's noblest outcome is that the lover strives to become everything her partner comes to desire, and can define no other role for herself than the one she has assumed. "Why couldn't you learn to love just me instead of the person I imitated to gain your love?"
The timeless quality of this film is that, in the coldest and seemingly most hopeless terms, Hitchcock tells us, honestly and simply, that romantic love is mutual deception at best and narcissism at worst.
If you don't get scared off the tower by an approaching nun, try jumping off...
This sounds really depressing, but underneath that is the film's haunting and puzzling final visual image, Stewart is unafraid to look down, and see reality for what it is. He is cured of his illusions and, nasty as that shock was, he is now healthy. Hitch's message is that delusions, even romantic delusions, help nobody, and that honesty is much, much better than overadaptive madness.
One of the best movies I have ever seen May 20, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have recently got into watching Hitchcock movies; this was the fifth I watched and by far the greatest one so far (and one of the greatest of all movies I have ever seen). Jimmy Stewart plays his part even better than in Rear Window, and this was the first time I had seen Kim Novak in a movie - she was wonderful! At first I expected her to be a pretty face and an enticing voice, but she was so much more than that, proving to be a versatile actress, in a demanding role!
The movie kept me hooked throughout - I forgot where I was; nothing mattered but the film. In typical Hitchcock style, the film is thrilling and mysterious, and leaves you changing your mind about the plot every few minutes. He knew exactly how to keep you guessing and keep you enthralled.
See this if you haven't already - they don't make 'em like this anymore!
Alluring Kim Novak drives Stewart to the end. May 15, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For me the most amazing movie. James Stewart follows his obsession with a gripping and credible determination.
The scenery and photography are fabulous. The twists and turns in the story are spellbinding and reach a dramatic climax.
Kim Novak for me is the most amazing and alluring actress. Her part in the movie not only is mysterious but it is compelling to see the way she is torn between two competing desires. The one to keep a dreadful secret and the other to love and be loved. Enough to drive James Stewart on to the end.
She is the kind of woman most men are drawn to instinctively.
Hitchcock's Masterpiece. May 7, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
By far the best of all Hitchcock's films, in my opinion, and I've seen them all. Kim Novak shines.
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