Skip to content
Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: UDR 90051
- Running time: 124 minutes
- Year: 1958
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 35 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: 5 languages available.
- Subtitles: 11 languages available.
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Trailers, Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers Notes,Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock’s Masterpiece, Feature Commentary,Hitchcock’s Foreign Censorship ending, The Vertigo Archive
Director:
- Alfred Hitchcock
(The Birds, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie, North By Northwest, Psycho, Rope, The Thirty Nine Steps, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo)
Producer:
- Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay:
- Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
(from the novel “…d’Entre les Morts”)
Music:
- Bernard Herrmann
Cast:
- John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson: James Stewart (Airport ’77, The Glenn Miller Story, The Greatest Show on Earth, Harvey, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Mister Smith Goes To Washington, Rope, Vertigo, You Can’t Take It With You)
Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton: Kim Novak (5 Against the House, The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, The Children, Kiss Me Stupid, Liebestraum, The Mirror Crack’d, Pal Joey, Strangers When We Meet, Vertigo)
Marjorie ‘Midge’ Wood: Barbara Bel Geddes (5 Branded Women, By Love Possessed, The Five Pennies, Summertree, Vertigo, TV: Dallas)
Gavin Elster: Tom Helmore (Advise and Consent, Flipper’s New Adventure, Secret Agent, The Tender Trap, The Time Machine, Vertigo)
Vertigois what John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson (James Stewart) begins to suffer from after a rooftopencounter which leaves a policeman dead and himself injured. Upon his recovery, aided bychildhood sweetheart Marjorie ‘Midge’ Wood (Dallas‘ Barbara Bel Geddes),he still hasn’t lost the fear of heights but does want to overcome them.
A retired detective, John is asked by an old friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), tofollow his wife Madeleine (the alluring Kim Novak) as he feels there’s something out there thatcould harm her, but not someone from the present, someone already dead. Reluctantly, Johnagrees.
As the film proceeds, John tries to unravel the mystery including how Madeleine is connectedwith the late Carlotta Valdes. To continue any more would be to spoil the plot, even if it is a 42-year-old film. However, by the end, all will be revealed.
The picture is in the original 1.85:1 ratio and is anamorphic, but despite the restorationprocess it still looks a long way from perfect. For example, the print goes incredibly darkin chapter 9 around the 35-minute mark for no apparent reason and several times, it shimmers.The average bitrate is 6.91Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound is presented in a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack for English language atleast, but it doesn’t seem to fare much different from a standard stereo soundtrack and israrely used except for Bernard Herrmann‘s memorable score.
Extras : Chapters :Breaking the trend with the usual Universal-thru-Columbia releases, there are 35 chaptersspread throughout the 124 minutes. Languages/Subtitles :Originally made in mono, I know that the English language gets a new DolbyDigital 5.1 soundtrack, but I do not know what befalls the French, German,Italian and Castellano (whatever that is 🙂
Subtitles are available for English, French, German, Swedish, Norwegian,Danish, Portuguese, Finnish, Czech, Dutch and Polish.
And there’s more… :There’s a healthy number of extras included.
Apart from the usual Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers Biogs and Filmogs,the two trailers comprise of the Original Theatrical Trailer and the RestorationTrailer.
Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Hitchcock’s Masterpiece is a 30-minute featurettebroken up into many chapters which cast an insight into the restoration process, how the filmwas made originally, costume and production design and the “Vertigo” effect.
An alternative ending can be found in Hitchcock’s Foreign Censorship ending although itjust tacks on a bit that’s unnecessary and The Vertigo Archive is a truckload of stillsand photos from the film and it’s production process. Taking up a separate title on the DVD itselfit stretches to a staggering 415 chapters that can either be stepped through manually, or allowedto progress at their own speed.
Finally, to round off the package is the Feature Commentary containing chat fromassociate producer Herbert Coleman, Restoration Team Robert A. Harris andJames C. Katz and other Vertigo participants.
Menu :Static and silent, but each menu contains stills from the film such as James Stewart hangingfrom the roof at the start of the film. It would’ve been nice to see the famous score playedover these shots.
Overall, well, if I was to diss a Hitchcock film, I’d probably get spat at in the street.However, at just over two hours long the whole affair ran incredibly slowly. As the endcredits began to roll, while I’d been waiting for an ending that would make the time seemworthwhile, all I could think was that it was an absolute load of nonsense, with what seems -in the present day – to be such a contrived ending.
Fans of the film will no doubt snap this up and enjoy the extras though.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.