"You never keep souvenirs of a killing!" -
James Stewart as Scottie Ferguson.
An incredible
movie starring the aforementioned
James Stewart and
Kim Novak that is considered by many to be director
Alfred Hitchcock's greatest masterpiece. The movie has inspired many anothers (
The Sixth Sense?) in some areas such as
cinematography,
score and
location shooting.
Set against the wonderful scenery of
San Fransisco it tells the story of a
police dective (Stewart) who has found out that he has
acrophobia after
a shocking experience that led to a co-worker's death. Hence the title of the film.
He retires from the force and decides to become a
private eye at the beckoning of an old "
college chum." His former friend wants Stewart to follow his wife because she appears to be going into strange
trances and living the life of one of her
ancestoral relatives. Stewart decides to take the job and...the rest of the
suspenseful movie is born. There's
murder,
intrigue,
lies,
love, and
obsession.
The
movie was a failure by critics during its release in
1958, but over time many of those same critics have had complete reversals in noticing the quality of the film. Among Hitchcock fans it is a
cult classic.
Running Time: 2 hrs. 8 mins.
Color
Rated PG
The
film is available in
widescreen,
pan and scan, and
DVD from
Universal Home Video that has been restored and remastered.