Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring James Stewart and Kim Novak.
Possibly Hitchcock's most acclaimed and analyzed film, this is easily one of the most dreamlike of the masterpieces of classical Hollywood. Stewart stars as Scottie, a former police detective with a paralyzing fear of heights, who is hired by an old school friend to tail his wife. Gradually, he becomes obsessed with her, and after she dies under mysterious circumstances, Scottie's affections shift to a shop girl who bears an striking resemblance to the dead woman. All Hitchcock's obsessions are on display here- phobias, chilly blonde women, voyeurism, manipulation- but the difference between this film and many of his other works is that he uses the structure of the story to illuminate these obsessions, particularly in the scene where Scottie transforms the shop girl into the image of his beloved. The film unspools beautifully, capturing you in its spell, and Bernard Herrmann's immortal score is eerily romantic.
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