![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/v/vertigo.jpg)
Vertigo: Collector's Edition
Believed to be the greatest Hitchcock film of all time by a consensus of film historians, the 1958 Vertigo is a monumental cinematic achievement — even though the slower pace of the film and dearth of spine-tingling suspense has left many Master of Suspense fans a little confused. Jimmy Stewart stars as a San Francisco private detective who is hired by an old friend to follow his wife (Kim Novak), whom he believes to be possessed by an ancestral ghost — but, as in many Hitch-flicks, all is not what it seems. The print — painstakingly restored to its original theatrical condition — is gorgeous, and the numerous extras include a commentary by associate producer Herbert Coleman, restoration team members Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, and others; the American Movie Classics documentary "Obsessed with Vertigo: New Life for Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece"; the alternate ending from censored foreign editions; storyboards, production drawings, production photographs, and advertising materials. The use of Saul Bass's original theatrical poster for the first edition's box-cover art was a nice touch (shame to see it go, really).
—Joe Barlow
