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'Vertigo': Hitchcock Thriller Back on Top

"Vertigo," Alfred Hitchcock’s surrealistic 1958 masterpiece, has been buried for years under apile of adulative film essays and such cheap Hollywood knockoffs as "Color of Night," "A Time of Destiny" and "Final Analysis."

To add insult to flattery, the movie has only been available on television or inferior film prints. We’ve had to believe -- but not actually experience -- its wonders. Now, thanks to Robert A. Harris (who has similarly resuscitated "Lawrence of Arabia," "Spartacus" and "My Fair Lady"), there’s a wonderfully restored, 70mm print, which gives the film a scintillating new lease on life. The movie begins a short run at the Cineplex Odeon Uptown -- which itself has been renovated -- this weekend.

To briefly acquaint new viewers with the plot: James Stewart plays a detective who has left the police force because his fear of heights has caused, he believes, a tragedy. When an old college friend summons him to investigate the eccentric actions of his psychologically perplexing wife (Kim Novak), Stewart’s life takes a new, obsessive course from which he never recovers.

After watching "Vertigo" at the Uptown, I was awestruck. Having only seen "Vertigo" on 16mm prints and videotape, I had not appreciated the piercing blueness of Stewart’s eyes, Novak’s eyebrow-raising voluptuousness, Bernard Herrmann’s soaring score and the expansive splendor of Vistavision, as Stewart and Novak saunter against a San Francisco backdrop of hilly streets, parks and the Golden Gate Bridge. To watch this movie as it should be seen is too primal an experience to miss. Do yourself an aesthetic favor: Take the plunge. You’ll love the fall all the way down.

VERTIGO (PG) — Contains sexual undertones—but only steamy by the standards of the 1950s.