Vertigo (1958)

Picture James Stewart tailing a green car around San Francisco at roughly the speed of a parade float, for what feels like a full lunch break. That’s a big chunk of Vertigo’s first hour. No dialogue, just driving, a flower shop, a painting in a museum and that swirling score. Modern attention spans will file a complaint. Mine did. Then it crawls under your skin and moves in. Stewart, the ultimate nice guy of old movies, plays Scottie’s obsession so straight it gets more uncomfortable every scene. Kim Novak is cool, distant and strange in exactly the way the story needs. Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge is the only sane person on screen, and the script basically forgets her. That dizzy zoom down the tower stairs still makes your stomach drop. Metacritic gives it a perfect 100, and after 128 minutes I almost agree. A 9.0 because it’s gorgeous and haunting, but the slow tail job and the dropped Midge keep it a notch below perfect. $757 says you look down a stairwell this year and feel the floor tilt.

What works: The dizzy stair shots, the swirling score, San Francisco shot like a dream, and James Stewart going somewhere dark and staying there.

What doesn’t: The long silent tailing sequences test your patience, and Midge, the most likable person in the movie, gets written out before the end.

Who it’s for: Classic film fans ready for a slow, hypnotic mystery, and anyone who wants to see where a lot of modern thriller camera tricks came from.