A UPI film classic, Vertigo was first released in theaters in 1958. A psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, it was based upon Boileau-Narcejac's 1954 French crime novel D'entre les morts (From Among the Dead). The film, although now considered to be one of the best works of Hitchcock's career, received mixed reviews when it was released. It had replaced Orson Welles' 1941 Citizen Kane in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound as the best film ever made.
This was the first film in which the dolly zoom, referred to as "the Vertigo effect" was first used. The technique is a camera effect that is used to distort the viewer's visual perception. This is achieved by zooming into a subject using a zoom lens while the camera is moved towards or away from the subject. With this, the subject is kept in the same size throughout the camera movements. The use of this technique, since the visual system of the human body is unsettled due to the change in perspective without a noticeable size change, has a strong emotional impact on the human psyche.
Hitchcock used this technique to cement the acrophobia and vertigo of the main character, former police detective John Ferguson (played by James Steward).
Vertigo is a film about romantic obsession and the perverse lengths a man will go through to secure the object of his affection and obsession. As with all of Hitchcock's films, it deals with the visceral side of humanity, death and murder, fear and love.