The film series The Master of Suspense: 7 Alfred Hitchcock Classics continues at 2 p.m. this Saturday in ImaginOn’s Wachovia Playhouse with a showing of the Master’s 1958 Vertigo. Admission is free.
Red herrings are a common staple in mysteries, but this film takes the concept one step further: The first half-hour of the movie — indeed, the mystery itself — is nothing more than a red herring, and the flick is soon revealed to be one of the most painfully acute explorations of obsession ever put on celluloid. This psychologically dense drama about a detective (James Stewart) who falls for a mysterious blonde (Kim Novak) is dreamy in both the best and worst senses of the word: Sexy, lush and leisurely paced, it also gnaws on your brain like an unsettling nightmare that refuses to dissipate with the morning sun.
It’s understandable that this picture continues to disturb unsuspecting audiences: Unlike most films of its era (vague spoilers ahead), innocent people die, villains get away with murder, and the so-called hero (who eventually exhibits a nasty side) never quite manages to tame his demons. But by casting affable Jimmy Stewart — cinema’s ultimate Everyman — in the leading role, Hitchcock inexorably draws those masochistic moviegoers among us into his tangled web of longing and deceit — and makes us savor every uneasy moment.
The following Saturday (Aug. 1), ImaginOn will present Hitchcock’s exciting, underrated Saboteur, a 1942 effort about Nazis operating stateside. The series then wraps up Aug. 15 with a screening of Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds.
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2009.
