dir. Alfred Hitchcock

1958 // 2 hr 9 mins // Digital Projection

Staring: James Stewart, Kim Novak

Acrophobic ex-cop James Stewart, hired to shadow seemingly death-obsessed Kim Novak, saves her from drowning in the shadow of the Golden Gate bridge, but not from a fall off a Mission steeple. But then, he meets her again - or does he? Hitchcock shrugged off collaborators’ objections to reveal the solution midway (“Do we want suspense or surprise?”) in what is essentially one of the screen’s most wrenching treatments of loss and - in Mr. Nice Guy Stewart’s tormented performance - of sexual obsession. In 2012, Vertigo bumped Citizen Kane from its longtime spot as the #1 movie of all time in the once-a-decade Sight & Sound poll.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOODLAND... is a series hosted and programmed by KCAI lecturer Kara Heitz looking at classic Hollywood films and history from the advent of sound to the birth of New Hollywood.