Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic

"Vertigo" is not only my favorite Hitchcock film; it is also one of my top five favorite films of all time. It is a film that, at first viewing, seems merely like a slightly irregular, well-made, not quite formula murder mystery. You go away from the movie with doubts in your mind (questions keep pricking you over and over) and then the "Vertigo" vertigo starts: How did they do it? How did they get away with it and why? Why is James Stewart so obsessed with, at first, a living woman and then, tragically, a dead woman? Why does Kim Novak allow Stewart to manipulate her into becoming a different person? Why do the director and author tell the audience who-done-it long before the movie is over? (This is a particularly thorny point in Auiler's book). And those are only the questions which pop to mind after a first viewing with no preconceptions.With a foreward (really a short appreciation of "Vertigo")by Martin Scorsese, Dan Auiler's book is a "Vertigo" encyclopedia: the author has collected color and black & white photographs from the film and from ad campaigns; he shows us reproductions of Hitchcock's famous storyboards; he has researched and explained how and why the screenplay was written (and by whom!)and lets us know how Hitchcock participated in the writing in this and everyone of his films and why the studio did not want Hitchcock to direct this movie, preferring that he do another African adventure after the success of "The Man Who Knew Too Much." We learn how Bernard Herrmann's score came about and was recorded, why the specific actors were chosen for their roles and how they worked with their director, how the movie was made ready for the public and how the public received it, originally and in its re-release. There is also a discussion of the process used in making VERTIGO which was called Vistavision. Auiler also explains the process by which this great, sad, twisted, dark, mysterious, complicated, brave movie was saved from destruction by complete restoration, a painstaking process that directors such as Scorsese support and fund on a regular basis.This book is a must-read for any fans of Alfred Hitchcock, of "Vertigo" and, indeed, for any film fans. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Even if you don't agree that this was Hitchcock's greatest film, you can't deny that this is a great companion to the film. It covers each stage of production in great detail and spares nothing short of the best. Only if other behind the scene books were made this way.

In the January issue of Harper's Bazaar, Dan Auiler's Vertigo is listed as one of the top ten films books of 1998.

L.A film historian Dan Auiler has written VERTIGO: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic which, with its nice balance of technical, personal and critical detail, seems a model for this sort of book. Illustrated throughout with storyboard sketches, stills and correspondence (and with a foreword by Martin Scorcese), the trim volume has a color photo insert that strikingly shows the movie's vivid palette. And the book's jacket, which incorporates artists Saul Bass and John Whitney's "Vertigo" design work, is also beautifully done.

This neat book traces the genesis of the movie Vertigo from it's beginnings as a French novel right through to modern day retrospectives. It tells absoultuely everything about the production, but never gets bogged down. Also tells the current status of the many locations in the film. Just a great, fun read. It also provides real insight into Hitchcock's way of collaborating with writers, cameramen, etc.