Vertigo is a film that is best to just be seen and not talked about too much as there are so many twists and turns to the plot it’s hard not to give the whole thing away in a few sentences.
To make a very brief outline of the goings-on James Stewarts plays Scottie, a San Francisco detective who is recovering from a bad incident that had left him with acrophobia (afraid of high places). Scotty is aided through this by his ex-girlfriend and now best friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes).

Wanting to get back in the game, Scottie is approached by an friend from way back to do some Private Investigating on the old friends Wife Madeline(Kim Novak). And this is where things are not what they seem.

Considered to be one of Hitch’s most personal films, Vertigo was not the great success it was hoped to be at its time of release. However, some 40 years later, it had gained the reputation it deserves as one of his best and most watched films!

In Dire need of restoration Universal spent millions of Dollars on getting Vertigo back to it’s original state. In 1996/7 Vertigo was re-released to cinemas with a brand new print (in 70mm!) and remixed into DTS 5.1, and this new print and audio remix has been used for the DVD release!

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
Considering the vintage of this film, Universal have done a superb job with this Transfer. Presented in it’s original Theatrical Aspect of 1.85 :1, the Anamorphic Widescreen Picture looks terrific. Granted it doesn’t hold up to the quality of the more recent releases, but they don’t have time against them in the ageing process, and you can look at Vertigo on DVD and see things you’ve never seen before on other home video formats. Colours are very well saturated, with an emphasis on intense fleshtones. Black level is also spot on with heaps of detail (especially in the bell tower sequence….it looks great!)
At times the image comes across looking a bit soft (not from the use of the ‘Fog’ lens either) , and shows sign of grain but when you take into consideration the 40 year plus status of this film, you’ll be more than forgiving.
Spread over 2 sides of an RSDL DVD, Vertigo's virtually undetectable Layer change occurs on a Fade to Black rom Chapter 17 to 18 (65:45)

AUDIO
By using a combination of mono, stereo and re-recorded audio. A 5.1 Audio mix for Vertigo was created. Presented here in an English Track with Dolby Digital 5.1 (the only track on the disc to be 5.1) this is a very nice mix that really shows off Bernard Herrmann’s terrific music score. While 99% of the film is front stage dominant, there is some discrete surround usage for the odd sound effect, and a very light musical ambience. The front soundstage is clean and clear, and comes across with a nice wide presence. (not much of a workout for the LFE track thought!)

EXTRAS
It’s DVDs like that make for a Collector’s Editon DVD worth the asking price of $39.95.
Though the menus make it difficult to find all these goodies (sorry but even the placement of easter eggs make mor sense!) you find the following bit and pieces on this DVD

Running Commentary : Herb Coleman the Associate Producer on Vertigo, along with the two main chaps (Robert A Harris & James C Katz) who took part in restoring the picture, go through the motions of what Vertigo is all about and what they did to get the picture looking and sounding so good.
Unfortunately, ‘ol Herb who no doubt has the best recollection of making this film is way too quiet through this comm track and is constantly being prodded by his fellow commentary members to say a few words.
Included thoughout the DVD are a few other Vertigo-ians. Generally it is a good commentary track, but Herb could have made it so much more if he’d told a few more tales.

Making Of Doco : This is a superb 30 minute doco "Obsessed with Vertigo" but leaves you wanting to know so much more. It takes you through the restoration process for Vertigo, showing a few before and afters as well as the general Hell these folk went through in getting this Picture back up to scratch.

The doco is chaptered and the only way to find the stupidly hidden additional extras is to go the LAST page of the chapter selection. There you will find the Foreign Censorship Ending (spell that UK ending! ), along with a series of Artwork pictures under the heading of Vertigo Archives

Theatrical Trailers : You can see the Original 1958 trailer and new re-release trailer. It just goes to show you how stupid the studios thought people where back then (then again they do it to us now with that thing called a sequel!!!)

Universal’s usual Cast & Crew Biographies and Production Notes are included in these extras.

Overall this is a terrific DVD for such a Classic film. It’d be nice to see this happen with some of the other great films made over the past century. HIGHLY recommended