Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock

Vertigo premiered in San Francisco on May 9, 1958, at the Stage Door Theater (now the August Hall nightclub).[59] While Vertigo did break even upon its original release,[60][61] earning $3.2 million in North American distributor rentals[62] against its $2,479,000 cost, it earned significantly less than other Hitchcock productions.[59]

Restoration and re-release

In October 1983, Rear Window and Vertigo were the first two Hitchcock films reissued by Universal Pictures after the studio acquired the rights from the director's estate.[63] These two films – along with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Rope (1948), and The Trouble with Harry (1955) – had been kept out of distribution by the director since 1968. Cleaning and restoration were performed on each film when new 35 mm prints were struck.

In 1996, the film was given a lengthy and controversial restoration by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz and re-released to theaters. The new print featured restored color and newly created audio, using modern sound effects mixed in DTS digital surround sound. In October 1996, the restored Vertigo premiered at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with Kim Novak and Patricia Hitchcock attending. At this screening, the film was exhibited for the first time in DTS and 70mm, a format with a similar frame size to the VistaVision system in which it was originally shot.

Significant color correction was necessary because of the fading of original negatives. In some cases a new negative was created from the silver separation masters, but in many instances this was impossible because of differential separation shrinkage, and because the 1958 separations were poorly made. Separations used three individual films: one for each of the primary colors. In the case of Vertigo, these had shrunk in different and erratic proportions, making re-alignment impossible.[22]

As such, significant amounts of computer assisted coloration were necessary. Although the results are not noticeable on viewing the film, some elements were as many as eight generations away from the original negative, in particular the entire "Judy's Apartment" sequence, perhaps the most pivotal sequence in the entire film. When such large portions of re-creation become necessary, then the danger of artistic license by the restorers becomes an issue, and the restorers received some criticism for their re-creation of colors that allegedly did not honor the director's and cinematographer's intentions. The restoration team argued that they did research on the colors used in the original locations, cars, wardrobe, and skin tones. One breakthrough came when the Ford Motor Company supplied a well-preserved green paint sample for a car used in the film. As the color green has extensive symbolic use in the film, matching a shade of green was important for restoration and provided a reference shade.[64]

When restoring the sound, Harris and Katz wanted to stay as close as possible to the original, and had access to the original music recordings that had been stored in the vaults at Paramount. However, as the project demanded a new 6-channel DTS stereo soundtrack, it was necessary to re-record some sound effects.[22] The soundtrack was remixed at the Alfred Hitchcock Theatre at Universal Studios. Aware that the film had a considerable following, the restoration team knew that they were under particular pressure to restore the film as accurately as possible. To achieve this, they used Hitchcock's original dubbing notes for guidance of how the director wanted the film to sound in 1958.[22] Harris and Katz sometimes added extra sound effects to camouflage defects in the old soundtrack; i.e., "hisses, pops, and bangs". In particular, they added extra seagull cries and a foghorn to the scene at Cypress Point.[65] The new mix has also been accused of putting too much emphasis on the score at the expense of the sound effects.[66]

Home media

In 1996, director Harrison Engle produced a documentary, Obsessed with Vertigo. Narrated by Roddy McDowall, the film played on American Movie Classics, and has since been included with DVD versions of Vertigo. Surviving members of the cast and crew participated, along with Martin Scorsese and Patricia Hitchcock.[22] Engle first visited the Vertigo shooting locations in the summer of 1958, just months after completion of the film.

Vertigo was first released on DVD in March 1998. On October 4, 2011, the film was re-issued on DVD by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment as part of the Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection.[67] Subsequently, the film was released on Blu-ray on September 25, 2012, as part of the Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection.[68] In May 2014, the film was re-released as a stand-alone Blu-ray edition.[69] Some home video releases, such as the 2005 Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD set, contain the original mono track as an option.

In October 2014, a new 4K restoration was presented at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. This version gives credit to Harris and Katz at the end of the film, and thanks them for providing some previously unknown stereo soundtracks. This version, however, removes some of the "excessive" Foley sound that was added in the 1996 restoration.

In September 2020, a Ultra HD Blu-ray was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment as a part of the first volume of The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection.[70] In September 2021, a stand-alone version was released alongside a Steelbook.[71]