Vertigo

Perhaps the most resonant of Hitchcock’s many 1950s masterpieces, Vertigo is dark, twisty, and obsessive. It includes stellar performances by James Stewart as an ex-cop trying to protect a mysterious blonde and Kim Novak as the archetypical Hitchcock femme fatale. Add stunning widescreen photography, subtle color, and a sheer-perfection score by Bernard Herrmann—does it get any better than this?