Reading about Hitchcock and Vertigo

In my college years and beyond I was in full-blown Hitchcock obsession mode, particularly after reading Donald Spoto's The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures, which examined each film in detail. The version I read is pictured below. Spoto's book is not as highly thought of as it once was, perhaps, but it is still, in my opinion, one of the essential books that any Hitchcock aficionado must read. You have to check out Spoto's 50+ page treatment of Vertigo. Spoto also wrote a Hitchcock biography called The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, that is quite good (though I read it about 20 years ago, I think), but even better is Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan. Spoto's book is hurt somewhat, I think, by his desire to show how all Hitchcock's darkest impulses played out in his films. McGilligan's book seems more balanced to me, and more believable as the story of a complex, often strange, man.  

As good as these books are, of course, you should start with the films themselves. Most people who care about movies have already seen some of Hitchcock's movies, particularly the better-known ones like the aforementioned Psycho and The Birds. There are many "essential" Hitchcock pictures, perhaps none more so than Vertigo, the movie poster of which is seen above. Vertigo overtook Citizen Kane as the highest-ranked film ever made in the last poll taken by Sight and Sound magazine, a British film journal that conducts the poll every ten years. The ascendancy of Vertigo in the eyes of critics over the decades is quite remarkable considering that it didn't show up in the poll at all until 1982, well over 20 years after its release. Much of this was due to the film not being available for viewing by most people, but it was a also a box office flop on its release and even Hitchcock downplayed its importance somewhat because of that. But in Vertigo Hitchcock's obsessions and his complete command of the art and craft of filmmaking come together to create a unique masterpiece and perhaps his greatest achievement.