Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of a French novel, which follows an acrophobic former detective who is unwittingly drawn into a friend's plan to murder his wife and claim it as suicide.
Note on authorship:
The authorship of Vertigo is somewhat complicated. The first version was written by American playwright Maxwell Anderson, whose work was rejected by Hitchcock. A second version was written by Alec Coppel, and this was also rejected. The third version was written by another American playwright, Samual A. Taylor (as Samuel Taylor), who made substantial changes, including introducing the character of Midge.
However, both Coppel and Taylor receive authorial credits on the final film, because, according to Dan Auiler in Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (London: Titan, 1999), Coppel lodged a protest with the Screen Writers Guild. Both authors therefore receive equal credit.