Happy 50th, "Vertigo"

Alfred Hitchcock was for years the master of movie suspense. But fifty years ago — May, 1958 — he brought out a film so weird that filmgoers didn't know what to make of it.

It was called "Vertigo." It had Jimmy Stewart as a San Francisco detective afraid of heights, on the trail of icy blond Kim Novak.

Hitchcock was a Hollywood hero, but "Vertigo" was a box office dud. Now it's on many "ten best films of all time" lists. Obsessive. Perverse. Haunting. Bizarre. And, fans say, a masterpiece.

This hour, On Point: Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" at 50.Guests:

Dan Auiler, film critic, historian, and co-author with Martin Scorsese of "Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic" and author of "Hitchcock's Notebooks: An Authorized and Illustrated Look Inside the Creative Mind of Alfred Hitchcock"

Jack Sullivan, director of American Studies at Rider University and author of "Hitchcock's Music"

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly