Editing Alfred Hitchcock (section)

====From ''To Catch a Thief'' to ''Vertigo''====
In 1955, Hitchcock became a United States citizen.<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|p= 512}}</ref> In the same year, his third Grace Kelly film, ''[[To Catch a Thief]]'', was released; it is set in the [[French Riviera]], and stars Kelly and Cary Grant. Grant plays retired thief John Robie, who becomes the prime suspect for a spate of robberies in the Riviera. A thrill-seeking American heiress played by Kelly surmises his true identity and tries to seduce him. "Despite the obvious age disparity between Grant and Kelly and a lightweight plot, the witty script (loaded with double entendres) and the good-natured acting proved a commercial success."<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 366">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=366}}</ref> It was Hitchcock's last film with Kelly; she married [[Prince Rainier]] of Monaco in 1956, and ended her film career afterward. Hitchcock then remade his own [[The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 film)|1934 film]] ''The Man Who Knew Too Much'' [[The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 film)|in 1956]]. This time, the film starred James Stewart and [[Doris Day]], who sang the theme song "[[Que Sera, Sera]]", which won the [[Academy Award for Best Original Song]] and became a big hit. They play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination. As in the 1934 film, the climax takes place at the [[Royal Albert Hall]].<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|1994|p=75}}</ref>

''[[The Wrong Man]]'' (1956), Hitchcock's final film for Warner Bros., is a low-key black-and-white production based on a real-life case of [[mistaken identity]] reported in ''Life'' magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock to star [[Henry Fonda]], playing a [[Stork Club]] musician mistaken for a liquor store thief, who is arrested and tried for robbery while his wife ([[Vera Miles]]) emotionally collapses under the strain. Hitchcock told Truffaut that his lifelong fear of the police attracted him to the subject and was embedded in many scenes.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 377">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=377}}</ref><!--1957, [[Claude Chabrol]] and [[Éric Rohmer]], first book-length study of his work--><!--moved this from the "relationship with actors" section: In the late 1950s, [[French New Wave]] critics, especially Truffaut, [[Claude Chabrol]] and [[Éric Rohmer]], were among the first to see and promote Hitchcock's films as artistic works. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to whom they applied their [[auteur theory]], which stresses the artistic authority of the director in the filmmaking process.<ref name="Moerbeek2006">{{harvnb|Moerbeek|2006|loc=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2017}}-->[[File:Vertigo 1958 trailer Kim Novak at Golden Gate Bridge Fort Point.jpg|thumb|alt=Still image from the film Vertigo|[[Kim Novak]] by the [[Golden Gate Bridge]] in ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' (1958){{efn|A 2012 [[British Film Institute]] poll ranked ''Vertigo'' as the [[Sight & Sound#2012|greatest film ever made]].<ref name=Christie2012>{{cite news |last=Christie |first=Ian |title=The 50 Greatest Films of All Time |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |work=Sight & Sound |date=September 2012 |access-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301135739/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time|archive-date=1 March 2017}}; also see {{cite news |title=Critics' top 100 |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics |publisher=British Film Institute |year=2012|access-date=29 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207035347/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics|archive-date=7 February 2016}}</ref>}}]]

While directing episodes for ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' during the summer of 1957, Hitchcock was admitted to hospital for [[hernia]] and [[gallstone]]s, and had to have his [[gallbladder]] removed. Following a successful surgery, he immediately returned to work to prepare for his next project.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=212}}{{Sfn|Evans|2004|p=}} ''[[Vertigo (film)|Vertigo]]'' (1958) again starred James Stewart, with [[Kim Novak]] and [[Barbara Bel Geddes]]. He had wanted [[Vera Miles]] to play the lead, but she was pregnant. He told [[Oriana Fallaci]]: "I was offering her a big part, the chance to become a beautiful sophisticated blonde, a real actress. We'd have spent a heap of dollars on it, and she has the bad taste to get pregnant. I hate pregnant women, because then they have children."{{sfn|Fallaci|1963}}

In ''Vertigo'', Stewart plays Scottie, a former police investigator suffering from [[acrophobia]], who becomes obsessed with a woman he has been hired to shadow (Novak). Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy, and this time Hitchcock did not opt for a happy ending. Some critics, including Donald Spoto and [[Roger Ebert]], agree that ''Vertigo'' is the director's most personal and revealing film, dealing with the ''[[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]]''-like obsessions of a man who moulds a woman into the person he desires. ''Vertigo'' explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death, than any other work in his filmography.<ref>{{harvnb|Kehr|2011|p=259}}</ref>

''Vertigo'' contains a camera technique developed by Irmin Roberts, commonly referred to as a [[dolly zoom]], which has been copied by many filmmakers. The film premiered at the [[San Sebastián International Film Festival]], and Hitchcock won the Silver Seashell prize.<ref>{{cite web|title=San Sebastian Film Festival|url=https://www.sansebastianfestival.com:443/1958/awards_and_jury_members/awards/1/51/in|access-date=19 November 2020|website=San Sebastian Film Festival|archive-date=2 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002204434/https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/1958/awards_and_jury_members/awards/1/51/in}}</ref> ''Vertigo'' is considered a classic, but it attracted mixed reviews and poor box-office receipts at the time;<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ravetto-Biagioli|first1=Kriss|last2=Beugnet|first2=Martine|date=27 September 2019|title=Vertiginous Hauntings: The Ghosts of Vertigo|journal=Film-Philosophy|volume=23|issue=3|pages=227–246|doi=10.3366/film.2019.0114|doi-access=free|issn=1466-4615}}</ref> the critic from ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' opined that the film was "too slow and too long".<ref>{{cite web|date=14 May 1958|title=Vertigo|url=https://variety.com/1958/film/reviews/vertigo-2-1200419207/|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Variety|archive-date=28 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170228012042/http://variety.com/1958/film/reviews/vertigo-2-1200419207/}}</ref> [[Bosley Crowther]] of the ''New York Times'' thought it was "devilishly far-fetched", but praised the cast performances and Hitchcock's direction.<ref>{{cite news|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=29 May 1958|title=Vertigo,' Hitchcock's Latest; Melodrama Arrives at the Capitol (Published 1958)|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/05/29/archives/vertigo-hitchcocks-latest-melodrama-arrives-at-the-capitol.html|access-date=19 November 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=23 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823175858/https://www.nytimes.com/1958/05/29/archives/vertigo-hitchcocks-latest-melodrama-arrives-at-the-capitol.html}}</ref> The picture was also the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock.<ref name="Leitch 2002. p. 376-77">{{harvnb|Leitch|2002|p=376}}</ref> In the 2002 ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' polls, it ranked just behind ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941); ten years later, in the same magazine, critics chose it as the best film ever made.<ref name="Christie2012" />