This is the most haunting and hypnotic of all of Bernard Herrmann's scores (which include Psycho and North By Northwest)--from the most haunting and hypnotic of all Alfred Hitchcock films. This is deeply mysterious music, in keeping with the echoes of the past that keep recurring in the movie. As the dizzying main theme opens up before you, you can feel yourself falling right right in. (Herrmann himself did a sort of variation on it for Obsession, the 1976 Paul Schrader/Brian DePalma re-working of Vertigo, released when the earlier picture had been out of circulation for many years.) Perhaps the greatest compliment one could give this soundtrack is that it's as powerful and unforgettable as the images it was written to accompany. And it stands beautifully on its own, as well. --Jim Emerson