2. James Stewart As "Scottie" Ferguson In Vertigo (1958)
What can be said about Vertigo that hasn't already been said? Though it initially opened to mixed reviews, it has steadily gained traction in the minds of film-makers and film-critics alike, gradually creeping up the Sight and Sound poll to reach the #1 position in 2012 when over 800 film experts were polled. Stewart plays Scottie, a cop with a crippling case of acrophobia. When his condition leaves him unable to perform his police-work, he quits in time to be hired by an old friend to track his wife Madeleine. Madeleine, played by Kim Novak, immediately entrances Scottie. Though he saves her initial suicide attempt, his fear of heights are unable to prevent her subsequent suicidal leap from a belltower. In the second half of the film, Stewart breaks free of the stereotype many had delegated him to of playing characters such as George Baileys and Mr. Smiths. Scottie is not the virtuous, affable goober that audiences had come to expect from Stewart. His portrayal of Scottie shows a complex, obsessed and deeply disturbed man, willing to use his new female companion in degrading ways to meet his own haunting compulsions. Stewart is incredibly convincing as a broken man in the midst of a prolonged mental breakdown. Forget It's a Wonderful Life, this is really the film that we should play every year at Christmas.