Trivia

The opening title sequence designed by Saul Bass makes this the first movie to use computer graphics.

Uncredited second unit cameraman Irmin Roberts invented the famous "zoom out and track in" shot (now sometimes called "contra-zoom" or "trombone shot") to convey the sense of vertigo to the audience. The view down the mission stairwell cost $19,000 for just a couple of seconds of screentime.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock had originally wanted to use his now-famous 'Vertigo zoom' as far back as Rebecca (1940), but due to lack of technology at that time, he couldn't do it. The technique was inspired by a time when Hitchcock had fainted during a party.

This movie was unavailable for three decades because its rights (together with four other movies of the same period) were bought back by Sir Alfred Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter Patricia Hitchcock. They've been long-known as the "Five Lost Hitchcocks" among movie buffs and were re-released in theaters around 1984 after an approximately thirty-year absence. The others are The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Rear Window (1954), Rope (1948), and The Trouble with Harry (1955).

The Empire Hotel where James Stewart eventually finds Kim Novak is the Hotel Vertigo (formerly the York) located at 940 Sutter Street in lower Nob Hill in San Francisco. The character Judy lived in Room 501, which still retains many of its aspects captured in this movie. As of 2023, Hotel Vertigo is closed.

Alfred Hitchcock: At around 11 mins, wearing a gray suit walking past Gavin Elster's shipyard, carrying a case for a very high quality costume mask for the Doctor of the Plague. The shipyard was actually the Paramount Pictures prop department gates.

Alfred Hitchcock: [hair] Carlotta and Madeleine have spiral hairstyles, and Judy's hair color is significant.