The 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film starring James Stewart as a retired detective with a fear of heights is Vertigo.
Stewart plays John “Scottie” Ferguson, a former San Francisco police detective who leaves the force after an accident triggers severe acrophobia and vertigo. He is hired to follow Madeleine Elster, played by Kim Novak, and becomes increasingly drawn into a disturbing mystery involving identity, obsession, and deception.
Vertigo was adapted from the 1954 French novel D'entre les morts, written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Hitchcock filmed extensively around San Francisco, including Mission San Juan Bautista, whose bell tower becomes central to the story.
The film is famous for the dolly zoom, an unsettling camera effect that changes perspective while keeping the subject framed. It is often called the “Vertigo effect.” The Birds and Psycho are also Hitchcock films, while Rear Window also stars Stewart, but only Vertigo centers on Scottie's fear of heights and his obsessive investigation. Its reputation grew dramatically after an initially mixed critical and commercial reception.