“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” is a saying that has been attributed to several different 19th-century thinkers and that has frequently been used somewhat out of context. This may apply to the case of Brian De Palma’s 1976 thriller “Obsession,” which many have called a skillful imitation of an Alfred Hitchcock suspense mystery that seems to have borrowed specifically from Hitchcock’s misunderstood 1958 psychological thriller “Vertigo.”

But in 1976, most filmgoers had never seen “Vertigo.” It wasn’t a box-office sensation, and like several of Hitchcock’s films of the 1950s, it was simply out of circulation. It didn’t receive reissuing and wasn’t shown on free television. Before any videos were popular or cable TV and streaming were available, it wasn’t a part of people’s experiences.

The film-schooled director and screenwriter De Palma and Paul Schrader certainly knew Hitchcock’s works, expressive visual style and suspense techniques. “Obsession” was originally titled “De’ Ja Vu,” and De Palma even hired Hitchcock’s favorite composer, Bernard Herrmann, to score his thriller that directly pays a loving homage – not mere imitation.

In my original Daily Illini review of “Obsession” in 1976, I referred to the film as “a romantic suspense puzzler that definitely equals many of Alfred Hitchcock’s better works.” Yet, at the time, like most filmgoers, I had never seen “Vertigo.”

So, instead of a “Vertigo 2.0” tale about an ex-San Francisco police officer who is hired to prevent an old friend’s wife from committing suicide and becoming obsessed with her beauty, “Obsession” concerns Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson), a wealthy New Orleans real estate planner whose lovely wife Elizabeth (Geneviève Bujold) and daughter, Amy are kidnapped and killed in a hostage dilemma that goes horribly wrong. Then, 16 years later, after living in sad misery, Courtland travels to Italy and meets Sandra Portinari, a beautiful woman restoring church artwork.  To his complete amazement, she looks remarkably like his late wife, and he quickly rediscovers love.

The film peacefully begins in 1959 at a fancy 10th-anniversary party for Mr. and Mrs. Courtland. Courtland’s real estate partner, Bob Lasalle (John Lithgow), offers a toast to the lovely couple as guests dance the night away. Yet within hours, the joy is shattered when kidnappers dressed as servants take Elizabeth and her daughter, leaving Courtland with a ransom note demanding $500,000 in cash. With police guidance, the ransom is botched, and the car carrying the hostages explodes and crashes into the Mississippi River.

When Courtland first encounters Sandra (who is also played by Bujold) in Florence, he quickly wants to know more about her.  He meets her elderly mother in a hospital and learns that her father abandoned them when she was very young. After weeks of lovely romance in Italy, Courtland convinces her to come to America and be his wife. Slowly, Sandra realizes she’s becoming a replacement for this obsessed man, and she, too, may now be obsessed with becoming this woman for him. Then DePalma reveals some rather incredibly shocking plot twists revealing Sandra’s true identity that all lead to the film’s dramatically thrilling ending.

While Schrader’s script becomes very manipulative and melodramatically emotional, the film’s leads Robertson and Bujold to deliver believable performances effectively. Both received Oscar nominations in the late ‘60s, and Robertson was named best actor of 1968 in “Charly.” So, they provide significant star power to put over what may be called a rather hokey B-film script.

In addition to Herrmann’s lush and intensely impactful score, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond’s gorgeously lit moving images draw the viewer into the main characters’ emotional dilemmas by frequently moving with slow, forward-moving tracking shots and circular pan shots.  In times of Courtland’s most intense predicaments, De Palma effectively uses high and low angles to show his upset, uneven state of mind.

Unfortunately, “Obsession” was only a minor box office success and received mostly tepid reviews. Quite possibly, more critics thought the film lived up to the full meaning of Oscar Wilde’s complete version of the famous saying, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” Yet, like many over the years who have given this film a cult following, I respectfully disagree.