Tom Shone praises Hitchcock's unconventional casting:
Take an actor who is a decorated war hero. Nothing too fancy: the Distinguished Flying Cross for completing 20 missions deep into Nazi Germany, say. Upon his return home, let him visit his parents and come back to the screen in something toasty like “It’s a Wonderful Life”; then, with public affection for this All-American hero at its warmest, cast him as a misanthrope, a peeping Tom and a necrophiliac. That is what Hitchcock did with James Stewart, in “Rope”, “Rear Window” and “Vertigo”, opening up a vein of agony that no one had seen before. This Jimmy Stewart talked murder, spied on neighbours and obsessed about fashioning new lovers in the image of old, dead ones. Such a wonderful life.
Relatedly, Dan Colman praises Hitchcock's very specific marketing scheme for Psycho.
The Dish 