Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring:
James Stewart
Kim Novak
To begin with, I must tell you that I’m not a professional reviewer, but I am a lover of film, so to say that I can write something as great as Roger Ebert about such a great film “Vertigo” would be a folly. All I can do is tell you why I think it’s one of the greatest films I have ever seen especially when talking about Alfred Hitchcock.
To me Alfred Hitchcock is the master of a thing called suspense. When asked what the difference between surprise and suspense is, Alfred Hitchcock famously replied that suspense is when the audience is shown there is a bomb under the table but none of the other characters are aware of the presence of the bomb. Because of this, the audience is wondering and waiting when the bomb will go off, who will be hurt by it, and even if anyone will notice or deactivate it. There is this anticipation that becomes suspense. Now if you have not ever seen this film, spoilers will follow very soon, but it is necessary to explain the many innovations that Hitchcock creates throughout the picture.
Another thing to keep in mind is Alfred Hitchcock is always in command of the performances, the atmosphere, and the overall picture in general. He was a leading influence on the French New Wave when they began their “Auteur” theory along with Orson Welles and Jean Renoir among few others because when you saw a Hitchcock movie, you knew you were seeing a Hitchcock movie. Not only was he the MASTER of SUSPENSE, he was the master of visual filmmaking. Consider his Track out – Zoom in shot to create the Vertigo effect when Scottie (James Stewart) gets his agrophobia for the first time or when he runs up the stairs to follow Madolyn in mid-film. This shot was so experimental, new and influential that many directors like Spielberg and Scorsese would later use it in films like “Jaws” and “Goodfellas” respectively. You know you’ve seen a great film when the modern day greats allude to a great technique mastered just for that great film. I know that was a REALLY weird sentence.
Back to the film “Vertigo.” The driving force of the atmosphere must go to Bernard Hermann’s score; a haunting and pulsating suspenseful score that is both melodically beautiful and terrifically mysterious. This film starts with a chase on the rooftops with Scottie (James Stewart), who’s a detective, racing after a perp along with a cop to bring in the collar. The problem is, he’s got agrophobia (a fear of heights) and he founds out at the worst of times when he makes a leap from one roof to another, slipping towards his doom. Luckily he grabs a storm drain and survives, but this is the first time you see the track in zoom out shot. The thing is, the cop he was running alongside with decides to let the perp go and save Scottie; not a good idea, the cop falls to his demise.
The cop is only important in establishing guilt, leading Scottie into exile away from his occupation; he essentially becomes a young retiree who hangs out with his old ex-fiance, Midge, who now designs brassiere’s. What a great job.
One day, he is summoned by an old college friend that he has not seen for a while. He meets him only to find that his friend wants to hire him for some private investigating; the thing is, it’s not what you think. The old college buddy thinks his wife Madolyn (Kim Novak) has been possessed by a suicidal spirit who wants to kill herself. Scottie, who feels vulnerable because of his past and his agrophobia, at first declines, but the old college buddy tells Scottie to meet at “Ernie’s” a restaurant just to see his wife.
This is where we get into the MEAT! Scottie decides to go the restaurant and for the first time, we see the most beautiful elegant blonde woman wearing the most gorgeous green dress ever, Madolyn, thanks to Edith Head. She’s almost like an angel in green floating in a room of passion and temptation. It helps the whole atmosphere that Alfred Hitchcock has shot this whole scene in an elegant RED, velvety restaurant with Madolyn’s hair and skin being the most glamorous and glowing compared to anyone else; she almost looks like a porcelain doll. And let’s not forget Bernard Hermann’s glorious music as Scottie sees her for the first time. It’s definitely love at first sight. It’s like a slow motion glimpse as the camera pans only halfway around her to show her beautiful profile. Right then and there, I was hooked, and guess what? Thanks to that very shot, actually a pyschological POV shot of Scottie, Scottie is hooked to. I love how we see her through Scottie’s eyes as well. It’s one of the most glorious shots in the whole picture.
From this point forward, we have Scottie following her in a tense 10 minute journey around San Francisco; from a flower shop to a museum where Madolyn stares at a portrait of a beautiful blond woman wearing a specific hairdo and a beautiful pendant necklace to a old majestic houses where we learn an old Spanish countess once owned and later committed suicide. This is almost completely shot in silence without music. I forgot to mention this tense 10 -15 minutes happens twice with a small interlude where Scottie and Midge try to find the significance between the art gallery and majestic house. Guess what? It seems that Madolyn is related to the old Spanish countess and now Scottie is starting to believe Madolyn is being possessed by the suicidal spirit. Yes, there’s a twinge of supernatural in this picture as well. Well at the end of the second journey, Madolyn jumps into the San Francisco Bay where our characters meet face to face for the first time. Scottie jumps into the bay, fishes her out, and takes her to his place. What we get here are Robert Burk’s beautiful WIDESCREEN, Panaromic shots of San Francisco as he brings a eerie aura. I believe they used fog filters to make the picture seem dreamier, but strangely Robert Burke was not nominated for an Oscar. What a travesty because this is one of the most beautifully shot films EVER in technicolor. I believe they used VistaVision as well.
From this point forward, Scottie begins to fall for her, and Madolyn for him as well. It all happens so quickly, but this is not a complaint; I know I’ve had things like this happen to me when I am put in an extreme situation where I have to help a lady and I become very emotionally invested in her. Well that’s what happens. Scottie believes, the only way to save Madolyn is to show her everything that is going on with her can be fought, so they work together to try to piece the puzzle together; every step of the way continuing to fall in love with each other. Finally they make it to an old Spanish presidio where the suicidal spirit takes a strong hold of Madolyn forcing her to run to the top of the Spanish Mission and throw herself out of the tower to her death. Scottie tries to stop her, but he can’t due to his agrophobia and that beautiful innovative shot takes over as he feels the floor falling below him. We hear Madolyn scream as she plummets outside of the church window.
And again we see Scottie blaming himself and feeling vulnerable for his weakness. This time, he didn’t just lose a detective, he lost his love. For the rest of the film, Scottie meets a young woman Judy, who is a spitting image of Madolyn, except she is brunette and much more feisty and carnal. The thing is, Hitchcock reveals to the audience that Judy is ACTUALLY Madolyn, and in a poignant scene of revelation, Judy tries to write an apology note to Scottie, wanting to run away because all of the pain she has caused him, except she can’t complete it. I think her thought is, if I can put Scottie through so much pain and suffering the least I can do for his love, is try to make him happy, and maybe he’ll fall in love with me for me. Strangely, Scottie starts trying to make her into Madolyn, while Judy just wants him to fall in love with her true self, Judy. Instead, Scottie buys her all of Madolyn’s old clothes and takes her to Madolyn’s favorite restaurant.
Now, Scottie gets his wishes while breaking Judy’s heart. He can’t love her unless she becomes Madolyn again. The thing is, she still has to dye her hair. So Scottie takes Judy to get her hair dyed and when she returns, he realizes that she did not put her hair in the specific way Madolyn did, an ornate bun. Judy agrees to do her hair and enters the bathroom, and as we wait with James Stewart, we see his reaction shot first as she walks out, and it is of ecstasy. Alfred Hitchcock put it as Judy’s character was naked but would not take her knickers off. Scottie embraces his love once again, but strangely Alfred Hitchcock saw this as a bit of necrophiliac, wanting to have sex with the dead, since Madolyn is dead and Judy has become the spitting image of her. The problem is Madolyn/Judy has kept the pendant from the picture. Scottie finally realizes what is going on and they have their confrontation that lead to Madolyn’s first death. The rest I will not spoil for you since I basically told you the whole story right here.
But how can you stop writing about a perfect movie? I mean just talking about it excites me and just watching it for the fifth time makes me fall in love with everything all over again. The performances are amazing. Jimmy Stewart is one of the greatest everyman actors ever. He plays Scottie with such vulnerability and never overplays the part. You see things through his eyes and you feel for him. Let’s not forget Kim Novak who should’ve been nominated for her part. Kim Novak has the hardest role in a truly oppressive part. I mean, she plays a woman playing a woman who kills the woman she plays to become herself to only become the woman she killed, etc. But she plays the two roles so differently; one the elegant angel floating across the screen in a dream-like reverie and one the karnal, sexy brunette who is feisty but full of heart all at the same time.
Costumes and photography are beautiful and so is the music. The music is the backbone of the picture holding it up and lifting it past classic to great status. Like the photography, the music is haunting and lush all at once. Bernard Herrmann definitely outdid himself and the fact that he was not nominated yet again is another Oscar’s travesty.
Alfred Hitchcock was known as a filmmaker who sought stories that had common themes such as fear, guilt, obsession, etc. In this movie he combines every single theme that ever influenced him and brought it together into his masterpiece; his greatest work and that is “Vertigo.”
