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Vertigo is a pretty famous Alfred Hitchcock film. It was released in 1958 and starred James Stewart and Kim Novak with support from Barbara Bel Geddes (who went on to famously play Miss Ellie Ewing in Dallas for a decade or so) and Tom Helmore.
John Ferguson (Scottie) is a retired police officer who developed vertigo during a chase when a colleague fell to his death from a rooftop. He has severe vertigo and it causes some complications in his life but he is able to live with it. An old friend from college hires Scottie as a private detective to follow his wife Madeline who he believes is possessed by the spirit of someone who died 100 years ago and on the verge of committing suicide. Scottie becomes obsessed with Madeline as he follows her around and somehow falls madly in love with her. She commits suicide from the bell-tower of a mission and because of his vertigo Scottie is unable to save her and is consumed with guilt.
Sometime later Scottie spots a woman called Judy who looks a lot like Madeline and starts to date her. He then starts to suspect that they are one and the same woman but how can this be? Madeline was elegant and refined whereas Judy is coarse and somewhat vulgar. What is the truth behind Scottie's confused thoughts? Can he trust his once sound judgment to follow his instincts and delve deeper into this ever more confusing mystery?
Vertigo is one of those Hitchcock
films which will have you engaged in from start to finish. I remember watching it in my teens then again in my 20s and more recently having seen it again on terrestrial TV making the decision to buy the DVD so I could watch it whenever I wanted to. It's in my permanent collection along with several other Hitchcock classics such as North by Northwest, Marnie, Dial M for Murder and Rear Window. I have been a Hitchcock fan for decades now and Vertigo is definitely one of his more successful ventures.
The film was mostly filmed on location in San Francisco, one of its more memorable scenes is when Madeline jumps into Fort Point, San Francisco Bay only for Scottie to save her. The Mission San Juan Bautista where Madeline jumps to her death was a real one but had to have special effects when being filmed as the tower had been torn down due to dilapidation must to Hitchcock's displeasure!
James Stewart has always been someone I've admired as an actor, never more so than in this film though. To me, he took the part of Scottie and made it his own. I can't imagine anyone else doing the role justice as he did. He really can display the confused look of a man obsessed with a woman who loses her and gets the blame and then finds she's still alive and that he's been betrayed by those he trusted implicitly as if it's really happening to him. This to me is the mark of a great actor - making you, as the viewer; believe that he is the one it's all really happening to!
Kim Novak was superb in her role. There's iciness and hardness about her which gives real edge to the character of Judy and real femininity which made her stand out as Madeline. Of course, when you know that Judy is playing Madeline, it's even more apparent that Novak played her part flawlessly.
Barbara Bel Geddes plays Midge in the film who was previously Scottie's fiancé but then they broke up and became good friends. Her character is not a large part of the film just as Tom Helmore as Madeline's husband Gavin isn't a big part, but Geddes does get to mother Stewart when he has a complete nervous breakdown after Madeline's "death". Even though she's young and beautiful her character reminded me of her character from Dallas!
The scenes of the tower and Scottie's vertigo are really quite scary. I'm not particularly bothered by heights myself but watching those scenes one can almost physically feel the fear of the hero. This is down to Hitchcock's excellent film-making skills. He can drag you into the movie, albeit kicking and screaming but you can almost experience what the cast are going through!
Using Bernard Herrman to compose the music was also an accolade for Hitchcock as his haunting score involves you even more with the emotions of the key players.
Of course critically one could look at the flaws in the film and ask questions such as why did Scottie not suspect anything was amiss when Madeline died and her husband so readily accepted that she killed herself because she was possessed by someone from the past when he had actually hired Scottie to look after her? Why, when Scottie finds out the truth from Judy about Madeline and her "death" did he not contact the police about it?
A recurring theme in Hitchcock films is that Hitchcock liked to make his male leads almost insanely obsessively about their female leads as well as making his female leads hard in ways but extremely feminine in other ways. You sympathize with the male lead and want him to win over the female but there always seems to be a cost to pay and never more so than in Vertigo. The ending is harsh and shocking but you feel it is justified. Some might feel unsatisfied by the ending but I think it was pretty perfect.
Interestingly enough Vertigo did not get rave reviews when it was first released being panned as "too long" and "bogs down in a maze of detail". Some fans also felt the mystery was solved too early on in the film. Vertigo achieved success years after its original release when critics started taking Hitchcock somewhat more seriously and the film has now gained fans from all generations. Give it a watch and see. You might be pleasantly surprised when it becomes a favorite and ends up in your permanent DVD collection! A strong 8.5 out of 10 for me.
TECHNICAL DETAILS:
Run time: 124 mins Country of release: USA Release date: 1958 Director: Alfred Hitchcock Writers: Samuel Taylor, Alex Coppel DVD released: April 2000 DVD availability: Amazon.co.uk £5.98, ClassicMovieStore.co.uk £5.38, hmv.com £5.99 (correct prices at October 2008)
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Novak & Stewart
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Set in San Francisco, James Stewart portrays an acrophobicdetective hired to trail a ... more
friend's suicidal wife (Kim Novak).After he successfully rescues her from a leap into the bay, hefinds himself becoming obsessed with the beautifully troubledwoman. On...
Advantages: James Stewart as genteel middle aged obsessive, compulsive viewing Disadvantages: Requires repeated viewings, may be slow and dated to some
chunlex 31.05.2004 ·
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