Vertigo

Despite being considered by critics to be Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest film, I have never really found Vertigo to be a very accessible film. Perhaps that is part of its greatness – the film actually manages to evoke some of the affects of vertigo by keeping the viewer off kilter and always questioning things. I have only seen it twice, and the first time I watched it with my mom and sister and they were not so impressed with it either. But a second viewing changed my opinion a little…but first a little bit about the plot.

The film starts with John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) chasing someone over the rooftop. His partner ends up falling to his death off the roof and Scottie gets vertigo as a result of the emotional trauma. After retiring from the police force, Scottie is over at his friend Midge’s (Barbara Bel Geddes) apartment complaining about his acrophobia. She’s as sympathetic as one can be, especially if one was engaged to Scottie years ago. One comment that Scottie makes while at Midge’s apartment is worth remembering – “I’m not going to crack up.”

Eventually, an old college friend contacts Scottie to convince him to keep an eye on his wife. Apparently, the wife is a bit crazy – she thinks she is Carlotta, a historical figure from San Francisco’s past. Madeleine (Kim Novak) leads Scottie around the city to all kinds of different places. (As a side note, how she doesn’t notice that he’s following her is really, really unbelievable, especially if he was a detective, but presumably she does know that he’s following her. But I’m getting ahead of myself.) Madeleine ends up jumping into the San Francisco Bay, but Scottie fishes her out and takes her to his apartment to dry off. She takes off while he’s calling her husband, but Madeleine comes back the next day to give him an apology. The two end up wandering together and see the sequoias. She tries to recount her dreams, which might explain how crazy she is.

Eventually, the two end up at the San Juan Barrista mission outside of San Francisco, where Madeleine runs away from Scottie after cryptically talking about how if she leaves him it will mean that she really loves him. So she runs into the church and up to the bell tower. Scottie tries to follow her, but his vertigo takes over and he can’t make it up the tower in time to prevent her suicide.

There is an inquest, where Scottie is blamed for not being able to prevent her suicide, but in the end, it is considered a suicide. And then the famous weird dream sequence occurs – it’s Jimmy Stewart’s head coming to get you, complete with weird green lighting and everything! Scottie, of course, goes a little crazy and ends up in the hospital where he won’t talk. Midge is there, trying to take care of him and finds out that it’ll be at least six to twelve months before he will be able to talk again. Poor Midge, always cleaning up the pieces.

Flash forward a year and Scottie has pulled himself together. He keeps seeing girls that look like Madeleine, especially ones wearing fitted grey suits. And he does manage to find a girl on the street who looks an awful lot like Madeleine, only with more makeup and brown hair. She acts pretty suspiciously, and we find out that she is Madeleine – or was pretending to be Madeleine. Yes, Scottie was a dupe for his college friend – he got to be the perfect witness to an apparent suicide. And Judy is all mixed up with – only she actually fell in love with Scottie. So Judy allows herself to be made over to look like Madeleine so that she can win Scottie over again. Judy wants to be loved for herself, but Scottie is a single-minded person, which is seriously kind of creepy! Judy goes along with his determination to make her over into Madeleine, dying her hair blonde, buying the right dresses, and being made under. She doesn’t put her hair up until the end when it is apparent Scottie is only interested in her as a substitute for Madeleine.

But Judy has made one fatal mistake – she kept the necklace that she wore as Madeleine and Scottie figures things out. Instead of taking her out to dinner, he takes her to the mission and makes her go up the stairs, recreating the events. As they are talking up at the top of the bell tower, a nun comes out of the shadows and startles Judy into falling off the tower. Scottie had just managed to find his Madeleine again, and she dies in the same fashion.

I can see why Vertigo is considered such a classic. It is a rather unsettling film, and having James Stewart as a character who essentially descends into madness in his obsession to recreate Madeleine really keeps the viewer off balance. Multiple layers and things that you wouldn’t notice on first viewing definitely make it more interesting. The evocation of the sense of vertigo and being off balance by the viewer makes the title very apt. I’m sure that many other critics have said it better than I, but it’s an unsettling film and one that needs to be looked at closely to really understand. I realize that the first time that I saw the film, I probably wasn’t really thinking about it critically. It’s perhaps not a film that one watches for fun – well, maybe that’s not the right way to put it – it’s not as fun as many other Hitchcock films, but it still has a place. A film I might have to look at again, but right now, I’m just going to be happy with a little bit of a better understanding about why it’s good

FILE UNDER: Classic Films