I Watch Films: Vertigo

 

Vertigo (1958)

Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) is a policeman; after a rooftop chase in which a colleague falls he retires due to vertigo and fear of heights. He also, it seems, has split up with his fiancée Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), an illustrator, though they remain friends, her trying to support him in overcoming his fears. She thinks a big emotional shock might be the answer.

A friend of Scottie, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), asks Scottie to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) who has been behaving strangely. She goes to look at the grave of Carlotta Valdes (1831-57), then a painting of her, then to an old hotel that turned out to be the house she lived in. Scottie, with the help of Midge and a local historian, uncover Carlotta’s story; she was the mistress of a wealthy man who was cast aside and had her child taken from her. Gavin admits he knows this; Madeleine does not remember where she’s been, also she’s Carlotta’s great-granddaughter. He didn’t tell Scottie because it sounds mad.

Following her the next day she goes to San Francisco Bay and jumps in the water; Scottie dives in and pulls her out. Having been introduced in this way, she returns with a letter of thanks, only for him to accost her at his home and the two spend the day together. Later she recounts a nightmare, describing a mission that Scottie realises is Carlotta’s childhood home. They go there, and admit they are attracted to each other. Then Madeleine runs into the church and up the tower. Incapacitated by his vertigo Scottie can only watch as her body plummets from the top.

The inquest declares it suicide, the coroner making a meal of Scottie’s failures. Gavin comforts him, saying he couldn’t have done more. Scottie becomes depressed, then catatonic, with odd visions and is committed to a sanatorium where he is visited by Midge who then oddly vanishes from the film. He recovers enough to leave, haunting the places he saw Madeleine in San Francisco, often seeing women who look a bit like Kim Novak.

Then he meets Judy Barton (Kim Novak) from Kansas. Obsessed with her resemblance to Madeleine he dresses her, dies and styles her hair to look like Madeleine. In a flashback we discover the plot: Gavin hired Judy to impersonate his wife so Scottie would think her possessed, obsessed or otherwise insane. Scottie never met the real Madeleine who Gavin killed moments before Judy’s arrival, the body of the real Madeleine thrown out. Having fallen in love with Scottie she writes a confession, then tears it up.

She makes a mistake, wearing the necklace of Carlotta, which Scottie sees. He takes her to the mission and up the tower (the emotional shock having overwhelmed his fear) where she confesses, both the crime and her love. Then a nun, wanting to see who’s up their suicide tower, surprises them and Judy is shocked into falling out the window to her death.

A classic Hitchcock psychological thriller, the central performances from Stewart and Novak manage to hold together this frankly outrageously silly story. Stewart portrays Scottie’s attempts to cover his disability right up until breaking point excellently, his obsession explained not just by Novak’s magnetism and beauty, but by his attempts to prove himself capable. In return Novak as Madeleine/Judy, always with something to hide and conceal, convinces us, makes us sympathise with this woman who has colluded with murder for a small payoff. The stylised effects of Scottie’s descent remain effective, precisely because they are not to be taken literally; and the technical elements of the film, especially the lighting, are superb.

Watch This: Classic thriller with some amazing shots and good performances
Don’t Watch This: Ridiculous convoluted plot, very strange views of mental illness even for the period