by Allan Fish
(USA 1958 128m) DVD1/2
I want you to follow my wife
p Alfred Hitchcock d Alfred Hitchcock w Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor novel “D’entre les Morts” by Pierre Bioleau, Thomas Narcejac ph Robert Burks ed George Tomasini m Bernard Herrmann art Hal Pereira, Henry Bumstead cos Edith Head tit Saul Bass
James Stewart (John “Scottie” Ferguson), Kim Novak (Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton), Barbara Bel Geddes (Midge), Tom Helmore (Gavin Elster), Henry Jones (Coroner), Raymond Bailey (Doctor), Ellen Corby (Manageress), Konstantin Shayne (Pop Leibel),
Vertigo is a film that still splits critical opinion to this day. Barry Norman dislikes it and I certainly can’t say that I particularly like it. Yet it’s one that gnaws at you, disorients you, distorts reality and ultimately leaves you as dizzy as the central protagonist. It’s not a perfect film, but I find it hard to disagree with Leonard Maltin when he said Vertigo was “a genuinely great motion picture that demands multiple viewings.” Each viewing gives you an extra piece to the puzzle. Some day, you’ll see the big picture. Though many might say that a film that can only be truly understood after multiple viewings is hardly the essence of cinema, I disagree. Like the seemingly possessed painting of Carlotta Valdés in the museum, you come back to it again and again and look at it in different angles, in different moods. It really does merit it.
The story here (a detective with a fear of heights is drawn into a complex plot in which a girl he is besotted with apparently falls to her death) is secondary to the underlying complexities. This is a film that haunts not only Scottie and San Francisco (can anyone not think of it when seeing the Golden Gate bridge?) but time itself, rather like the massive trees the protagonists visit prior to the first murder. For a long time I didn’t rate the performances in the film and, to an extent, Novak is little more than a cipher, but Stewart is extraordinary. Only when you get over the nagging doubt about him being miscast do you get it, namely that the same doubt is exactly the point. It niggles you, discomforts you and unsettles you and this feeling is intensified by Robert Burks’ marvellous dreamy photography, Saul Bass’s unforgettable title sequence and Bernard Herrmann’s once in a lifetime (for any other composer) score, from its haunting credit titles to the magnificent tarantella dance music for the nightmare.
However, in spite of this feeling of disorientation, that is by no means the full story. It’s all the more impressive considering its wilful disregard of cinematic convention. It allows the murderous husband to get away with it, allows its twist to be revealed little after half way (still something I think was Hitch’s only real mistake, better to have it revealed on the fatal staircase) and does not bother to explain how Stewart escapes the rooftop in the opening scene or whether the landlady of the boarding house was an accomplice in the conspiracy. Furthermore, it has a hero who takes antihero to a new level, turning Scottie Ferguson into a sadistic vengeful monster, awash in his own selfishness and obsessions. Indeed, he obviously has a cruel streak even before Madeleine’s death (revelling in Bel Geddes’ unrequited devotion to him for one) and a touch of voyeurism – he thinks nothing of stripping Novak completely when she falls into the bay and putting her into bed. Surely that wasn’t quite necessary and, without seeming too much of a gentleman, I wouldn’t have felt quite right even considering doing that, even with a close female friend, let alone a total stranger. What’s more, the scenes where he remodels Judy Barton as Madeleine Elster are almost stomach-churning in their near sadism and bathed in sexual significance that can be interpreted in many different ways, rather like the film itself.
Vertigo may or may not be his greatest film, but it’s undoubtedly his most layered and analysed, a film not afraid to leave its audience confused, dizzy and more than a little upset at the resolution. But I guarantee that it’s a film that you couldn’t forget, even if you wanted to.
A fine review of a film that has inspired literally countless words of devotion and adoration, Allan. My review attempted to reconcile what many interpret as Hitchcock’s perversity with the sometimes loosely-defined but, I believe, resilient morality that is frequently overlooked in his oeuvre.
I love your take, however. That said… as a San Francisco Bay Area native, I must offer one defensive note for Ferguson, which is that the bay’s waters are quite cold, and though the strangeness of stripping Novak usually evokes startled responses from people who watch the film (I notice their noticing, haha), it may have been the most sensible option (her soaked clothes would keep her very cold). Though as others have noted, perhaps just bringing her to the hospital would have been the wiser and less awkward course of action.
Alexander, I am sure Allan will respond to you soon enough, but I must say you (again) have shown your utter mastery of the “comment,” offering up sights that often eclipses the pieces you examine. That was a fascinating revelation there about the bay waters!!!
Yes, my point mainly was that he had Midge a call away. You’d surely get some female acquaintance to do the undressing, but you know he’d enjoyed doing it.
And Alexander, you have my word I will read your review of VERTIGO and respond to it when I come home from BLINDNESS, which I am leaving the house to see now.
Allan I rate VERTIGO as Hitch’s greatest film, myself.
I’m totally with you Sam, I adore Vertigo and it is my favourite Hitchcock film.
Nice analysis, Allan. Vertigo is one of Hitch’s films that I watched at a young age and didn’t like, but one that I definitely need to re-examine.
Quite right, Allan, quite right. 🙂
Thank you, Sam.
It’s difficult to rate Hitchcock’s absolute best film. Notorious was so playfully stylish with a twisted narrative that invites great discussion. Rear Window is probably his most purely suspenseful picture. Vertigo is his most revelatory and personal work. Psycho arguably his most important and lasting.
They, and a few others, all offer some intriguingly different sides to the master.
That’s a great way of looking at it Alex, because each Hitchcock film has something different going for it, different reasons as to why we regard them as highly as we do, but I can say those four you mention there are all my favourites of his.
Nick and Alexander, thanks so much for enriching this discourse with some excellent observations. I agree Alexander that those films you mention are indeed his penultimate masterworks, and I can’t argue with those superb reasons why they quality as such. I might btempted to put the likes of REBECCA for its consumate craftsmanship and great acting, SHADOW OF A DOUBT for its psychological undertones and the much-imitating delight THE LADY VANISHES with that lot.
Joseph, thanks again for visiting the site and making that admission. I would wager even money you’ll have a change of heart when you back to it.
Ok, I’m finally making my way over here. Wonderful crew you’ve assembled, Sam. 🙂
“What’s more, the scenes where he remodels Judy Barton as Madeleine Elster are almost stomach-churning in their near sadism and bathed in sexual significance that can be interpreted in many different ways, rather like the film itself. ”
This is a great observation, Allan. I have to confess it’s been a while since I’ve seen the film, but apart from the famous ‘vertigo’ shot down the stairwell, this is the scene that sticks in my memory the fullest. You’re completely right – it’s chilling the way he aggressively makes her over and forces her into the mold that exists only in his head. I need to revisit this one ASAP.
I think Alexander’s right in the fact that every film, or at least every major film, in a director’s legacy, shows something of him. It betokens our current obsession with dismissing mere ‘entertainments’ that when discussing his best films, we talk about Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, Notorious, yet ignore North by Northwest, The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent as they are merely tales of innocents on the run or up against spies, villains, etc.
In that respect, it parallels quite nicely one of Hitch’s biggest influence, and how the Mabuse films, Spione, etc, get pushed aside these days in favour of M (admittedly his best film), The Big Heat and even The Woman in the Window.
It’s also summed in up in how a mutual acquaintance of Sam’s and I looks down on my lionising of Howard Hawks – the personfication of the the ‘entertainments’ issue. We sometimes forgot that movies are entertianment as well as art. It’s like dismissing Mozart’s The Magic Flute because it’s too light compared to Don Giovanni.
One might say it just proves that some films find themselves enbalmed, or, to use an oft-used term, paralysis by analysis.
Thanks for coming over Evan, I must admit it meant a lot to me to see you here.
As you know (like you) I have a lot on my plate, and I could never fill this site with just my own stuff, as after seeing all this stuff in numerous venues I only have so much time to write full reviews. Again you know full well the difficulty in that. My good friend Allan from the U.K., who will be stateside at our home foir three weeks in December, is a very talented and all-encompassing writer, who has well over a thousand reviews in his existing book. He plans on posting one review every single day from here in on in.
Tony will hopefully make more contributions as well, and there are two other fine writers who may be sending stuff on at some point.
In any case we hav estarted out well enough, let’s see where it leads. Your comment is of course quite excellent, and I can surely agree, having watched this film multiple times through the years. It is as chilling a scene as Hitchcock has ever created, methinks. I’m sure Allan will have more to say.
Thanks again Evan, your name here makes me feel real good.
Yes, Evan is certainly not wrong. Vertigo is a film it takles several viewings to get, and if it doesn’t, then you’re not really getting it in the first place, if that makes sense.
It’s kinda Hitchcock’s Persona, arguably his greatest work, yet not the first film of his you might put in the DVD player.
Allan’s phrase “paralysis by analysis” has set me thinking.
I am a novice here, but I wonder in the process of deconstruction, don’t we risk losing the “essence” of that which we value in a film, and without necessarily knowing we have lost it.
To me, cinema liberates us from the constraints of language and allows us to engage with “a” visual reality unhindered by the mantel of awareness, which is immediately blurred once we start “analysing” it with the inadequate tools of verbal communication.
As Alexis Zorba, in Kazantzakis’ novel, Zorba the Greek, says to his scholarly friend (and I am paraphrasing from memory here): “if only you could dance what you have said, then I would understand”. (Btw, Cacoyannis excellent film adaptation is a must see.)
Apropos Hitchcock, as Sam knows, I often struggle by swimming against the tide, overall I find his films cold and alienating, and watching them is like succumbing to the terrible angst that is a precursor to clinical depression. This is why I fondly recall The 39 Steps, where he lets the actors alone giving the magic of the relationship between Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll free reign.
“Apropos Hitchcock, as Sam knows, I often struggle by swimming against the tide, overall I find his films cold and alienating, and watching them is like succumbing to the terrible angst that is a precursor to clinical depression…” ha!very funny!… Tony, you know what you are describing don’t you?
Tony D’Ambra,
Do watching all… (I don’t actually mean all of his films, but the ones that leave you with the “noir-like” symptoms…I know you don’t mean physically, but emotionally perhaps?) … his films leave you with this feeling? Or only Hitch’s “Vertigo?”
Because as you know more so than me, that Hitch’s most “personal” film “Vertigo” fit ever so”tightly” in that dark realm called “film noir” by some (if not, by all) film noir fans. (Because of the elements of noir present in Hitch’s” Vertigo” for instance, a angst filled protagonist, who(m) is eventually redeemed, a doomed laden atmosphere which set the mood and tone for a fatalistic ending.) Do these words sound familiar? Because after viewing Hitch’s 1958 film Vertigo for the first time, I also experienced the same feelings cold, alienated, with terrible angst,
(Translation: these “symptom” are normal for a film noir fan to experience after watching a film filled with that much impending doom), but the only different between you and me, I was preparing to watch it again and again and aga….
Btw, have you ever watched Hitch’s 1956 film…
…The Wrong Man?
(Please don’t watch this film if you feel the above “symptoms” that you described coming on again!… especially, if you don’t want to experience these “symptom!”) 😉
“Because I think that Hitch’s The Wrong Man it a much more “darker” film with only a “ray” of hope flickering, by the end of the picture.
dcd 😉
Correction:
(Please don’t watch this film if you feel the above “symptoms” that you described coming on again!… especially, if you don’t want to succumb to the terrible angst that is a precursor to clinical depression…” ha!…very funny!… Tony, )
Dcd, I may have opened a can of worms that was best left sealed, like the Mummy’s tomb…
I don’t use words like “angst” and “depression” lightly. I have suffered from major depression for many years and it has taken a heavy toll. So why film noir? Because noirs give angst and alienation existential meaning, and while not always a shot at redemption, a justification for what is otherwise, if not meaningless, unfathomable.
The trouble with Hitchcock is he is so detached as to be indifferent. But, for example, director Robert Wise, in what I consider to be perhaps the greatest noir, The Set-Up (1949), identifies completely and with total compassion and regret, with the pathetic protagonist, the washed-up and finally crippled boxer, Stoker, played by Robert Ryan.
All I can say, Tony, is that if Hitchcock brings on depression and angst, don’t go near Dreyer or Sokurov or Tarkovsky, you’ll self-terminate.
Tony: (and Dark City Dame)
There is no question that Hitch’s work in large measure is detached to the point of indifference. Invariably, however, he evinces all the tight upper lip, dry sensibilities that are associated with the filmakers and the culture of Britain. Of course this dominant sensibility dominated his American films. One might say that VERTIGO is “clinical.” (of course Tony made direct reference to this with his admission of “clinical depression.”)
You qualify your position by asserting that “film noirs give angst and alienation existential meaning, and while not always a shot at redemption, a justification for what is otherwise, if not meaningless, unfathomable.”
There is nothing wrong with swimming against the tide, especially if you defend yourself as eloquently as you do Tony. I admit, a general rejection of Hitch is exceedingly bold, but you won’t be the first.
I love THE SET-UP as well Tony, and for much the same reason.
LOL Dark City Dame!
“All I can say, Tony, is that if Hitchcock brings on depression and angst, don’t go near Dreyer or Sokurov or Tarkovsky, you’ll self-terminate.”
Or Bergman. If any filmmaker ever peddled cinematic angst it was him.
Or Bill Douglas’ trilogy, you’d love that, Tony…
Allan, you are certainly right about Hitchcock’s more “simplistic” tales of good vs. evil, with good guys being chased by nefarious spies. North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondenct, The Lady Vanishes and others today are largely relegated to being considered seconnd-tier Hitchcock, though in many instances they provide an almost equally persuasive portrait of the man’s mindset and morality, not to mention his masterful technque. Interestingly, I just reviewd Eagle Eye, the flaws of which may mar it as a work of cinema but can at least partially be given clemency for the sake of “entertainment,” something all too often dismissed as unworthy of our time by more than a few snobby intellectuals, haha. A great comparison concerning Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”
And Howard Hawks may indeed be personification of “the ‘entertainments’ issue,” as you note, and I love him as well.
As I am out-gunned here, let me enlist some reinforcements.
Raymond Chandler once wrote of Hitchcock to a studio executive that he preferred to work with a director “who realizes that what is said and how it is said is more important than shooting it upside down through a glass of champagne”, and Grahame Greene (who also wrote respected movie reviews in the 30s and 40s) saw Hitchcock’s cinematic technique as gimmicky and pretentious, and as a story-teller Hitchcock was “appallingly careless: he has cared more for an ingenious melodramatic situation than the construction and continuity of his story”.
May I suggest also that some commentaters here have chosen to play the player and not the ball…
“some commentators here have chosen to play the player and not the ball…”
Aye, Tony. That is a good point. LOL!!!!! It just goes to show you that difficulties that invariably arise when one engages in this particular director, and his most intellectually demanding and complex film. Bringing in Chandler and Greene is a potent mix, I’ll have to sit on that and come back to the discourse later today as I’m heading over now to see Clint Eastwood’s THE CHANGELING at it’s New York Film Festival screening at the Ziegfeld.
But what’s intriguing, Tony, is that you enlist reinforcements but in doing so bring on not extra queens, rooks, knights, or even, as may be more appropriate when discussing cinema’s premier rebellious Catholic, bishops, but the flimsiest of pawns. Chandler and Greene are great writers, but they are hardly great film critics or connoisseurs. Greene praised some true mediocrities in his time while Chandler had little time for cinema at all.
As for playing the player not the ball, that analogy seems rather strange when discussing Hitchcock or any director. Yes, one should not let a reputation get in the way of the evidence of one’s own eyes, and I admit I myself found Vertigo problematic on initial viewings, but if we are guilty of playing the man and not the ball then so are 95% of the critical establishment. I’m not afraid to be on the minority cause when I feel that it’s justified and that a film has lain neglected unjustly, but are you not yourself also playing the man and not the ball by generalising Hitchcock with relation to this one film with that aforementioned “the trouble with Hitchcock” applying your theory on the man to the film in question. It works both ways.
Ok – I have raised the white flag – but a couple of observations before I hit the canvas: Chandler hated hollywood not movies, and Greene collaborated on The Third Man, perhaps the best movie ever. And Allan i take it then only critics and connoisseurs can have a valid opinion of so rarified a realm as movies? I am pretty sure Chandler’s reply to that assertion would be along these lines: go fry a stale egg 😉
Agreed, and I’d laugh and agree with him in some ways, but that doesn’t make him any more right in his feelings in Hitchcock. There was a lot of unfinished business towards Hitch over the Strangers on a Train script business.
I LOVE HITCHCOCK! WHAT’S THE PROBLEM HERE?
“There was a lot of unfinished business towards Hitch over the Strangers on a Train script business.”
Hi! Allen Fish,
Right you are!…I think there was one story were
he (Chandler) committed the ultimate sin… he let Hitch overhear him talk about “gasp!” (Hitch) weight!…and I think actress Tippi Hedren, also “ran a foul” of Hitch or committed the same (infraction)(by using the (“F”) at word!…”gasp!”
and he (Hitch) severed all ties with her during the shooting of their last film together Marnie.
dcd 😉
Dark City Dame, nothing gets by you!
Speaking of Hitch, I have to spend some time tomorrow at T.S.’s Screen Savour site, as I know his Hitch festival is in full swing.
I understand though where Tony is coming from; he is not the only critics who has found disturbing qualities in Hitchcock’s work.
“Dark City Dame, nothing gets by you!…”
Hi! S.J.
Especially, when it comes to knowing all things about Hitchcock as in Alfred.
“Speaking of Hitch, I have to spend some time tomorrow at T.S.’s Screen Savour site, as I know his Hitch festival is in full swing…”
Btw, Did you know that his website Screen Savour jumped from the No#4 to the No# 2 spot over there on the The Lamb Assn. leaderboard today? I am also in the process of trying to become a “Lamy” ?!?
I wonder what caused that? …Go figure?!?… I guess I am going to have to ask him (T.S.) when he return from his travels.
dcd 😉
I cannot thank you enough Dark City Dame for spending all this time at out site; your presence here is very reassuring and colorful, not to mention passionate.
T.S.’s site is exceptional. I am not the least bit surprised he is doing very well. I would be interested in hearing some expected good news about his blog acendancy. I will be spending some time over there tomorrow. His BLACKMAIL piece really looks good.
“T.S.’s site is exceptional. I am not the least bit surprised he is doing very well. ”
I agree wholeheartedly with you, S.J., about his (T.S.) blog.
No, I was just wondering how the Lamb Assn. determined….(The “hits”) in order for a blog to go from 5th to 2nd or from 1st to 3rd place on their leaderboard.
Since my entry is pending a review and decision by the Lamb Assn….I think that I may have to by pass their leaderboard…because I don’t want to compete (I guess it’s kind of like a competition, but I am not sure?!?)…with my fellow ebloggers.
Btw, If I am not mistaken, I think that he (T.S.) said,”Blackmail is one of his favorite(s) Hitchcock films.” S.J., Have you ever watch the film BlackMail?…I must admit I have watched the film BM only once…Therefore, I am going to have to give it another viewing later next week.
dcd 😉
Dark City Dane, I honestly am not sure how that ‘Lamb Assn.’ rating system is applied. Both Allan and I have seen BLACKMAIL and think very highly of it. I expect Allan may post his review of it later in the week.
Well, I can do, though it’s the silent version of the film I rate as the minor masterwork, the talkie has dated less well.
Geez, what a thread here. Count me among the film’s huge fans. It is the director’s masterpiece.
I remember this one being tough. I like “Psycho” and “The Birds” the best of his films.
My favorite is “Notorious” but I love “Vertigo” too.
While still groggy from the tko delivered here, I have some news. Universal has just released a 50th Anniversary 3-DVD set of Vertigo with loads of extras.
Full info at: http://tinyurl.com/3pysnl
Btw, D’Ambra,
D’Ambra said, “I have some news. Universal has just released a 50th Anniversary 3-DVD (Oops!” typo” Tony D’Ambra, ) set of Vertigo with loads of extras.”
Btw, D’Ambra, That is a 2-DVD set, because I plan to give it away again!…Sorry! for the correction!
dcd 😉
Sam Juliano,
I am so ashamed (If only I had a red-faced smiley) to say this, but I think that I have to rethink that comment below:
dcd said, “I think that I may have to by pass their leaderboard…because I don’t want to compete (I guess it’s kind of like a competition, but I am not sure?!?)…with my fellow ebloggers. ”
Since joining the lamb and becoming a member and appearing on their board twice! (I think “riding” T.S. and Dean Treadway’s coat tails! ha!) it’s kind of nice to be on their leaderboard, but I am not sure if I am suppose say it “outloud”(externally)….I think that I am suppose to “take pride” (internally) and not let other know how I feel!…Even though it’s nice to be on the leaderboard. I still don’t feel that I am a competitive person at any cost!
…Btw, Sam, Do you know Dean Treadway personally?…What a “strong” personality!…What a very nice man!
dcd 😉
DCD, they both are honored, I’m sure, to have you on board, and well they should be.
Unfortunately, I don’t know Dean Treadway at all, but he does come off as quite a nice person, based on those interview excerpts I read. And he certainly knows his stuff. I look forward to the next installment!
Sam said, “Allan I rate VERTIGO as Hitch’s greatest film, myself.”
If that is the truly the case… Sam, do you have a little “surprise” coming you way!…Well! maybe?!?
hmm..
dcd 😉
Omg! another Oops! moment!…I meant to say, Sam, do you have a little “surprise” coming “your” ( not “you”) way!…Well! maybe?!? ha!
dcd 😉
Dark, City Dame, I am afraid to think of what that surprise may be, but I think I have an idea. LOL!!!!
I am floored.
Sam Juliano said, “I am afraid to think of what that surprise may be, but I think I have an idea. LOL!!!!
I am floored.”
Oh! No! Juliano, What are thinking? and Why are you “floored?”…I need to know what are you thinking? Because I don’t want to “built up” your hopes! …haha!
darkcitydame 😉 :lol
Dark City Dame:
I was suspecting that you may have been planning to send me a poster of VERTIGO. But of course I don’t want you to do that, even though as always I am warmed by your kindnesses and beautiful words.
Good review Allan.
It’s not a warm Hitchcock entertainment like ‘The 39 Steps’ or ‘North by Northwest’, nor a cold one like the magnificent ‘Notorious’ – but I found it (on it’s first showing after being withheld from public viewing for 2 decades over, I think some kind of rights issue) – to be wholly bewitching. And I’ve loved it ever since. It left me speechless like the 1st time I’d watched ‘Citizen Kane’, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ‘The Godfather’.
The only thing I would query is the idea that it splits critics in two. It had middling average reviews on it’s first release but was hailed almost universally as a magnificent masterpiece since it’s re-release in the mid ’80s. Norman even included it in his 100 Greatest Films book at the turn of the century.
No, Bobby, Norman didn’t. Norman’s always been against it. His only mention of the film in the introduction is why it’s not good enough.
And quite a few other critics were split in, too, as well as in reference tomes, where Halliwell only gave it **. But in fairness I think it’s a film you need to see several times.
Well, guys, let’s get this solved. Did Barry Norman have it in the top 100 or not? I have that book on my shelves at home (I’m at school now of course; it’s 9:00 A. M. here in theNYC area, but 2:00 P.M. by you guys) so the proof will eventually be in the pudding.
LOL!!! Bobby, it is an epiphany, I’ll agree with you there.
51 comments?
Well, it’s obviously a carry-over thread. But if any film deserves a double-dip, this is it. A landmark in every sense of the word.
Hi! Allan Fish, Sam Juliano and WitD readers,
Oops!…I didn’t notice (earlier this morning) that this was the former thread. (About Hitchcock ‘s 1958 film Vertigo that causes me to “cringe” from some of my previous comments on this thread.) LOL 😆
Allan Fish!…I have on a trench coat, (btw, with the collar turned wayyyy up!) a big floppy hat, and dark sunglasses 8) and not because I think that it is “cool,” but to be “incognito” as I voice my opinion about Hitch’s 1958 film Vertigo again! ….
….Yes, I think that this film is a classic and if I was stranded on a desert island and had to take between 5-10 of Hitch’s best films with me I most definitely, would include Hitch’s 1958 film Vertigo on the list along with….
No#1. The Lady Vanishes
No#2The 39 Steps
No#3. To Catch A Thief
No#4.Notorious
No#5. Rear Window
No#6. North By NorthWest and
No#7. Psycho…
Thank, goodness for the (No#2) methinks! 😕
Deedee 😉
Well,I have the book, too, Sam, both editions, and it isn’t in there as an entry in the 100, never was…
Dee Dee is wearing her trenchcoat Allan, and is wearing sunglasses. What about her ‘desert island’ list there?
Surely the idea of a desert island Hitchcock list is a bit strange. That’s for if you’re stranded up a high building for life. For a desert island, get Buñuel’s Robinson Crusoe, it’ll give you tips…
This movie is great for a lot of reasons, many of which have already been mentioned here in other posts. Here’s a few more:
Novak skillfully playing two very different personalities.
The view it gives us of San Francisco circa the 1950’s.
The movie’s plot goes through very interesting thematic changes (Starting as a supernatural love story/drama then changing mid-stream into a psychological drama heavily laden with irony.).
It has a wonderful musical score.
And there is a VERY dark ending to the story (Something almost unheard of in American movies prior to the mid-1960’s) The review here is quite a bit more than adequate.
Allan, what can I add that hasn’t already been said? Perhaps that I am astounded that this review has already generated nearly 60 comments! That shows at the very least the quality of the writing, the enduring interest in Hitchcock, and the enigma of “Vertigo.” Alexander is right about how cold the Pacific Ocean is in northern California, with water temperature in the 50’s even in the summer. I’ve lived in California all my life and have never been able to swim in the ocean here.
Another thing I would like to bring up again is James Stewart. What a performance. And what an ambiguous character, a real seething mass of contradictions–one of the greatest characters and greatest performances in all cinema. Could any other actor have gotten away with this performance? How brilliant of Hitch to cast the eminently likable Stewart as Scottie. But then Hitch, like Anthony Mann, always was able to see the dark side of the Stewart screen persona.
Watch this movie if for nothing else to see what San Francisco looked like when it was possibly the most beautiful city on Earth. It hasn’t looked like this in a long while and never will again, and no other movie I can think of has captured the uniqueness and beauty of SF at its peak so well as “Vertigo.” Last comment: Remember Bobby J’s concept of the “three brains”? This movie is the perfect example of a film that appeals equally–and equally strongly–on all three of those levels. Now for the big question: What will be #1?
Indeed R.D., indeed.
The high number of comments tells you a lot about the iconic status of this film, an everlasting adoration of Hitchcock, and of course Allan’s excellent capsule. You and Alexander live in the same area near the bay, and I know that’s not a swimming haven. Thanks for confirming that.
Oh I completely agree with everything you say there about Stewart’s performance, persona, and ‘seething mass of contradictions.’ Yep, you are right: no other actor could have gotten away with this. Good point about Hitch and Anthony Mann both looking at Stewart’s ‘dark screen persona.’
I would imagine you are quite right what you say about San Francisco not sustaining the visual beauty it once boasted, and that’s a fine correlation of Bobby’s ‘three brains’ proposal.
It appears R.D. that VERTIGO will place at or near the top of your own list.
Allan’s #1 film is without question one of the greatest films in the history of the cinema. I love it more than I can relate here.
I stand corrected on Barry Norman’s 100. Just did the search. Was certain it was there!!! Agree with Allan that it did divide critics on it’s initial appearance. Thought he critical consensus nowdays is complete adulation.
I think one of the really great things about it is that, like Allan pointed out, it doesn’t show the villian getting caught and all the other little plot strands tied up as cinematic conventions did then and now. A bit like Kubrick not willing to answer any questions about the ending of ‘2001’. I remember that Frank Capra stated that the number one question he was always asked was, why did Potter get away with the money in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ 😉
Bobby J – and other WitD readers:
Love the thread, particularly because it’s about one of my top 5 favorite films of all-time (I’ll be starting a string of essays on my Top 10 soon-I’ll say right now that VERTIGO is No. 3), and clearly the one I consider Hitchcock’s masterpiece.
As far as the villain of this film ‘getting away with the crime’ and bringing up that Potter in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE getting away with the money, the answer to this is simply that life is unfair sometimes. The filmmakers in both of these movies have accepted the fact that sometimes life takes on unexpected turns. The fact remains that the terrorists involved in 9-11 and Osama Bin Laden have never been brought to justice, and probably never will be, is just a bad drink that we’ll have to swallow. I love the fact that truly great filmmakers like Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Capra, were thoughtful enough to allow us to do our own pondering.
Bringing up 2001, I would be totally tuned off to the movie if the great Stanley had explained every minute theory of that film. Ambiguity sometimes is a wonderful thing, and although the villain getting away with the crime in VERTIGO is a small point, I nonetheless believe Hitchcock was right in not dwelling on something that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in the end.
Remember, the film is about Scotty and his obssession with Madeline, not about who was going to jail for murder.
Once again!…Hi! Allan Fish…
Allan Fish said,”Surely the idea of a desert island Hitchcock list is a bit strange.”
ALLAN FISH!….That isn’t “strange” ha!-ha! LOL 😆 .. not at all!…hmmm…let see the title of this thread is Vertigo (No#2) and not Buñuel’s (No# 2)
But…
Allan Fish, I get the “POINT” and “TOUCHE”
Fish said,”That’s for if you’re stranded up a high building for life.” Ha!Ha!… LOL 😆
Fish said, “For a desert island, get Buñuel’s Robinson Crusoe, it’ll give you tips” …Ha! Ha!… LOL 😆
Tks,
DeeDee 😉
Hi! Allan Fish, Sam Juliano and WitD readers…
Oh! Please let me “expound” on “me” quote…
“Thank, goodness for the (No#2) methinks”
Oh! no!… not the No#2 film The 39 Steps, but that the (No#2) is
behind the word Vertigo.
Phew!…I bet all of you, WitD readers, are really glad that I “cleared” that up!…Oops! I’am so sorry!…about the sarcasm
Tks,
Dcd
….Your comment(s) is awaiting moderation.
I know, I know… Allan Fish and Sam Juliano,
because I changed my user name again!
from (The Noirista to Dcd.)
I know, I know Tony, this “Dame,” have more alias than…. 😉
Dee Dee:
Just to let you know that you are the “Queen” of this VERTIGO thread with 13 submissions, nearly all of them insightful.
This thread is yours, my good friend, and so it should be too, as you ran a month-long consideration of the film back in December I think, with the participation of Hitchcock scholars.
I salute you again.
Dee Dee:
The numbers for the poll won’t be tabulated until after Sunday night, which is the poll deadline, (5 more days of voting) but I’m getting the feeling that our friend Mr. Hitchcock is going to do very well.
Hi! Sam Juliano,
Let me make that an even No#14…Due to the fact, that I’am….
Definition of Superstitionan irrational, but usually deep-seated belief in the magical effects of a specific action or ritual, especially in the likelihood that good or bad luck will result from performing it…
Yes, I’am “superstition” to
a certain extent …hmmm, but not really! 😕
What a discussion!
I love Vertigo, and this has only made me want to revisit it as soon as possible. It’s been a while.
Like many of you, I find ranking Hitchcock movies so very difficult. There are so many I love for so many different reasons. I can’t add much to the discussion here, but this is a heckuva good choice for #2, Allan.
[…] Death and the Detective : Vertigo Revisited; A Month of Vertigo : the Boggers and Their Posts; Vertigo (no. 2) ; Rhik Samadder My Favorite Hitchcock : Vertigo […]