Probably Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece

Released in 1958, Vertigo opened to fairly mixed reviews and wasn’t a box office success. Locked away into the archives by Hitchcock it wouldn’t be rereleased until 25 years later. Absence certainly made the heart grow fonder, and Vertigo is now considered by many critics to be Hitchcock’s best work. It ranks #41 on IMDB and was named by the American Film Institute as the 9the greatest movie of all time, and #1 mystery.

From the opening sequence and score of Vertigo you just know that you’re in for something of a treat. The watchful eye that sits behind the title montage is a foreboding warning of what’s to come on the TV screen, something I would love to see on a theater screen. Swirling animations appear which will be a prominent theme throughout the movie, while Bernhard Hermann’s chilling score adds suspense at each turn. It’s an incredible opening that’s already got you sitting on the edge of your seat and the hairs on your arm on end.

James Stewart plays Scottie Ferguson, a detective who retires from the force because he suffers from, you guessed it, vertigo. It’s a form of acrophobia, fear of heights, that causes dizziness and in extreme cases, nausea and problems with standing or walking. Uncertain of his next move he’s asked by an old friend to follow his wife, Madeline. It seems that Madeline (Kim Novak) has issues of spiritual possession or mental illness as she occasionally wanders around San Francisco in a hypnotic state. There’s an obsession with Carlotta Valdes who turns out to be one of Madeline’s ancestors. She sits for hours before her portrait at a local gallery, leaves flowers at her graveside and rents a room in her old home. All the while Madeline doesn’t know that she’s doing this. Ferguson manages to keep his distance until one day Madeline attempts to take her life by throwing herself in the San Francisco Bay. It seems that Madeline is destined to follow the same tragic and suicidal fate that became Carlotta, something Ferguson is determined to shake her from.

This is a supernatural mystery, but it’s more appropriately classed as a tale of romance and obsession. As Ferguson follows Madeline, he becomes greatly drawn to her picture perfect beauty, her trance like mystique and her sense of helplessness. Once Ferguson pulls her out of the bay, the feelings become mutual and the two grow closer. Mixed in with the tale of romance however is the constant fear of impending doom as Madeline cannot shake the hold and obsession of Carlotta. I can’t tell you much more, as Hitchcock throws in a major plot twist halfway through the movie, but it’s probably worth remembering that this is a movie about Scottie’s vertigo and other characters are secondary. He also has some pretty serious control, manipulative and obsessive issues as we see later in the movie.

This is certainly a Hitchcock movie with a difference. It’s not your usual mystery tale. There is a mystery but it’s secondary to the exploration into the human psyche, psychological and obsessive disorders. It’s a romance too. It’s a cleverly crafted plot but the true highlight is Hitchcock’s directorial style, and this is probably his greatest achievement to that effect. Some of his camera styles have left other directors in awe. The most famed is the camera work that recreated the sensation of vertigo. In a dizzying technique he simultaneously zooms forward in a reverse tracking shot. It’s highly effective and something Hitchcock had wanted to achieve in Rebecca 18 years earlier but was only now able to do. There are extensive uses of spiraling symbolisms either to create the feeling of falling or allude to the idea of obsession. This is highly notable in the structure of the musical score, but also in the opening credits, the spiral staircase and even in Madeline’s and Carlotta’s spiral hairstyle. At various moments he deliberately uses light to accentuate certain moods and draw the viewer’s eye into the mind of the character and often to create ghostly effects. There are plenty of tricks to admire here, many of which were years ahead of their time.

I’ve mentioned Bernhard Hermann’s score already but it’s worth mentioning one more time as it really does capture the feel of the movie from start to finish, harmoniously drifting through moments of subdued romance and heightening and enhancing even the most vaguely innocuous of moments. You can’t forget the perfectly timed sensation of the wave crashing against the rock in the background either when Scottie passionately embraces Madeline. This truly is a technically masterful production that deserved more than its 2 non-winning Oscar nominations.

Both lead performances have received mixed reviews. When Vertigo didn’t become an instant success, Hitchcock unabashedly blamed it on Jimmy Stewart who he said had been too old for the role. Stewart had wanted to appear in Hitchcock’s next movie North by Northwest, but having worked together 4 times in the past, they never did again. Its biggest fault may have been that Stewart had always been known as the golden boy, the nice guy. In Vertigo he’s forced to play a more unsavory character, one that betrays his friend, pushes away the woman who cares the most for him and becomes aggressively obsessive and manipulative. There’s no fault to pick however as he pulls it off very well. Kim Novak was described as being a little too rigid, something she attributed to the suits that Hitchcock dressed her in. Hitchcock did in fact do his best to undermine her on set. He forced her to jump into the water 20 times for the drowning shot (Novak couldn’t swim) even though onlookers thought it looked fine the first time. And when Novak asked Hitchcock what her motivation was, Hitchcock mockingly replied “it’s just a movie.” While many have made comment over Hitchcock’s own obsessive control problems, to the point that Ferguson was his closest character, he really did have a style that drew exactly what he wanted out of his female leads. Novak’s rigid style perfectly captured the hypnotic and lost feel of Madeline. There’s more to her role than that, but again I don’t want to throw in too many spoilers.

I loved Vertigo. Hitchcock’s direction is brilliant and there’s a storyline that’s not even vaguely predictable. This could well be Hitchcock’s most perfect movie.

Verdict: 5 Stars Essential Viewing