Vertigo (1958)

'Vertigo' is an American psychological thriller movie, made in 1958 by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. It is a haunting and unique film which was not successful on first release - it received just two Academy Award nominations, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Sound but won none, most of the awards that year going to 'Gigi.' Nevertheless its reputation has since steadily grown and it is now recognised by many as one of the finest films ever made, a combination of murder mystery, love story and classic thriller. It is a fascinating, multi-layered masterpiece, representing the pinnacle of achievement of Hitchcock's brilliant career.

In the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies it is listed at number 61 and in their Top Mystery Films category it is listed at number 1.

In 1989, Vertigo was recognized as "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot Outline

Police detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) nearly plunges to his death during a rooftop chase. The psychological scars left by this incident and by the feelings of guilt of having been responsible for the death of a fellow officer who tried to rescue him, induce in Scottie a phobia - vertigo, or fear of high places, the phobia which caused his accident in the first place.

He is forced to retire from the police and is later hired as a private detective by an old friend from college, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), who wants Scottie to follow and check up on his beautiful blond wife, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak). He is worried that Madeleine has symptoms of a mental illness or even spiritual possession. Scottie tails Madeleine, who wanders the city in a trancelike, obsessive state, visiting the grave and painting of a woman called Carlotta Valdes, who killed herself 100 years earlier. Scottie notices a resemblance between Madeleine and Carlotta.

He is strongly attracted to Madeleine and when she makes a suicide attempt from the Golden Gate Bridge. Scottie saves her and takes her back to his apartment. Scottie learns from Gavin that Carlotta was Madeleine's current age, 26, when she killed herself. When Madeleine tells Scottie she has dreamed of Mission San Juan Bautista, he takes her there. Madeleine suddenly runs into the belltower and through a window, Scottie sees her plummet from the top of the tower to her death.

At the inquest Scottie is severely criticized by the coroner for negligence and his depression increases. He becomes obsesssed and begins to revisit the places where he and Madeleine had been. On one trip, he encounters a woman, Judy Barton (Kim Novak again) who bears some resemblance to the dead Madeleine.

He later receives a letter from Judy in which she admits to being Madeleine. She had been bribed by Elster to act as an unstable "Madeleine". The body which Scottie had seen falling from the tower was that of Elster's real wife, hurled, already dead, from the tower by Elster himself. Scottie had been hired simply to function as a reputable witness of Madeleine's suicidal tendencies.

Scottie becomes as obsessed with Judy as he had been with Madeleine and insists that she dresses and does her hair in an identical way. He grows suspicious of her when he sees a red, jeweled pendant that he remembers Madeleine claiming to have inherited. He and Judy go to the Mission belltower again and he forces her to climb up the tower. When a shadowy figure appears at the top of the stairs, Judy steps backwards off the tower ledge, plunging to her death. The figure, a nun, whispers, "God, have mercy," as Scottie stares down at the fallen body. His vertigo is cured, but the price has been too high.