The persistent moniker of masterpiece that almost always accompanies discussion of the film, makes it hard to believe that Vertigo was not a critical success back in 1958, when it was originally released. In fact, is was dismissed as far-fetched nonsense back in its day. The people of 1958 didn’t know how good they had it. Vertigo for all intensive purposes is a masterpiece in every way a film can be, and to me stands out in Hitchcock’s expansive filmography as his best and most fascinating.
Vertigo is about a man in love with a illusion. Jimmy Stewart play’s John “Scottie” Ferguson, a detective forced into retirement because of a disabling fear of heights. He is persuaded to anonymously tail an old college buddy’s wife who appears to be exhibiting strange potentially life-threatening behavior. The woman in question, Madeline Elster (Kim Novak), wanders the streets of San Francisco in her green Jaguar inexplicably frequenting places significant to a distant relative who inhabited the city a hundred years ago. Scottie falls in love with Madeline only to tragically lose her when his fear of heights, and the resulting vertigo, keep him from saving her. The loss drives Scottie mad and he is institutionalized, unable to get over his obsession with Madeleine. Once he is released, he discovers a new girl(Kim Novak again) who bares an uncanny resemblance to his dead love and tries to recreate Madeleine.
When I try to think about why this film is so great, my immediate answer is because of how beautiful everything looks. San Francisco, usually a bastion of crime and the bizarre, has never looked more ethereal or dreamlike in film. The way vibrant color shines through the gossamer like mist rolling in from the bay, and the perennially azure skies. If there was ever a reason to advocate restoring old films the 1996 restoration of Vertigo is positive proof. The color is incredibly important in the film’s symbolism for each character, particularly the characters that Kim Novak plays, and the restoration allows it to shine through in all the radiance that was originally intended. The greens, grays, whites, blacks and reds all associated with her two characters particularly play an important role in Scottie’s memories of Madeleine.
Speaking of Kim Novak, one cannot discount the wonderful performance she gives as both Madeleine and Judy, the girl Scottie attempts to recreate in Madeline’s image. Kim Novak, in my mind, is an incredibly underrated actress whose performance in Vertigo only furthers my argument that she was an actress way ahead of her time. There is such a raw naturalism in every move she makes, especially when playing Judy. As Madeleine, she achieves the look and aloof temperament of the perfect Hitchcock ice-blond better than any of his other ice-blonds before or since. The fact that Hitchcock found Novak herself to be vulgar and every bit the antithesis of what he found to be compelling in his ideal females is amazing, given the superb job she does in bringing Madeleine to life. As Judy, she achieves an earnest vulnerability that makes the viewer sympathize with her character’s plight, in spite of her past sins. Every choice that Novak makes is dead-on.
James Stewart is similarly fantastic, playing against the all-American image cultivated in his early career playing Capra-esque protagonists. His Scottie is a tortured, and in many ways, twisted soul who becomes so entranced by the image of Madeleine that he loses all sense of reality and emotional contact with the real people who care for him. It is a remarkable performance and Jimmy Stewart plays the pain, longing, and obsession perfectly, making Scottie both sympathetic and at times unfathomably cruel. It is refreshing to see Stewart play a very flawed character.
Beyond the look and performances of the film, Bernard Herrmann’s score is a piece of great melodramatic and climactic beauty. Easily my favorite of his Hitchcock scores. The interplay at key moments between Hitchcock’s camera and the swells in Herrmann’s score is breathtaking. I am unable to envision any of these scenes without automatically associating the two, particularly the music.
Vertigo is a film that I love dearly. It is difficult to discuss all the ways I adore this film without treading too far into spoiler territory or rehashing the same old clichés that have been too often discussed by others more articulate than myself. When it comes down to the reason that I love this film so much, much of the pleasure comes from asking the question of how different the film would have been had Hitchcock not chosen to reveal what he does, particularly in the third act. Would the viewer react to the film and it’s characters in the same way? It is fun to speculate on the nature of the film’s “protagonists”. Are their behaviors justified? Should we feel the sympathy or lack of sympathy we do for them? I always get stuck in this mental trap every time that I think about this film.
If you have not watched Vertigo, do yourself a favor and watch it. If you’ve only seen it once, watch it a second time. Things become clearer during the second viewing. This is a film that should always been seen twice in order to achieve the full impact of this cinematic masterpiece.
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