Hitchcock in top form

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2015)

Jimmy Stewart plays Scottie Ferguson, a police detective who cannot abide heights. An old school acquaintance exploits Stewart's weakness to make his wife's murder look like a suicide. These are perfect ingredients for a mystery-thriller.
The film seems to reach an ending of sorts when the crime is committed. Stewart is sent to a sanatorium because of his double guilt: falling in love with the beautiful Madeleine (Kim Novak), another man's wife; and not being able to rescue her when she climbs a high tower to jump to her death. He just can't get (it) up to follow her to the apex - classic Hitchcock sexual imagery. Adultery coupled with inability to consummate is a miserable combination.
Just when you think it's all over, the film really gets going. As is often the case in Hitchcock's thrillers, the real fun is not in the crime, but in unraveling the mastermind's evil plot. Think about "Dial M for Murder," or "Rear Window," another Stewart vehicle.
While detective Scottie Ferguson strolls along the streets of San Francisco, having recovered from the sanatorium, he sees - Madeleine!
She turns out just to be a sales girl who resembles his dead flame. Or is that all? As Ferguson slowly remakes the sales girl in the image of Madeleine, the resemblance is just too uncanny. Finally a small mistake gives her away. It becomes clear that this girl IS Ferguson's Madeleine whom he loved, and that his school friend's real wife was the one dropped from the tower on that fateful day. When Ferguson insists on revisiting the crime scene, he inadvertently drives the impersonator who has come to love him to her real death atop the very same tower.
Hitchcock leaves it open whether the impostor's death finally frees Ferguson not just from his guilt complex, but also from his inability to have an intimate relationship. He certainly was no longer in love with the impostor when he realized the truth. And his patient girlfriend Midge, who nursed him through the sanatorium for months (played by Barbara Bel Geddes to great effect) is still there, waiting...
Midge is really the only good person in this morality play, really better than what Ferguson deserves. This is the reason Hitchcock cast the more ambiguous, sometimes whiny Stewart in the role, as opposed to a Cooper, Peck, or Grant. Hitchock plays all the drama to the max, assisted by the usual excellent Hermann score. The Edith Head costumes play a pivotal role in distinguishing the Madeleine-sales girl identities. Even the rear projection is fun to watch, as one can divine when Hitchcock thought a scene important enough to leave the safety of the studio. A 9/10 from the era when people still took Freud seriously, and suspenseful fun to watch even in the era when Freud is exposed as, well, let's just say someone who selectively analyzed his data. Just like Scottie Ferguson in this film.