This movie just doesn't work for me anymore

Rating: 5/10 (16 April 2005)

Sorry to intrude on this "love fest", if it is one, but...(I don't know if it is just the passing years or what), but this film just doesn't work for me anymore. Hitchcock is at his most extreme: stilted and improbable story line, red herrings, unresolved scene endings, deliberately severed suspense, demeaning and downbeat character portrayals, and a totally cynical and uncompromising ending. Hitchcock of the "least Hollywood kind", as one critic put it.
Being from California, I do enjoy the wonderful "time capsule" quality of the film; a lot has changed since 1957. The story is beautifully photographed (by Robert Burks) and wonderfully scored (by Bernard Herrmann, possibly his best), but the story is downright unbelievable, and deliberately so, I think, by a cynical artist who demonstrated (in an era of epics) that he could make a total incomprehensible film, and get away with it. The plot makes little sense and Hitchcock even "pushes the envelope further" by making the plot so unbelievable, that only a child would accept it.
In 1983, the critics Seiskel & Ebert described "The Trouble with Harry" as ..."Hitchcock's private joke...unfortunately, it's a little too private...", and I think the same can be said about "Vertigo": an uncompromising film that refuses to give little, if any instant gratification and insults our intelligence as well.
I sometimes wonder if the whole movie is some huge practical joke on Hitchcock's part. In an era of epics, he decided to make the anti-epic. A personal private movie to prove that he had the "wealth and the power", as an artist, to do anything he wanted to. A movie in which he would show total disdain for credibility or audience expectations, and sit back and watch (and laugh!) as all these pseudo-intellectuals, want-to-be movie critics, and various film buffs (maybe like us) tried to find "meaning". (Surprise!... There isn't any!)
Hitchcock liked to portray men as weak, ineffectual, mother and/or wife dominated, or just plain thieves and killers. He outdid himself on this one with the two male leads:
1. John "Scotty" Ferguson-a dumb, inept, unmotivated, asexual, self-retired, middle-aged ex-detective. 2. Gavin Elster-A slimy, sleazy, smooth talking opportunist(and murderer as well!), masquerading as an industrialist.
And then for a the women:
1. He has Marjorie "Wood" (how appropriate): a "clueless" nerdy, geeky, tomboy of a girl! (Hitchcock's cynicism is showing here...!) 2. Judy Bartlett (alias Madeleine Elster), a "dumb blonde" if there ever was one. A docile, stupid robot with one man, and a "silly little girl" with the other one....totally unbelievable!!
Anyway...that's the way I see it at age 56, so maybe my cynicism is showing as well (and it's about the same age that Hitchcock was when he made this film). Must be nice to have the "wealth & power" to make a deliberate "bomb", and still get paid for it! Artists are strange people, and Hitchcock sure was one of them!
Steve G.
Sept. 6, 2005 Update: Alright, alright, maybe I was a little rough on Hitch; after all, it's only a movie! I am beginning to think that Hitch was living his fantasy while making this film. He was Scotty, and that's why the film is like a dream, with a lot of unexplained events. I'll settle for the nice scenery and music, but the plot...(well, let's just say: it could have been better!).
July 17, 2006 Update (posted in the message board as well)
Hi Everybody, well...after all these years I finally saw the alternate (foreign censorship) ending, on the collector's edition DVD. A little hard to find: you have to go to Bonus Materials, then "Obsessed with Vertigo", then chapter list and scroll to chapter 14, and there it is! It only lasts a minute and 20 seconds, oh but what a difference it makes! Finally...some closure!! Takes place in Midge's apartment at night, and starts with a closeup of Midge to the left and a radio to the right. We hear the announcer saying that Gavin Elster was living in Switzerland but is now thought to be in France, and that Captain Hansen anticipates no trouble in having him extradited soon. Closeup of Midge as she hears footsteps and her front door opening. Scotty enters wearing a suit, but no hat, looks at Midge and then walks to the center of the room, and toward the window. Midge stands, and we now see she is only wearing a robe, and pours a drink for herself and Scotty. She walks over to him and hands him the drink then makes a half circle to her drawing desk, sits down, they both look at each other...fadeout! What happens after this is up to the viewer's imagination, but it was a great relief to me! I always thought that the original ending was kind of a cruel joke on the audience. Hitch was a weird guy! The foreign censors were correct in insisting on it (like spanking a naughty boy!). Where were our own censors, I'd like to know? How come the rest of the world got the complete story and the US didn't? Did Hitch forget we saved Britain from a German invasion? Weird guy...but thank God for closure!!! By the way, my new viewing does reveal a very well acted and very well crafted film, but still a rather prissy, childish, and silly story. That's my "take" anyway...! Regards,
RSGRE