Not one of Hitchcock's best, despite its "rediscovery" in recent years

Rating: 3/10 (29 June 2017)

Bring up the title Vertigo now and no doubt cinema elites will immediately fall into rapturous descriptions of its brilliance. This is interesting largely because for many years, Vertigo did not even rank very highly in the Hitchcock milieu until its re-evaluation as a "classic" in the past two decades.
For those unfamiliar, Vertigo tells the story of John "Scottie" Ferguson, a police detective whose brush with death while chasing a culprit over San Francisco rooftops results in another police officer falling to his death while trying to save Scottie and Scottie's now being afflicted with a paralyzing fear of heights. On leave from the department and struggling with his recovery, Scottie is offered a detective assignment by a former college acquaintance Gavin Elster to shadow his wife Madeleine, who he fears is losing her mind and may be suicidal. Scottie falls in love with the enigmatic blond Madeleine, but finds himself unable to stop her when she races to the top of a convent bell tower and takes a swan dive off. Emotionally fragile and psychologically shattered, Scottie develops new purpose when he runs across shopgirl Judy Barton who physically resembles the late Madeleine, and he starts to remake her in Madeleine's image with tragic results for all involved.
Strangely, for many years, if you asked anyone to name their favorite Hitchcock films, there was a strong chance that Vertigo would not even crack the top ten. Now, it seems marketing makes it essential to include it at the top, but I am uncertain it earns this newfound glory. Certainly the film contains some of Hitchcock's hallmarks and some notable elements. The cinematography is gorgeous and Bernard Herrmann's haunting and menacing score is one of his best. Hitchcock also includes some memorable dream-like sequences. That said, I find little else to recommend the film.
The film starts off well enough and it seems that it is gearing up to be one of Hitchcock's trademark mysteries, but then the mystery element is completely dropped midway through and the film becomes an overview on unhealthy obsession. There are no real surprises on the road to the film's tortured climax. Anyone familiar with prior Hitchcock work and genre conventions will know exactly what is going on long before Scottie lumberingly figures things out. Hitchcock lets the cat out of the bag on the Madeleine/Judy connection fairly quickly (in fact, almost immediately after introducing Judy), so there is no chance for the viewer to play around with various views on it.
Hitchcock's work with the actors here is more miss than hit. James Stewart is an actor I normally love, but I find him a real endurance test here as Scottie. He is sympathetic enough in the opening as a man trying to conquer his fears and get his life back on track. Unfortunately, he starts to grate once on the tail of Madeleine. His stab at conveying his increasingly unhealthy interest in Madeleine largely has him glowering at the camera and furrowing his brow much like someone combating intestinal discomfort. There are endless scenes of him behind the wheel of his car with this fixed expression. The fact that there is several decades age difference between Stewart and leading lady, Kim Novak, is made even more uncomfortable by the fact that Stewart often looks old enough to be her grandfather rather than her romantic foil. Novak is beautiful, but stiff and undoubtedly directed by Hitchcock to be the embodiment of his trademark blonde ice queen. Barbara Bel Geddes has little more than a cameo as Stewart's girlfriend, who sticks by him through his rehab and then disappears without a mention.
Another problem with the film is that it is hard to be emotionally involved or have sympathy with the players. Scottie is initially sympathetic and focuses as our entry into this world of voyeurism and obsession. By contrast, Madeleine is so calculatedly weird that the narrative purposely never allows one to get a handle on her solely so that Hitchcock can manipulate the viewer (and Scottie). After meeting Judy later on, Scottie turns into a rampaging and unlikable jerk. Judy clearly likes him, but balks at Scottie trying to turn her into a replica of a dead woman, and Scottie demonstrates no remorse about forcing this woman to bow to his will. Worse, we are made aware fairly early on and Scottie ultimately learns that there was indeed a well-orchestrated murder plot in play, yet both Hitchcock and Scottie seem completely unconcerned and ambiguous about justice for the victim or bringing the perpetrator to the law. Instead, Scottie (and Hitchcock by extension) seems far more obsessed with bullying and terrorizing the increasingly frightened Judy, who now elicits more sympathy than does the unbalanced unappealing Scottie.
I also have a real problem with the conclusion. Even many of its most devoted fans will admit that the conclusion is unsatisfying, downbeat and absurd. The murder plot is not resolved at all. If the underlying theme is that all men are beasts underneath, then Hitchcock undermines that by taking too much delight in the psychological and physical abuse heaped on Novak's Madeleine and Judy characters. Perhaps we are to be impressed that Scottie's acrophobia is cured, but the fact that it takes a needless and ridiculously staged further death in order to cure it makes that a bitter victory - especially considering that Scottie lost our respect long ago so that few will even care.
No - I have to say that Vertigo does not cut it as a classic. As for Hitchcock, Vertigo falls well short of some of Hitchcock's many lofty peaks. I would go so far as to say that it pales in comparison with Rear Window, Rebecca, North by Northwest, Psycho, Strangers on a Train, Shadow of a Doubt, The Lady Vanishes, The Birds, Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Spellbound, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Notorious.