Mesmerising Thriller Of Fearful Detective Falling For The Wrong Woman

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2011)

Scottie Ferguson retires from the police force because of an acute fear of heights. He is hired by an old acquaintance, Gavin Elster, to follow Elster's wife Madeleine, who seems to be losing her mind, as if she is possessed by some other spirit. As he becomes more involved in her plight, Scottie finds himself falling in love with this strange woman, who may not be all she seems ...
Vertigo is a masterpiece; one of Hitchcock's most stylish, daring, inventive and intriguing pictures. Technically, it is just dazzling, filled with astonishing moments, extraordinarily evocative locations, and masterful audience manipulation. But I think it's thematically where it really scores - it's one of those movies you can talk about for hours afterwards, interpret a dozen different ways, and has almost too many fascinating ideas going on. It also breaks so many rules it's hard to believe it's a mainstream Hollywood studio picture - the leading lady doesn't speak for forty-five minutes, the leading man is obsessed with her almost to the point of necrophilia, the clever trick-ending is given away half-an-hour before it finishes, and it concludes with perhaps the most horribly abrupt tragedy in the history of cinema. It's also a film which demands repeat viewings from the true movie-hound, not least of all to try to decipher what it means - all those shots of Novak reflected in mirrors, the moment in the woods where she seems to just disappear, her absence from the guest house when we've seen her at the window, the scene at Pebble Beach where she pleads, "I'm not mad"(eleine), the terrifying dream sequence where Carlotta seems to be haunting Scottie. Also, what is Jimmy Stewart, the all-American good guy, doing here ? Scottie is a washed-up coward, he covets other people's wives, he's self-obsessed, he ignores the one person who really loves him (Midge) - he really is a sicko and yet he's the hero !? I like to compare him (and the movie) to Norman Bates in Psycho, who of course is a monster, but is also kind of sweet, bashful, well-intentioned and humble, all qualities completely lacking in Scottie. This is not to say Stewart is bad casting - on the contrary, it's brilliant, and he's terrific in the part as he gradually descends into complete madness. Novak is equally stunning, easily the most enigmatic of Hitchcock's Blonde M's, giving a riveting performance of someone giving a riveting performance, constantly teasing us with little cracks in the facade of a woman we don't really understand. Hitchcock and his frequent collaborator, cameraman Robert Burks, photograph the actors with extraordinary intensity, but also use the glamorous San Francisco locations to enormous atmospheric effect; the quiet moments at the California Palace Of The Legion Of Honor, the crucial moment at the Presidio when Novak falls into the bay, the eerie possession scene in Big Basin Redwoods State Park ("Here I was born, and there I died. It was only a moment for you, you took no notice ... ") and the unforgettable sequences at the beautiful Mission San Juan Bautista. Hitchcock creates a timeless sense of place, of characters moving across landscapes which are almost a part of the dreamlike story in of themselves. The final element in the movie's rich tapestry is the tremendous horror/romantic score by Bernard Herrmann. Right from the very first image of the woman's lips in closeup, Herrmann's music is working to disconcert us, unnerve us, pulling us into an abyss of deceit and artifice. The music sweeps and dives, dizzying us along with Scottie, driving us along to an inexorable fate we don't want to consider. The power of movie music is something extraordinary and this is one of the finest examples of it; if you don't believe me, watch the nightmare sequence with the sound turned down and then watch it again with the music - you'll be converted. Nicely scripted by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, from the book D'Entre Les Morts by noted French crime writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (who also penned the novel on which Les Diaboliques is based). Hitch of course made lots of very good films, but a handful of them are simply stratospheric, and this is one of those. Unmissable.