A Stylish, Subversive Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2009)

"Vertigo" is a beautifully realised psychological thriller which very elegantly tells the story of an extremely calculated murder plot which is expertly executed by a perpetrator whose involvement remains unrecognised (by the authorities) throughout. With its disturbing themes of obsession, deception, necrophilia, guilt and fear and its numerous noir motifs (mirrors, doubles, portraits etc), it provides a very stylish, absorbing and unsettling portrayal of a series of events in which, so many things are not what they appear to be and much is left unexplained. The skillful manner in which the more elliptical, dreamlike and thought provoking episodes are depicted are particularly enjoyable and its easy to see how these would be such a source of inspiration to the many directors who have been so strongly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock's work in later years.
Despite the passage of time and all the technical and stylistic developments that have ensued since the making of this film, it's incredible how well the effectiveness of some of its components still stand up (e.g. the opening titles, Scottie's nightmare and the forward zoom / tracking out shots which emulate the sensation experienced by vertigo sufferers).
Saul Bass' title sequence with its emphasis on the eye, the mind and spiralling designs, engages the attention immediately and with its level of pace and intensity, sets the mood for all that follows. The similarity that it bears to the opening sequence in Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" also leads one to suspect that Maurice Binder's work on that movie was, at least partially, influenced by "Vertigo".
James Stewart as detective John "Scottie" Ferguson who retired from the San Francisco police department because of an experience which left him with an uncontrollable fear of heights, is hired by his old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) to keep an eye on his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak). Elster is particularly concerned about her fragile mental state and asks Scottie to monitor her actions and report back to him. After overcoming some initial reluctance, Scottie takes the job but soon finds himself captivated by the mysterious woman who he later saves from drowning after she unexpectedly jumps into San Francisco Bay. Following this experience, Madeleine tells Scottie about a dream she's had in which she falls to her death from a church tower. He recognises her description of the location and arranges to take her there so that, hopefully, by seeing the place, her nightmare will stop recurring.
At the church, Madeleine begs Scottie to let her go in alone. He reluctantly agrees but becomes alarmed when he sees her running towards the tower. He chases after her, but becomes paralysed with fear before he can catch up with her and is then horrified when he sees her body falling past the tower window as she falls to her death. At the coroner's inquest, her death is recorded as suicide and Scottie is not held accountable for what happened either by the coroner or Gavin Elster. He is traumatised, however and subsequently suffers a nervous breakdown. The events that follow his eventual release from hospital then start to throw a different complexion on everything that had happened earlier.
Madeleine's character certainly is a complex creation as she is actually a woman called Judy Barton, remodelled to look like Gavin Elster's wife, deceitfully indulging in behaviour which is designed to give the impression that she's living on the edge of insanity, being both obsessed by and possessed by the late Carlotta Valdes. Hitchcock points to Madeleine's duality very soon after she first appears on screen by showing her image in the mirrors in Ernie's Restaurant and the flower shop.
The theme of doubling which centres on the Madeleine / Judy character continues throughout the story. Scottie is traumatised twice when, on both occasions, someone falls to their death from a great height, leaving him feeling guilt ridden. Scottie and Madeleine both harbour obsessive feelings about someone they believe is dead. Judy is given a make over by two different men (Scottie and Gavin). Scottie sees the object of his obsession fall from the church tower twice. Madeleine's hairstyle and bouquet mirror those depicted in the portrait of Carlotta and Scottie and Madeleine both have nightmares involving the church tower which appear to foreshadow their own deaths. Scottie is duped firstly into becoming obsessed with an apparition and secondly into becoming an accomplice to a murder.
James Stewart gives an assured performance in a very familiar type of role as an ordinary guy who's caught up in an extraordinary sequence of events. Kim Novak as Madeleine is remote and aloof and successfully creates the sense of mystique which is such an important element of what makes her character so compelling. She also shows a certain amount of range in her acting by playing the parts of two women at different ends of the social scale. The outstanding performance from a supporting actor comes from Henry Jones as the dead-pan droning coroner who's marvellously cynical and eccentric.
"Vertigo" leaves the audience to ponder on whether Scottie's obsession was actually something pathological, a Jungian "projection" maybe or even just a commentary on the sometimes illusory nature of romantic attraction. Similarly, how was it that such a seemingly subversive story in which a murderer gets away unpunished, was allowed to pass the relatively strict censorship code which was in operation at the time of the movie's release?