Another masterpiece from Hitchcock

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2012)

As the film opens we see a rooftop chase taking place high above the streets of San Francisco; a policeman slips and is left hanging from a gutter; another policeman goes to help him but he slips and falls to his death. The man hanging from the gutter is John 'Scottie' Ferguson and after the events that day he is plagued by acrophobia which causes an intense sense of vertigo whenever he looks down from a height. With this condition he doesn't feel able to continue working in the police but is soon being asked to work in a private capacity for an old college friend. He believes his wife, Madeleine, is being possessed by one of her ancestors who committed suicide at her age; he asks John to follow her and it soon becomes apparent that something strange is going on. She visits a gave then goes to an art gallery where she looks at a portrait of the woman whose grave she visited; she then continues to a hotel where she is registered under that woman's name! The plot continues to thicken when he sees her jump into the bay; he rescues her but when she comes to she has no recollection of the events. She gets to know him and talks of a strange dream; he believes she is dreaming of a real place she once visited and from her description he knows just where it is. They head there hoping to break the dream but the trip ends in tragedy when she apparently jumps from the church tower as he is powerless to help her because of his acrophobia. This disturbs him and he has a breakdown; until one day he finds a woman that looks very similar to Madeleine.
This Alfred Hitchcock film is a real classic featuring a great performance from the always reliable James Stewart as Ferguson and solid support from Kim Novak as Madeleine and Barbara Bel Geddes as his friend Midge. The story had me gripped from start to finish as I tried to figure out just what was going on with Madeleine. After the incident in the tower it was just as interesting to watch Ferguson's obsession grow as he tries to get the look-alike to change her appearance so she'd look even more like Madeleine. Hitchcock made the most of the San Francisco location without it feeling like he was using the shot just to show off the famous landmarks that appeared; he also used some interesting techniques to emphasise Ferguson's sense of vertigo and his growing obsession. If you are a fan of film this one really is a must see; it is a gripping story told in an original way.