THIS is a masterpiece?

Rating: 8/10 (17 August 2007)

Vertigo is considered one of the greatest films ever made and celebrated as Hitchcock's masterpiece. Perhaps it is. But I found myself bored as I watched it even though I had to admire the artistic intent. There are so many holes in the film it could qualify as cheesy. However, try telling that to those who love it. I think they love it as much for its flaws as for its perfections.
Perfections: the feel of the San Francisco Bay area, the sense of historical California, the great beauty of the ocean framed by Monterey cypresses, the redwoods, the Golden Gate Bridge as seen from below and off to the side, the Bautista Mission, the fifties interior decor, Madeleine's costumes, the angle of Scottie's fedora, the acting by the three stars, James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The musical score by Bernard Herrmann is also celebrated, but I found it a bit overbearing at times, and of course Hitchcock loved using music to direct our sensitivities, and one can tire of that.
Flaws: Scottie hanging from the drainpipe railing, watching the cop trying to save him fly over to land several stories down, dead. What is not explained is how the cop was expected to pull him up with nothing to hold onto or how Scottie managed to survive. Apparently he fell but only broke his back because in the next scene he is in surgical corset unable to scratch certain itches.
The ersatz psychology. It was the fifties and psychoanalytic psychology was all the rage. One of the bestsellers of the day was The Fifty-Minute Hour: A Collection of True Psychoanalytic Tales by Robert Lindner in which a shrink relates tales told by his patients. Hitchcock loved this sort of thing (cf., Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman). Audiences also loved it. But the psychology is strictly bananas.
Driving on the wrong side of the road (about which Hitchcock is reported to have said when it was pointed out to him, "You drive your way. I'll drive mine.") The plot. Oh, the plot. Never but never has there been a more elaborate and unlikely murder-your-rich-wife scheme. Judy Barton is hired, persuaded or, gee, maybe hypnotized into playing Gavin Elster's wife who is to commit suicide by jumping off the bell tower at the mission. First Gavin (Tom Helmore) has to establish that she's crazy and suicidal. This is done by having her drive dreamily around the Frisco Bay area looking for the haunts of her great grandmother who committed suicide. The key is to get Scottie to believe it so he can testify that she was suicidal. For this to work, (1) Madeleine has to fool a police detective--one might say mesmerize him, which she does, (2) Get him to the bell tower at the right time where he is afraid to go to the top--that works, but you have to buy the psychology, (3) Time it so that Madeleine appears to jump off, but in reality you throw the dead body of your wife off after having broken her neck (body kept warm perhaps in your car with the heater on?), (4) Hide with Madeleine at the top of the tower until the coast is clear (whenever that might be).
Although Kim Novak's performance is interesting it is unlikely that she could fool ex-detective Scottie into believing she was somebody else. When she reappears as Judy Barton in the brown hair and the different makeup, it really makes the audience do a double take before realizing that she and Madeleine are the same. But Scottie's take seems to be that she (and some other women at first glance) look like Madeleine--after all, he just got out of the nut house. It is only when he sees the necklace that he comes to his senses.
Another thing aficionados love about this movie is the way Hitchcock was able to subtly strip his stars of their glamour and make them look more or less human. James Stewart never played a part anything like this before. All the funny faces he has to make, perplexed while driving, terrified on the way up the bell tower, insane and terrified in the dream sequence, etc. It is said that Hitchcock blamed the lack of popular success of this movie (when it was belatedly released, not now) on Stewart looking too old, and therefore Hitchcock never worked with him again. But I think Stewart, after seeing the way he looked in this movie--so unheroic, so lost as a real human being--decided he was never going to let Hitchcock do THAT to him again, and that's probably why they never worked together again.
Kim Novak's curvy body and flopping you-know-whats are revealed in outfits that Grace Kelly would never wear. And poor Barbara Bel Geddes with those most unattractive glasses! How she pines for Scottie. One of the best scenes occurs when she shows Scottie her self portrait as the mysterious Carlotta with the glasses on (!) followed by her "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" self-flagellation after Scottie, who was offended at the grotesque sight, walks out.
But why is Scottie always hanging out at her place? And how they talk the plot in the beginning so that we might know that they were once a couple! But Hitchcock never worried about anything but the effect his movie might have on the audience. Improbabilities, clumsy plot devices, etc., were secondary. And you know what, he was right, as P.T. Barnum was right. Hitchcock never overestimated the sophistication of his audience.
Somebody said that the real entertainment in watching this movie is in watching it again after you know the story. I think they're right. It's definitely a film buff's movie.
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)