reviewed by Charity Bishop
            

Although met with mixed reviews at its premier, Vertigo has since been hailed Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece. Without multiple viewings, one cannot even begin to understand the deep psychological purpose of this film; it's a fascinating study of diverting characters caught up in a wave of sinister and almost immortal events. It's also perhaps the most emotional of all Hitch's films, and strangely... one of his most terrifying. He plays your emotions like a harp, tightening the chords until they snap in a horrifying climax.

John Ferguson, known as "Scottie" to his friends, is a former police inspector with a severe case of acrophobia, which causes "vertigo" (a sense of dizziness, a tendency to faint). The illness is the result of a rooftop chase gone array in which Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) nearly plunged to his own death while witnessing his partner's fatal fall. Now retired and attempting to recover from his fear of heights one step at a time, Scottie has far too much time on his hands. Even his best friend and romantic-hopeful Midge cannot provide enough of a diversion to reduce his times of melancholy. Enter Gavin Elster, an old college acquaintance, now a wealthy man with a proposition. He wishes to engage Scottie privately to follow his wife in her daytime excursions... not because he believes her to be unfaithful, but rather due to his concern for her life. 

Madeline (Kim Novak) is a beautiful and accomplished woman, but she has strange alterations in character. One moment she can be gaily conversing, the next the light goes out of her eyes and she recedes into some faraway place. What the doctors would find merely mood swings, Gavin believes to be far more sinister. He believes that some long-dead woman has come back to possess his wife. Scottie has no desire to pursue the case, but upon a glimpse of Madeline, becomes fascinated by her. For several days he tracks her endlessly through the streets of the city, unraveling a series of clues that point to a disturbing climax. Visits to the grave of a woman long dead, flowers cast into the bay, long moments alone in a hotel room from a former era in which she merely sits and stares. A painting in the town museum, an obsession with the woman's jewels. Can she truly be mad, or are her husband's suspicions accurate?

The closer Scottie gets to the truth, the further away reality becomes. She becomes an obsession for him beyond desire; a fascination that knows no bounds. He has saved her once, in a suicidal fit when she seemed strangely absent in her mind... but can he save her again? It's a chilling and complex search into the driving force behind psychological manipulation, almost Gaslight in reference, and yet so much deeper than that. It's a study in human emotion... and the lengths of evil that mankind will go toward to obtain something. It's also a disturbing tale with a shocking twist; suddenly you see the whole picture, and yet something is missing. Hitchcock knew how to manipulate audiences, to leave them in suspense and horror... and Vertigo is indeed his masterpiece. In actuality, it's a study of a woman driving a man mad; and a man in turn driving her to the edge. Thus said, for many it will be a distasteful obsession... for it is an obsession, for the audience as much or even more than Scottie. We want to know the truth, and yet we're restrained to learn at his pace... it's a maddening piece of filmmaking. 

The score is haunting, the truth is deceitful, and the end strangely confusing and morbid. Those who don't like later pondering on dark melancholy pictures will find Vertigo out of bounds, even beyond principles. Although Hitchcock at one time vocally regretted casting Jimmy Stewart in the role, he is ideal as the agoraphobic police officer who ultimately must challenge his fears head-on to free himself of the past. Why he didn't receive an Oscar for this picture is beyond understanding; his most memorable scene in the bell tower of the old Spanish mission at the climax is terrifying and yet spellbinding... a man who has learned the cold, cruel truth and now seeks to avenge it. Kim Novak, the director's "second choice," is equally diverting as Madeline, and another character in the story, Judy.

Things are far more alluded to than actually seen. There is no language, very little violence, and only mild sensuality; although the viewer senses a sexual undertone to many of the scenes. After a near-fatal fall into the bay, Madeline awakens in Scottie's bed, presumably at least partially undressed since he's drying her things. The pair on-occasion (though Scottie believes Madeline is married) share several passionate kisses. Later a woman alludes to wanting to know the payment Scottie expects for going out with him. This couple embrace and lengthily kiss in one of the most romantic and yet eerie scenes in cinematic history; the scene cuts away and the audience is left to decide if anything happened. For those concerned with the idea of a dead woman possessing a living one (which did concern me at first), this plot twist turns out to be untrue. But for many viewers, the scenes in which Scottie tries to remake a woman to look like the dead Madeline will be disturbing.

It takes a certain kind of person to enjoy Vertigo with all its manipulations of the mind and eerie plot twists. I found it spellbinding but the end strangely haunting. It's almost a romantic tragedy... and pure Hitchcock from beginning to end.