Vertigo (1958)

In director Alfred Hitchcock's mermerizing, powerful, perplexing, and necrophiliac-tinged thriller about psychological obsession, plus a mesmerizing and suspenseful romantic drama about a macabre, desperate, and doomed romance - it was arguably the director's most complex, most analyzed, deep and compelling masterpiece, and has been regarded by most critics as one of the greatest films ever made. One of the film's posters featured an abstract vertigo effect - a spiraling shape with the figures of a man and a woman falling into its center.

The film's screenplay, written by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, was based upon the 1954 mystery novel D'Entre les Morts (literally meaning "From Among the Dead" or "Between Deaths") by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Boileau and Narcejac were also the authors of the story for French director Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955, Fr.) starring Simone Signoret.

Although the recipient of two Academy Awards nominations for technical achievements, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Sound, it was left without a single Oscar statuette. At the time of the film's release, it was not a box-office hit. On a budget of $2.5 million, the domestic box-office revenue was $7.3 million. The on-location shoots included various very recognizable areas of San Francisco, the Big Basin Redwoods State Park (in Santa Cruz County) (a stand-in for Muir Woods), Cypress Point on the 17 Mile Drive (in Pebble Beach, CA), and Mission San Juan Bautista (in San Benito County) (enhanced with matte paintings).

• the dazzling opening title credits sequence, enhanced with Bernard Herrmann's score, visualized a fragmented and shifting image of a woman's blank and expressionless face (in sepia tone); first, an enormous close-up of the lower left portion of her face, then her lips, then her frightened eyes darting left and then right, and then a straight-on closeup of her right eye as the entire screen took on a bright reddish hue [Note: The face was of actress Audrey Lowell, not Kim Novak]

Opening Title Credits

• the title of the film "Vertigo" zoomed out slowly from the depths of the female's widening pupil; spiraling, vertiginous, animated designs (of various configurations and shapes) replaced the closeup of the iris, and the remainder of the credits played over a black background after the pupil was entered and the eye faded away
• in the opening's rooftop chase sequence, plain-clothes SF police detective (later identified as John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart)) and a uniformed SF policeman (Fred Graham) were pursuing a criminal-fugitive; the chase ended with Scottie hanging from a gutter; he had become frozen by his debilitating fear of heights (acrophobia) - he looked down many stories into the deadly abyss below and experienced a dizzying sensation called vertigo (symbolized by dizzying trick camerawork (a reverse zoom, dolly-out) visualizing the vortex; Scottie watched in horror as his fellow officer tried to assist him and fell to his death
• Scottie was forced into semi-retirement due to his phobia, and was helped to recover with his longtime friend and ex-fiancee, Marjorie "Midge" Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes), an artist (and fashion illustrator) who was in unrequited love with him

Semi-Retired SF Detective John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart)

Ex-Fiancee Marjorie "Midge" Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes)

Scottie's Ex-College Friend Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore)

• Scottie's old college friend, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), contacted him and privately hired him to trail his strangely-behaving, potentially-suicidal and possessed wife Madeleine as she wandered around San Francisco: (Elster asked: "Do you believe that someone out of the past, someone dead, can enter and take possession of a living being?"); Scottie experienced his first view of her in Ernie's Restaurant - a striking half-profile view of the face of ethereal, lovely, elegant blonde Madeleine (Kim Novak)

Scottie's Stalking of Madeleine in San Francisco
In a Flower Shop to Buy a Nosegay Bouquet	The Headstone of Carlotta Valdes in Cemetery at Mission Dolores	Sitting in the Legion of Honor Art Gallery - Portrait of Carlotta Valdes

• the next day, Scottie continued to stalk after Madeleine by trailing her all over San Francisco in her Jaguar sedan after she left her high-rise apartment building on Nob Hill; her first stop was at a flower shop where she bought a red and white nosegay bouquet; he then followed her to Mission Dolores (aka Mission San Francisco de Asís) - a Spanish mission with a backyard garden cemetery where she paused at the grave headstone of Carlotta Valdes (1831-1857)
• Madeleine was further pursued into the art gallery at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor where he found her hypnotized, motionless and trance-like in front of a portrait painting of a woman named Carlotta Valdes - her ancestor's portrait; Scottie noticed that her single lock of swirling (vertigo-like) hair and hand-bouquet bore a striking resemblance to the bouquet and hairstyle in the painting

Similar Swirl and Spiral Patterns

• Scottie next trailed Madeleine to an old hotel on Eddy Street, the McKittrick Hotel, where she stood in a second-floor window facing the front; the hotel manager-landlady (Ellen Corby) identified the tenant of the room as Carlotta Valdes, who was rarely there, and would only sit two or three times a week; Madeleine suddenly disappeared and her car was found back where she started her long day's journey; Madeleine's obsession with her tragic ancestor Carlotta Valdes intrigued Scottie [Note: The film's MacGuffin was the spirit of the deceased Carlotta Valdes - who supposedly possessed the female character and spurred Scottie's obsessed investigation into her.]
  
• the next day, Scottie (with Midge) visited with Pop Liebel (Konstantin Shayne), the local history expert and owner of the downtown Argosy Book Shop; he described how young 26 year-old mistress Carlotta had borne an illegitimate child for a wealthy SF capitalist, and then was abandoned and had her child abducted, leading to her suicide
• afterwards, Scottie again met up with Elster at his club, where according to him, Madeleine was possessed by Carlotta, her great-grandmother, and had acquired her suicidal tendencies; Carlotta's story also related to his wife's preoccupation with wearing the family jewels as she often sat in front of a mirror; he then told Scottie a bombshell revelation -- Madeleine was unaware of Carlotta
• during her next excursion another day, Scottie followed Madeleine as she returned to the art gallery and then drove to Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge where he had to rescue the suicidal Madeleine; she had torn off and thrown the flower petals from her Carlotta-like nosegay into the water, and then jumped into the cold waters of the bay

Madeleine Recovering in Scottie's Apartment After a Suicide Attempt Near the Golden Gate Bridge

• Madeleine recovered in Scottie's apartment on Lombard Street, where she was startled to awake and find herself in a strange man's bed - and presumably naked; he took care of her, gave her a maroon robe to wear, and became entranced and bewitched by her beauty; as he received a phone call from Gavin, Madeleine grabbed her clothes hanging in the kitchen and vanished
• the next day, after he followed her twisting and turning, circular trip through San Francisco, they both ended up at his apartment (within view of Coit Tower) where she put a note into his mailbox; they spoke in person and she apologized and thanked him for saving her - the same contents as her note
• the two decided that for the remainder of the day, they would "wander" together; they took a car trip to the evocative, centuries-old redwood sequoias of Muir Woods; in the dark, moody, giant redwood forest, in the filtered, impressionistic light of the woods where they wandered, she spoke about the ancient, towering trees over 2,000 years old - and how they reminded her of her own smallness and mortality; he noted: "Their true name is Sequoia sempervirens, 'always green, ever-living'"; one of the displays in the woods presented a cross-section of the stump of one of the felled trees; the concentric, spiraling rings of the tree's growth were given white date labels, to illustrate thousands of years of history (historical events, wars and treaties from 909 AD to 1930 when the tree was cut down)
• pointing toward the rings, Madeleine indicated with a black-gloved finger the place where Carlotta's life had spanned a short period of time - she enigmatically traced the times of her birth and her death in one of the film's key speeches: "Somewhere in here I was born. And there I died. It was only a moment for you, you took no notice"
• in the next sequence, Madeleine begged him to take her to "somewhere in the light" and they appeared on a Monterey Bay ocean cliff next to a classic Monterey pine at Cypress Point; after telling him about a disturbing, ambiguous, symbol-filled dream, she became frightened and ran down the rocks to the water's edge where waves crashed in; he chased after her and they embraced - and he pledged to protect her forever: "I'm here. I've got you...All the time!"
• upon his return, Scottie visited with Midge in her studio apartment, where she expressed jealous curiosity about his whereabouts; unwisely, she displayed a portrait she had drawn to get his attention - a caricatured and satirized portrait of herself as a smiling, bespectacled Carlotta Valdes (that she copied from the Palace of the Legion of Fine Arts guidebook); she had literally placed or substituted herself into the position of the person he had become obsessed about; Scottie promptly left
• the next early morning, Madeleine came to Scottie's place after another of her nightmares featuring Carlotta's childhood home that Scottie recognized as being located at the Spanish Mission of San Juan Bautista about 100 miles south of San Francisco; he suggested that they drive there, Scottie hoping that by visiting the real-world California mission, it would end her nightmares, cure her fears, dispel the dream's power, or prompt her memories: ("It'll finish your dream. It will destroy it. I promise you. All right?")

Scottie's Attempt to Quell Her Fears After More Nightmares
	Driving to the Spanish Mission at San Juan Bautista

• when they arrived at the mission, they entered the dark livery stable and she sat in a carriage; she became seemingly possessed by Carlotta; as he tried to comfort her, they kissed and he confessed: "I love you, Madeleine"; she glanced across the courtyard toward the mission's church and bell tower, hurriedly confessed her own love for him, became frantic ("There's something I must do...It's too late!"), and suddenly ran from him

Scottie: "I love you, Madeleine"

Madeleine: "There's something I must do"

• Madeleine ignored his attempts to comfort her with repeated kisses and promises and ran off across the courtyard toward the mission's church and bell tower; when he caught up to her, she again vowed to him: "Look. Let me go. Please let me go." In her final words to him, she explained how she had to go through with things as planned inside the church - alone; after one more kiss, she turned, looked up, and rushed into the church

Madeleine's Last Words to Scottie: "You believe I love you?...And if you lose me, then you'll know I, I loved you and I wanted to go on loving you... Let me go into the church - alone."

• Scottie glanced up at the bell tower for an instant, and then decided to chase after her; as he started to climb up the bell tower's crude, winding and rickety wooden staircase, Scottie pursued, but felt acute acrophobia and vertigo that slowed him as he ascended the spiraling stairs
• at the top of the tower, Scottie heard a shrieking scream as a gray-clothed body resembling Madeleine's was seen through a side tower window falling to her death far below; Scottie looked down through the tower opening and saw a still body lying dead on the adjacent rooftop below - Madeleine had apparently committed suicide; Scottie fearfully and carefully descended the bell-tower's staircase

Madeleine's 'Suicidal' Death, Causing a Catatonic Reaction in Scottie

• in the mission square's town hall, a coroner's inquest/hearing was immediately held by police, the coroner (Henry Jones) and other legal officials regarding the death; Gavin Elster was in attendance; ex-detective Scottie was condemned for indirectly causing the accident due to his unanticipated "weakness" and his "fear of heights" that made him "powerless when he was most needed," although foul play on his part was discounted; the verdict of the inquest was that Madeleine had indeed committed suicide of her own volition

Scottie Awakening After Hallucinatory Nightmares

• after the hearing, the disturbed, depressed and distraught Scottie visited Madeleine's grave; he also suffered vivid nightmares following Madeleine's death - real nightmares, flashing lights, vivid, and shattered, exploding images, including a view of Elster with the real Carlotta, a close-up of Carlotta's red ruby necklace, a vision of a bottomless pit in front of Carlotta's grave, accompanied by a frightening silhouette of his own body falling onto the mission roof
• Scottie was institutionalized following a nervous breakdown, where Midge attempted to cheer him up, but Scottie remained passive, catatonic, corpse-like, and 'possessed' - she realized that he was still in love with the dead Madeleine, and that she was utterly inadequate and helpless in reaching him; forlorn, she walked away down the corridor and departed from him - for good
• after six months to a year, Scottie was released from the sanitorium where he had been clinically diagnosed as "suffering from acute melancholia, together with a guilt complex"; Scottie continued to be haunted, and was obsessed with the dead woman by visiting all of the places they had visited; he actually imagined three Madeleine look-alikes
• then one day in San Francisco, outside the flower-shop where he had observed Madeleine, Scottie experienced his view of his fourth Madeleine look-alike on the street; in profile - a dark, red-haired woman was wearing a tight green sweater dress and gaudy makeup and speaking to other females; he followed her down the sidewalk to the Empire Hotel on Post Street and observed her in a third-story window, and soon forced his way into her apartment to speak to her; the cheap-looking, crude and provocative female identified herself as Judy Barton (also Kim Novak), working as a shopgirl at Magnin's, who was originally from Salina, KS; she realized his search for a lost love: "I remind you of someone you used to be madly in love with, but then she ditched ya for another guy..." and it dawned on her that his lost love was dead
• after she agreed to have dinner with him and he left to get his car, she experienced a very unusual and revealing flashback - she remembered the scene at the Mission, when she impersonated Elster's wife "Madeleine Elster" in an elaborate 'murder' or suicide plot; Madeleine/Judy was seen running up the mission stairs, and then Gavin Elster threw his wife's already-dead body from the tower just as Madeleine/Judy appeared at the top of the stairs and then grabbed Madeleine/Judy to cover her mouth
• Judy sat down to write a letter to Scottie, describing the whole deceptive plot against him (narrated in voice-over), when she was hired by Elster to pose as his wife; Elster knew of Scottie's vertigo and that he couldn't reach the top of the tower to halt her lethal jump; the police were then provided with an unimpeachable witness at the 'suicide' of Elster's wife [Note: Hitchcock revealed the surprise solution to the mystery to all but the hero/protagonist]
• at the end of the letter, Judy admitted that the only mistake in the whole plan was that she fell in love with Scottie; feeling ambivalent, she declared her own love and decided to make Scottie love her (as she was) - although it would be a daunting task - could Scottie fall in love with her as Judy, and not as Madeleine?; then, she resolutely ripped up the letter, and out of her love for Scottie, she decided not to run away, but to stay and see him one final time
• however, for the next few days, Scottie attempted to relive his experiences with Madeleine through Judy, in an almost complete confusion of dream and reality, by visiting with Judy the places where he had followed Madeleine; while spending more time with Judy, Scottie increasingly was bound to manipulate, reshape and remake her into the dead Madeleine's image; he spent a long time with her trying on clothes at Ransohoffs, an expensive salon on Post Street, to design and make her into his idealized image of his lost love

Judy and Scottie Spending More Time Together	An Expensive Excursion to Ransohoffs in SF	Judy: "You want me to be dressed like her"
Judy to Scottie: "Well, I'll wear the darn clothes if you want me to - if-if you'll just, just like me"

• after their shopping excursion, in Scottie's apartment, Judy finally gave in, allowing him to exploit her and change her appearance through his clothing choices if he agreed to love her: ("Well, I'll wear the darn clothes if you want me to - if-if you'll just, just like me"); due to his persistence, she also reluctantly agreed to change her hair-color to blonde, and to have her nails and makeup redone - to match his lost love's features
• upon her return to her hotel room after a complete forced make-over, where she was again judged by Scottie, he made one final request - to change her hairstyle and wear it back from her face and pinned at the neck; she retreated to the bathroom, as Scottie awaited her full, transformative arrival
• in a magnificent dream-like scene in a sickly neon green light - Scottie's eyes were filled with wonder and emotion in an unforgettable image, as he (and the viewer) saw the reborn reincarnation of his lost love; Judy was transformed completely into Madeleine as the camera swirled around them during a series of kisses, and in Scottie's subjective imagination, he was back in the livery stable with Madeleine
• later (after consummating their love?), they sat together and relaxed in her hotel room, before a planned dinner at Ernie's; Judy was dressed in her new black evening/dinner dress; then came a striking moment when Scottie was attaching a red ruby necklace around Judy's neck, and he realized that Judy was the same person as Madeleine; during a momentary flashback of the necklace in Carlotta's portrait and Madeleine gazing at it from a museum bench, he wondered to himself how she had Carlotta's necklace; he intuitively knew that there was no Madeleine, and that he had been tricked by Elster, and suddenly became emotionally distant and cold

Startling Moment of Realization - Judy Had Carlotta's/Madeleine's Necklace

• while trying to recreate the past and reenact when he had become crazed, he pressured them to go out of town for dinner; their drive down the peninsula duplicated their previous trip together to Mission San Juan Bautista, as Scottie explained: "There's one final thing I have to do and then I'll be free of the past"; after arriving, Scottie revealed that they were at the location of Madeleine's death - the scene of the crime: ("Madeleine died here, Judy....I need you to be Madeleine for a while. And when it's done, we'll both be free"); he asked agonizing questions as he dragged Judy into the mission during their second visit; his goal was to recreate the death scene of chasing Madeleine earlier when he had experienced his acrophobia and vertigo (and couldn't "get to the top"), but now with his "second chance," he could cure himself
• Scottie asked agonizing questions as he dragged the frightened and nervous Judy up the stairs of the mission tower, and compelled her to admit her deceitfulness and trickery toward him when she pretended to be Elster's wife - a counterfeit: "Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do and what to say? You were a very apt pupil, too, weren't you? You were a very apt pupil. Why did you pick on me? Why me?...I was the set-up. I was the set-up, wasn't I? I was a made-to-order witness"
• there was a second final terrifying sequence in the bell tower after they entered through the trap door, and Scottie explained how she and Elster had committed the crime; Judy sincerely confessed to her wrong-doing, and that she had been paid by Elster to impersonate the "possessed" Madeleine; Judy also professed that she still loved Scottie and asked for his forgiveness even though he had been her victim
• in the finale after they kissed and embraced - footsteps of a black-clad figure in the shadows startled Judy, and she backed away from Scottie gasping: "Oh, no!"; the dark, shadowy figure (a nun) said: "I hear voices"

Nun: "I hear voices... God have mercy"

• terrified, thinking and believing she was seeing the ghost of the murdered Madeleine (or the reincarnation of the ghostly doomed Carlotta Valdes), Judy recoiled, stepped and fell backwards through the opening in the tower (off-screen) and plummeted to her own death in an emotionally-shattering climax; the figure, actually a nun from the mission, crossed herself and murmured the last words of the film: "God have mercy"
• the last shot was of a stunned Scottie standing on the belfry tower ledge as he stared down at Judy's dead body in the shocking ending - Scottie had tragically loved and lost the same woman twice, although he was now cured of his acrophobia and vertigo

The Second Bell-Tower Sequence and Second Fatal Fall