Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (1958)
Vertigo is a thriller about a former police man who suffers from severe acrophobia and vertigo who follows a woman who is believed to be possessed. After recovering from almost falling to his death, Scottie retires from the police force due to his crippling phobia of heights. One of his former colleagues then asks him for his help in investigating his wife, Madeleine. He believes that his wife is possessed with a spirit, because she often drifts off in thought as if she has left her body, then returns and has no recollection of what happened. She drives 100 miles everyday, but has no memory of where she goes everyday. Scottie agrees to investigate and see what Madeleine is up to. The next day, Scottie follows her as she drives to get flowers, then drives miles away to visit the grave site of a woman named Carlotta Valdes at a church in San Francisco. She then goes to an art museum and peers at a painting of Carlotta wearing an extravagant diamond necklace. She then drives to underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and tries to jump into the water, an attempt at suicide. Scottie jumps in and rescues her. Gavin, Madeleine's husband, tells Scottie that Carlotta was Madeleine's great grandmother, who committed suicide early in her life. He believes this is the spirit who is possessing Madeleine and why she has no memory of where she goes and that she tries to kill herself. The next day, Scottie and Madeleine spend the day together. Scottie is slowly but surely falling in love with Madeleine. Madeleine tells Scottie about dreams that she is having, and she is retelling the actions that she does while she is in the trance. Scottie takes her to the church where Carlotta's grave is located, and before he can proclaim his love for her, she runs to the top of the bell tower and leaps off. Scottie can't get to the top fast enough to save her due to his vertigo. Madeleine is dead, and Scottie dos into a depressed and catatonic like state. He is in a mental institution for a while. One day, he sees a woman who looks exactly like Madeleine but with red hair. She introduces herself as Judy, and Scottie becomes obsessed with her. He makes her dye her hair and buys her clothes to look exactly like Madeleine. He then learns that Judy was part of a murder plot that involved Madeleine. She dressed as Gavin's wife and acted like she jumped from the tower and killed herself, when Gavin was actually waiting at the top with his actual wife, who he threw from the tower. Gavin wanted to kill Madeleine so he could pursue his affair with the woman who acted as Madeleine to fool Scottie. Scottie is enraged, and forces Judy to go back to the church to reenact what she did as an actress. They get to the top of the bell tower, Scottie conquering his fear, and all of a sudden a nun comes out of no where. Judy is so startled that she falls out of the bell tower and dies, after she told Scottie that she is in love with him. The nun sees what has happened and rings the bell tower. It took a while for me to decide on what my thoughts were on this movie. I loved the premise of it. I love the aspect in thriller movies of insanity or phobias, so in this way the movie reminded me of Psycho (the scariest Hitchcock movie I have watched). My favorite part of the movie was when Scottie had an episode where he felt like he was falling, and he saw Carlotta instead of Madeleine. His head was moving all over and his eyes had swirls in them. It was great. I loved the way Hitchcock did that scene, even though it looks dated now. This movie is probably in my top three for Hitchcock movies. The plot was a little slow moving at time, and the part I did not like as how much I hated Scottie by the end of the movie. I started out feeling bad for him, because he seemed like he was really going through a rough time with his vertigo. Then, he became just a little too obsessed with Madeleine. Even though Judy was part of a murder plot, he was getting really weird with making her look exactly like Madeleine. I felt bad for her, even though she was okay with Gavin killing his wife so they could be together. When she was actually in love with him and was begging him for forgiveness after he violently forced her up the tower against her will, I wanted to tell her to be an independent woman and leave him. I ended up hating Scottie by the end. Other than that, the movie was great. It does justice to the classic thriller movie. I would recommend it to anyone.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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