Vertigo

Rating

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Screenplay

Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor, (Novel: Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac)

Length

2h 08m

Starring

James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, Konstantin Shayne, Lee Patrick

MPAA Rating

Approved

Review

Can a thriller metaphorically tie itself to the concept of love? Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo aims to answer that question in the most Hitchcockian way possible.

Love, or rather obsession, may be at the center of the story for Hitchcock’s San Francisco-set suspense picture, but it’s the concept of vertigo, a spinning sensation often accompanying a position of elevated height, that acts as the film’s metaphor. In the film, James Stewart plays an ex-detective who left the force after failing to save a fellow policeman from falling to his death due to his acute acrophobia, fear of heights. Hired by a former acquaintance (Tom Helmore) to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) as he believes she is acting abnormally, Stewart’s Scottie tails the attractive young woman as she traverses the city in something of a daze.

Although he initially saves Madeleine from drowning, his attempts to overcome his fears permit her to escape his grasp and fall to her death. Bereft over the incident, he is institutionalized before he begins morbidly wandering the city upon his release and visiting all of the places he had seen with Madeleine. While on one of his tours, he meets a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Madeleine. With all of his emotions resurfacing, the film’s momentum builds to a shocking conclusion.

Hitchcock was the master of suspense long before Vertigo was released. He had put forth a number of thrill-filled tales that ran the gamut from Rebecca to Suspicion to North by Northwest. How many critics land on this film as his pinnacle of achievement isn’t exactly mystifying, it’s a taut psychological thriller with one of those classic film endings that you take with you for the rest of your filmgoing life. For me, I find his earlier Rebecca and his later Psycho overall better films, but Vertigo squarely fits in my or anyone’s top five of Hitchcock’s films.

It was his inventive flair that helped define his career, not just the copious symbolism he blended into each of his films. He’s the kind of filmmaker that entire classes are built around. Vertigo‘s defining cinematic contribution, apart from his tight and involving scripting is its use of the dolly zoom, a unique technique where the camera either moves forward or backwards on a track while the camera simultaneously zooms in or out depending on the effect you’re wanting to achieve. Hitchcock’s use of the technique on a miniature set of the bell tower is stunning and almost frightening, especially for anyone with a fear of falling.

And it’s love that has that kind of effect on some people. A dizzying sensation, a feeling of inexorable descent. Your inner being tumbling head over heels for another person, the sensation of falling into love. Hitchcock’s brand of romanticism is seldom surface level. Considering the subjects of his films are often pursued or encumbered by outside forces, romance and feelings of intimacy are often left to the imagination, especially in an era when such displays were restricted heavily by the production code.

In films like North by Northwest, he would use the train through a tunnel euphemism. Sometimes, he would pan to a fireplace, but with Vertigo, it’s a subtle metaphor built into the concept altogether, a fascinating treatise on how it’s like falling into a deep pit of love, to overcome your fears, and to sometimes discover it may be too late.

Vertigo is a film with numerous layers that can be discussed in depth and at length. That’s not to say it isn’t also an enjoyable film. Hitchcock knew how to make them. That’s why his films are generally beloved by critics and audiences alike.

Review Written

July 5, 2022