(I've heard that blondes have more fun - but this takes that shit to a whole new level...)
CAST: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Konstantin Shayne, Ellen Corby.
DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and quasi-reincarnation shenanigans - straight ahead...
I know I'm sound like a broken record when I say Alfred Hitchcock was very influential, not only in the suspense genre, but to all of cinema in general. Well, get ready to hear it again, because today we are reviewing his classic romantic thriller VERTIGO - which has spawned numerous homages, clones, and outright knock-offs over the ensuing decades.
Some of the films that provided us their own varying riffs on the VERTIGO tune include A KISS BEFORE DYING (1991), OBSESSION (1976), BASIC INSTINCT (1992), SLIVER (1993), and FINAL ANALYSIS (1992). The last film in particular borrowed so heavily from VERTIGO in both plot, tone, and style that I half-expected Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak to make cameos. Unfortunately, FINAL ANALYSIS was so intent on "homaging" VERTIGO that it forgot to engage the audience on its own terms. Suffice it to say, it is no VERTIGO. Not even close.
Dealing with a former San Francisco police detective who is medically retired after a disastrous line-of-duty incident, VERTIGO spins the tale of how an old acquaintance coaxes him out of retirement to shadow his beautiful wife - who has been acting very strangely as of late.
Our hero is John "Scotty" Ferguson (James Stewart), and the tragic incident which ended his law enforcement career involved chasing a criminal over the rooftops of San Francisco. At the crucial moment, Scotty slipped and ended up hanging by his fingers from the side of a building. Another policeman tried to help him - only to fall to his death in the process. Fortunately, Scotty is saved before he can join his would-be rescuer on the pavement below.
Traumatized, Scotty retired early from the force with a crippling case of vertigo - or, more specifically, an acute fear of heights. Guess who's not going to be going rock-climbing anytime soon? Ooops. I guess they didn't do that in the 50's. My bad. In any case, what good is a detective who can't even stand on a chair to change a lightbulb?
Anyhow, our hero now spends his days doing... well, whatever it is medically-retired cops do to pass the time. And when he's not doing that, he's hanging out with ex-flame and current pal Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes). At one point, Midge tries to cure Scotty's vertigo - by having him gradually climb a step-ladder until he reaches the top.
Scotty complies, and he manages to do just fine until he reaches the top. Unfortunately, at that moment, he glances down and sees the view outside Midge's window. Did I mention that Midge is on the top floor of her building? As you can imagine, the sight of all those tiny people on the street below sends Scotty collapsing in Midge's arms as if he were a butch Scarlett O'Hara and she were an effete Rhett Butler. In other words, Midge's intervention is a fucking disaster.
Scotty doesn't have much time to brood on this, though, because the very next day he meets old pal Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) at the latter's office. Evidently, Gavin's got a job offer for our hero. Turns out that Gavin's blonde and gorgeous wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) has been acting, well, kind of bizarre lately and he wants Scotty to follow her to find out what the hell is going on.
According to Gavin, she has been doing the following: (1) blanking out and staring into space, (2) driving to city parks and just staring into space, (3) and - according to the odometer on her car - driving over a hundred miles to some mystery place. Oh, and Gavin thinks that his wife might be undergoing possession by one of her ancestors, a certain Carlotta Valdes who killed herself. And he fears Madeleine might do the same to herself.
For his part, Scotty takes this all in with admirable calm. But you just know he's wondering if it's not Gavin who's gone loony here. After some initial resistance, Scotty realizes that if he doesn't take the job, he won't have anything to do but admire the dust motes in his flat and hang out with Midge and hers. In other words, his dance card isn't exactly full - so he takes the job. Probably wondering just how much he will regret it later.
As Scotty tails Madeleine throughout Frisco, he discovers several things about her: (1) she does indeed like to sit in the park and stare into space, (2) she buy bouquets that are arranged in a special style, (3) she takes these bouquets to a cemetery, (5) she leaves the bouquets at the grave of Carlotta Valdes, (6) she goes to a museum and sits in front of a portrait of Carlotta Valdes, (7) she hangs out at an old hotel that used to be a house that belongs to.... Carlotta Valdes, (8) and for all intents and purposes, she seems to be obsessed with Carlotta Valdes.
Then Madeleine hurls herself into San Francisco Bay - and Scotty has not choice but to upgrade his involvement from "shadowing" to "saving." It also gives him an opportunity to strip Madeleine down to the skin and let her clothes dry in his bathroom while she sleeps off her trauma in his bed - wearing nothing but her birthday suit. Bet he didn't have this in mind when he started his day.
And so begins the quasi-affair between Scotty and Madeleine... Will he figure out what the hell is bugging her? Is Carlotta's spirit really reaching out to possess Madeleine? Or does Madeleine just need some Xanax? How will Gavin react to the relationship? What about Midge? What exactly is going on here? Is there something else bubbling just beneath the surface? Doesn't Madeleine know that if she keeps bleaching her hair like that, it's going to eventually look like straw? Oooops. Too late.
Better invest in some deep conditioning treatment, dear...
BUT, SERIOUSLY: While pretty much all of Alfred Hitchcock's films have twists and turns, some of them are more dependent on these twists and turns than others. Films like THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, THE LADY VANISHES, and REAR WINDOW moved with such speed and energy that it didn't matter if certain twists were spoiled in advance. The forward momentum of the story pushed us along even if we knew what lay around the corner.
Films like PSYCHO and VERTIGO, though, feature jaw-dropping twists that should be safe-guarded from the first-time viewer. Sure, the stories would survive and entertain anyway - but the less you know about what is going to happen in these movies, the more you will be floored by them.
VERTIGO, in particular, weaves such a surreal and dreamy spell - then tosses a couple of humdinger twists in your lap to wake you up. In fact, I fear that revealing that there are a couple of humdinger twists might be revealing too much. The bottom line is the less you know about what is coming, the better off you are. Suffice it to say that Hitchcock once again nails the audience.
Jimmy Stewart is sympathetic and likable as the vulnerable Scotty. He and Kim Novak as Madeleine have an electric connection. It's one of the main reasons that VERTIGO works as well as it does. Despite the Master's skill, this is the kind of movie that could've been hampered by leads who don't ignite the screen. With Stewart and Novak, we've got a dream couple.
Speaking of Kim Novak, despite her being physically a Hitchcock Blonde and having some of that trademark aloofness, she actually tones down Madeleine's potential coolness. Instead, she amps up the character's vulnerability, which has the positive effect of drawing Scotty (and us) in. Because of our emotional involvement in Madeleine's dilemma, the twists that eventually come are all the more devastating.
As for the supporting cast, the standouts are Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore as, respectively, Scotty's loyal Gal Friday and the ambiguous old pal who pulls him into the mystery - and may have secrets of his own.
In the end, VERTIGO is brooding and sensual thriller that is, at first, seemingly worlds apart from Hitchcock's usually kinetic and pulse-pounding mysteries. But under the surface, VERTIGO is very much like the rest of the Master's canon: complex, suspenseful, and brilliantly-executed.
