Movie Review: Vertigo (1958)

Vertigo is considered an Alfred Hitchcock classic and is one of the best movies made in history of cinema. It is a psychological thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock.

The story is about detective John Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) who has fear of heights. John retires from his profession after a police chase results in his partner falling from the roof due to his fear from height.

The next day, a college friend of John, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) asks him for a favor. He asks him to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak) and find out to where she goes, not that he doubts her faithfulness but he suspects that she is being possessed by someone.

 He follows her and finds out that she is constantly hinting about her being possessed by Carlotta Valdes, in the graveyard she was staring at Carlotta Valdes’s grave, at a palace she was staring at Carlotta’s portrait. He learns from a book store owner that Carlotta Vandes had committed suicide after having left out by her husband who also kept her child with him. From Elster he learns that Carlotta Vandes his wife’s great grandmother. He also learns that her possession of Carlotta was not due to obsession, in fact she never had heard about Carlotta. 

The next day he again follows her to the bay and sees her instantly jumping into the water after throwing away the flowers she bought. He jumps into the bay and saves her. He takes her to his home and lays her on bed. When she wakes up, they talk and he inquires about her being found in the bay. They meet again the next day and he takes her to show old evergreen trees grown big, she later on tells him about the other world she often drifts into after her fits return. The next day she again comes to see him and tells him about the old San Francisco sites that keep haunting her. 

He takes her to those places and tries to research more and more into Carlotta’s past in order to cure her. Her fits again seem to return when she faces an urge to go to church, he after seeing the height of the church, follows her there, he sees her climbing the stairs, he follows her but stops at a point where he remembers he has fear of height. He sees the girl’s body falling down from the window. Although the jury passes the verdict that Madeleine’s committing suicide was the result of her mental illness, he is driven by guilt of not having saved the women.

 He constantly dreams about Carlotta’s necklace that Madeleine used to wear. Eventually he drives into the hotel room where Madeleine used to stay and meets Judy Barton who looks like Madeleine. She shows him her identity proof and domicile after a lot of convincing. He then asks her to have dinner with him just to remind himself of his love that he lost. She agrees. Now the suspense is revealed that the girl who ran on the stairs of the church was Judy and the girl who was thrown down from the ledge was the wife of Elster. It was Elster’s plan to kill his wife. She thinks about writing a letter to John explaining him about his plan but out of anxiety and fear of losing his love forever, she tears the letter. John and Judy start to love each other. John convinces Judy to dress like Madeleine. When he sees her wearing Carlotta’s necklace, he deduces that she is the actual girl who ran up to the church stairs. He takes her to the same church and forcefully takes her up the stairs while reciting her and Elster’s complete plan, he faces his phobia of height again and again but somehow overcomes it with his anger. When they reach the crime site, she tells him that she actually loves him and begs for forgiveness, in the meantime a nun appears at the spot, Judy while kissing John, almost startled by the sudden distraction by the nun, steps backward and falls from the church building to her death. The nun terrified by the site rings the mission bell and a startled John stands on the ledge in horror.

The movie was too long and thus became slow at some parts but that is acceptable considering the long screenplay movies which were made at that time. The suspense shown in the movie was thrilling and the story was it’s biggest plus point. No doubt Alfred Hitchcock is considered the master of suspense.

The best thing about the movie was that the suspense in that film was very entertaining and at the same time did not require too much brain to understand, this quality lacks in movies made nowadays. I believe that if a director is unable to explain his movie properly, it is the result of poor direction. I hold this case true for the movie Prestige. It required me one repetition and an hour of internet research to understand the film. The concept was excellent but the director failed to convey it to the audience properly.

It is after a long time that I watched a classic and happy to have chosen Vertigo.