Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock, despite being seen today as one of the strongest film directors of all time, had a rather interesting struggle with pleasing most critics with his films when he was originally starting out. Pioneering work as far back as the early 1920s, Hitchcock has made movies that while seen as classics today like To Catch a Thief, The Birds, Marine, and arguably his most famous work Psycho, but all of these movies received mixed reception upon release and only gained cult status and critical acclaim years after. While he eventually found his footing with the critical space with movies like North by Northwest and Rear Window, and transformed into the acclaimed filmmaker everybody knows him as now, it was a steady climb to reach that point. Since he’s known for being the master of suspense and was famous for doing things pretty differently from others at the time (not many others would kill their lead off halfway through the movie), his ideas and presentation within his films were probably too outlandish and different for critics at the time to comprehend and that led to a lot of dissatisfied viewing experiences. Another that suffered a similar reaction at the time of its release was Vertigo, released in 1958, but much like every past example, the consensus for the film has switched in modern day, with many considering one of the best movies ever made.  Former police detective John ‘’Scottie’’ Ferguson (played by James Stewart) is forced into retirement after an incident in the line of duty caused an accidental death that left him with acrophobia (fear of heights) and vertigo (a false sense of rotational movement). Left without purpose, he’s given one by old college friend, Gavin Elster (played by Tom Helmore) who tasks him with watching his wife, Madeline (played by Kim Novak). He believes that she experiences blackouts where she becomes a totally different person, and after spending time with her, Scottie starts to believe in this crazy idea and that this separate identity is Madeline’s great grandmother who experienced a great tragedy and may be trying to influence Madeline to end her own life. Pulled together in such circumstances strangely causes passion to spark, but with no end to her mind-wipes in sight and with Scottie’s motivation going from protective to obsessive, how far will this go before both are mentally broken? Based on the French 1954 novel, D’entre les morts (which is From Among the Dead) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, Vertigo only gained high praise from critic’s years after its initial release, growing in popularity to the point that it is held as one of Hitchcock’s best made movies. The conflicting results for this film are, however, more founded than you’d expect, as despite the eventual praise, the movie features pretty significant faults underneath an otherwise perfectly fine mystery thriller which holds it back from the levels of some of Hitchcock’s other masterpieces.

The initial concept for a majority of Hitchcock’s films is often very engaging, thrilling and tackle complicated people that often exhibit their own mental collapse come the end of the movie. This film is no different, with a plot set-up that honestly sounds pretty intriguing and offers up a lot of interesting avenues for it to take and interpretations it can have in regard to a person’s mental well-being and even how someone could perceive true perfection and the ideal romantic partner (no matter how disturb it can become). While the idea of someone being possessed by a dead relative sounds a bit out-of-place in this type of story, the ties it has to mental illness and the struggle one can have within themselves actually works as a nice metaphor and blends the themes of supernatural and psychological together to create something almost otherworldly but made more frightening by the fact that its disturbing in-your-face and apparent. While seemingly unintentional given the time period the film was made in, the movie’s ties to mental illness are interesting themes to focus on, and the intentional elements of toxic male aggression, psychological obsession and the deconstruction of masculinity and feminine archetypes are prominent in this story and prove that this is some solid stuff to work with in this film that come from the talent of Hitchcock. The problem comes within the actual meat of the story written by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor (and an uncredited Maxwell Anderson), which unfortunately is nowhere near as complex or interesting as this idea is, as while these themes are things people can pick up, but none that are actually dissected, focused on or analysed.  While the movie is still paced well, the mystery building up to its reveal isn’t too bad, and the suspense built over what this woman could do at any moment is decently handled, the movie drags it feet through a first act that features repetitive scenes and a romance that doesn’t have any real chemistry (even though it’s up for debate whether or not this was intentionally meant to be a twist of that idea, or if it actually was supposed to be romantic and is just failing terribly at it). While the second act is better and features some pretty startling moments that bring a lot of discomfort and dread, the movie feels like it loses its steam and peters out as it reaches its ending. It’s a shame several fascinating aspect that this narrative could tackle aren’t convey or delivered in any interesting way, and while still a decently told story that captures your attention in the opening minutes like any other good Hitchcock-ian story, it doesn’t lead to as many interesting surprises as you’d hope for (outside of the obvious ones and a pretty bleak ending).

Carrying many elements and styles from the genres of thriller, mystery, and even film noir, the two leads are acted and casted in a way that feels pretty appropriate for this type of set-up. James Stewart can play the ‘brow-beaten out-of-his-element’ cop very well, and Kim Novak can play the ‘’femme fatale’’ type role pretty decently also. These two feel like they would work, and for the most part with how the movie pans out, they do good jobs with what they’re given. Kim Novak does a great job at portraying this woman who feels haunted and looks almost glassy eyed in many of her scenes, like she could daze off and disappear at any moment (which should be the intent) and when she even has to play against character with a twist that’s revealed around the half point of the movie, she does that very well too. James Stewart does feel pretty old for this role and despite that being a common trope of the era in regards to romance films (age gaps between the male and female leads was kind of the norm back then), it does still feel a little weird to see this seemingly 50 to 60 year old man in a romantic relationship with a woman seemingly in her early 30s, but the direction they take him in is better suited for him and makes it feel a bit more purposeful and even a little more clever. His portrayal as this obsessive, almost creeper type character feels intentional, and it actually works much better than you’d expect as he does come across as pretty antagonistic near the latter half of the film despite being known as a more approachable and likeable actor. The movie thankfully directs the narrative to not be a real romance or anything resembling a real romance as the two have no chemistry and the path it goes down is incredibly uncomfortable in that regard, so it’s smart enough to twist the trope and create a situation that is almost deconstructing the awkward imbalance created between romantic leads of the era (even though again, it’s hard to say its properly dissected or even intentional). Unfortunately, the two don’t really have much backstory or development around their ‘’mental problems’’ (for a movie called vertigo, it plays very little part), so they don’t really stand as truly memorable characters, and while actors like Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore do fine in their bit parts, they don’t provide much in the grand scheme of things nor do any of the other side characters in this film.

This movie was the first to use the infamous dolly zoom, where the camera creates a distorting perspective effect that creates this sinking feeling of disorientation, but it’s not used nearly as much as expected. For a movie where the main title is named after the feeling of dizziness associated with heights, it really doesn’t focus on that aspect as much as it really should and it’s kind of just falls to the wayside against the thriller angle and that portion only pops up every once and a while, and therefore that technique only shows up on occasion. There are not even too many moments where the character is in high places to achieve that shot in the first place, so it feels like an element that is highlighted for created and popularizing the technique, but not really for how it’s used. Either way, the movie is still nice looking with cinematographer Robert Burks getting some very nice shots of San Francisco on both a large and on a small scale. The driving scenes can get pretty repetitive and don’t always look the best (those cars are awfully close at the back to be realistic), and after the opening credits done by animator John Whitney and graphic designer Saul Bass provided some nice trippy imagery through the use of simple shapes and colors, outside of one dream sequence, the movie isn’t nearly as interesting in the visual department as it could have been. The composer for the movie, Bernard Herrmann, has worked on scores for several different properties like Citizen Kane, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Anna and the King of Siam, Portrait of Jennie, and The Day the Earth Stood Still, as well as several different Hitchcock movies down the line, and while nothing dramatically memorable compared to some of his other pieces, it features the familiar striking strings and dramatic booms, conducted by Muir Mathieson, you would expect with a movie like this

Vertigo isn’t a spotless movie and even by Hitchcock movie standards, it could have been a lot more interesting and used its concept more effectively, but for a movie over fifty years old tackling a topic that so easily could’ve become toxic and dated very quickly (a woman with mental illness back in that time period was not really treated with sympathy), its honestly still handled pretty well. The plot is well set-up, its paced well, the tone is (hopefully) uncomfortable in the right way, the acting is good, and the second half does have a few more interesting moments after the initial big ‘’surprise’’. But with a pretty repetitive opening act, characters that aren’t as interesting as they should be, visuals that could have been a lot more interesting, and themes and ideas that are never really taken up upon, it’s not one that needs to be watched from Hitchcock’s line-up. Check it out for yourself and see if this movie disorients for the right reasons.