V e r t i g o

This was actually a report I had to write on "Vertigo" for my History Through the Eye of the Lense class.

        Vertigo was released in 1958 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The color film is two hours and six minutes long and rated PG.  James Stewart plays the main character, John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson.  The main female character is played by Kim Novak.  Her character’s name is Judy Barton, but for the first half of the movie, Judy acts as a woman named Madeleine Elster.  Barbara Bel Geddes plays a woman named Marjorie ‘Midge’ Wood, who is a good friend of Scottie’s.  I didn’t really see a need for her character because nothing she did in the movie was really relevant.  She and Scottie were once engaged, but she turned him down for reasons that were never mentioned.  She is still in love with Scottie, but he falls in love with Judy.  Gavin Elster, Madeleine’s husband, is played by Tom Helmore.  Henry Jones plays the Coroner, Raymond Bailey plays Scotties doctor, Ellen Corby plays the manageress of McKittrick Hotel, Konstantin Shayne plays Pop Leibel, and Lee Patrick plays “Older Mistaken Identification,” (I have no idea what this means. It was on the list of the cast on the webpage I went to, but I don’t know what they are talking about).  The move was filmed at MCA Universal studios.
         Vertigo is about a guy called Scottie who used to be a cop.  The cops were either chasing somebody or running from something and they had to jump from the roof of one building to another.  Scottie slipped and almost fell off the roof.  He was hanging on by the gutter of the roof when another cop tried to help pull him up.  The other cop slipped and fell off the roof.  Ever since that incident, every time Scottie looked down from a high place, he would get really dizzy and sometimes pass out.  He retires as a cop, and a friend of his – Gavin Elster – asks him to watch his wife, Madeleine.  He says that his wife has been acting strange lately and that she would turn into someone else – her great grandmother – and then return to herself hours later and not remember anything she has done or anywhere she has been in the last few hours.  He is concerned because his wife’s great grandmother committed suicide, and he is afraid that his wife will do the same if this continues.  He asks Scottie to follow her and see where she goes when she becomes her great grandmother.  Scottie falls in love with the woman, and she falls in love with him.  Eventually the woman kills herself, and a few years later, Scottie sees a woman, Judy, who suspiciously resembles Madeleine.  That's all the father I can go with the summary without ruining the surprise, so watch the movie to find out the twist.
         In my opinion, the movie was very well thought out and very entertaining.  The only thing I don’t like about Hitchcock movies is the way he’ll show a person driving in a car for about 5 minutes while there’s creepy music playing in the background.  It kind of wastes a lot of time and can sometimes put me to sleep, but other than that his movies are great.  My favorite scene from Vertigo is when Scottie is in the courtroom after Madeleine allegedly kills herself, and the judge basically blames him for her suicide.  Gavin tells Scottie that he is going to sell his house and move away, and he thanks Scottie for trying to help him and says that the Judge had no right to speak to him like that.  Then he holds out his hand for Scottie to shake and Scottie doesn’t move.  I thought that was a good scene.  I thought Vertigo was a very good movie, and I would recommend it to anyone.  It’s kind of reassuring to know that it is possible to make a good horror movie without the excessive swearing and nudity.