# Vertigo (1958)

### reviewed by
Kevin Patterson

    Film review by Kevin Patterson

    Vertigo
    Rating: ***1/2 (out of four)
    NR, 1958
    Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Alex Coppel and Samuel Taylor.
    Starring James Stewart, Kim Novak.

Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is the rare top-flight, well-acclaimed film that succeeds despite a somewhat weak screenplay. While many modern movies throw logic out the window in the name of pointless action sequences and explosions, "Vertigo" throws it out the window for the sake of emotional resonance, ironic twists, and thematic coherence. The film is based on a French novel, which makes me think that Hitchcock decided he wanted to adapt the novel to film but hired screenwriters who, while careful to preserve the most essential themes, failed to fit these themes into a tighter plot.

It is fortunate, then, that Hitchcock and his leads, James Stewart and Kim Novak, seem to know exactly what they're doing here, because a less competent team of director and actors would have ended up with little more than a muddled psychological thriller. Instead, they deliver what starts out as an intriguing mystery and turns into a tragic love story, a story of a doomed romance based on deceptive appearances and obsession rather than on real understanding or emotional connection. Hitchcock is known as the "master of suspense," but it is the final half hour of the film, after the mystery has evaporated and the film focuses on the relationship between two desolate and frankly sick characters, that is the most powerful.

As the film begins, we are introduced to ex-police detective John "Scotty" Ferguson (Stewart), who has quit the force after an incident in which another officer was killed in a high-altitude chase due to Scotty's fear of heights and resulting inability to climb a roof. Scotty is approached by a friend of his who claims that his wife Madeline (Novak) has been behaving strangely and may be possessed by the spirit of a suicidal Hispanic woman from the 19th century. Scotty reluctantly agrees to follow her and report back on her activities so as to ascertain the cause of her odd behavior. Before long, however, he develops a romantic obsession with Madeline, and when he saves her from an apparent suicide attempt, the two fall in love and begin carrying on an affair. He can't seem to save her from her apparent possession, and eventually she acts out the destiny of the deceased woman and plunges to her death from a church tower.

Grief-stricken and withdrawn, Scotty spends several years in a mental hospital, then is released only to cross paths with a woman who is the spitting image of Madeline. Her name, however, is Judy Barton, and she claims to know nothing of Scotty or Madeline. Scotty won't leave her alone, however, and the way in which he insists she make herself over to look exactly like Madeline did, as well as her curious complicity, is truly disturbing and perverse as portrayed by Stewart and Novak. Hitchcock handles these psychological themes deftly, particularly in the long, mostly dialogue-free scenes in the beginning of the film in which Scotty follows Madeline from place to place. This transplants Scotty's obsession with Madeline to the audience, making the shift in perspective towards the end when we discover how truly flawed he is as a protagonist all the more powerful and frightening.

It is a shame, then, that the script was not any better, because "Vertigo" might have been a true four-star masterpiece if the writing had been a little more polished. For one thing, some of the dialogue is just plain silly, such as when the condition which requires the commitment of the nearly vegetative Scotty to a mental hospital is described as "melancholia, combined with a guilt complex"; I know many people who could be said to be suffering from both of those conditions, and none of them are catatonic. More notably, the connection between Madeline and Judy and Scotty hinges on a rather bizarre and excessively complex scheme, while not completely implausible, is not the sort of thing in which most rational human beings would get themselves involved. There are other instances of illogical behavior or plot development which seem to indicate that the screenwriters were so intent on capturing the psychological themes of obsession and love for an illusion that they didn't bother to make sure that the story made sense.

"Vertigo" is not quite a masterpiece, and certainly Hitchcock, Stewart, and Novak deserved a better script to back up their outstanding work in this film. But, even in the absence of one, they follow through on what is, if nothing else, a very intriguing premise, with enough force that the occasional falterings of the script are almost forgotten in the face of the film's powerful psychological impact.

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