Shane Reviews the Greatest Movies Ever Made: Vertigo

1958 movie

 

Rating: 20/20
 



Plot: A skinny detective with a dopey, long-legged walk watches a cop fall to his death during a rooftop chase and develops a bad case of the titular inner-ear disorder. At least that's what I think it is. I'm not in the mood and don't have the time to look that up, so if you're somebody who stumbled upon this blog because you're trying to figure out what vertigo is, I apologize. I know you have to wear a corset after you get it though, and as far as I can tell, you also develop unhealthy infatuations with women who have weird eyebrows. The detective--Scottie or John or Johnny, depending on who you ask--agrees to follow an old pal's wife around to find out whether or not she's possessed. It all leads to an encounter with a creepy nun.
 

Every guy remembers the moment when he reached that magical age and first wanted to sleep with a girl. For me, that girl was Natalie. And cinemaphiles, if they're anything like me, probably remember that first movie that made you fall in love with movies. I watched Vertigo with my dad when I was a freshman in high school, and it's been my favorite movie since then unless I'm in a mood and tell people that The Big Lebowski or Manos: The Hands of Fate is my favorite movie. Regardless, Vertigo is the first movie I ever wanted to sleep with.

 

It's a movie I've loved for more than half my life without fully understanding. I'll watch it again and probably another time or two before I die, and I doubt I fully grasp what's going on here. There's a mystery that attracts me. It's a movie that I feel that I understand on levels that I can't understand. When I was a kid, it was the ending that really grabbed me. Holy hell! I was tickled that a movie could end like that. Of course, I still love the ending--the "I heard voices" creepy nun thing still almost shocking even when you know it's coming. Now, I like to go beyond the story with poor Scottie. He'd already lost the love of his life once not far removed from the traumatic experience that ended his career, and now he's lost her again. At least crazy Midge would probably still screw him if he gave her the chance. That's, of course, if Scottie can even get it up. We start with references to the guy feeling less than a man because he has to wear a corset, and the film's first dialogue links sex and brassieres with fear and dizziness. And the way Jimmy Stewart walks in this movie seems to suggest that he's not quite capable. That's right--Jimmy Stewart walks like an impotent man. All those references to water and boats, that "dolly cam" or whatever trick Hitchcock uses to show the audience the protagonist's vertigo that makes the staircase look so vaginal, just a monstrous oppressive vagina? I should have kept track of phallic symbols in Vertigo. There's the bell tower, obviously, giant sequoias (one which is cut down), and Coit Tower. Coit Tower? No wonder everybody in San Francisco is a homosexual!

 

And I can piece together that place and time is really important to this movie and its characters, but I can't get beyond that. Look at all the references to time though: an early picture in the husband's office of San Fran in the 19th Century, a line about how "anybody could be obsessed with the past," a cross section of the cut-down phallic symbol, a perfectly-preserved mission, Jimmy saying that they're "going back to the past, one more time," the amount of times characters talk about how it's too late. And the idea of control--Novak's character is controlled by two different men--hair color, dress, activities--in this movie. What's going on there?

 

Calling Hitchcock a master isn't exactly profound. His genius is on full display in this movie though. He uses setting so well. I love seeing San Francisco in the 1950s, and it's winding undulating streets almost seem to symbolize Scottie's experiences in this movie. The backgrounds often reflect the moods or changes in moods, most notably with the sequoias and the rocky beach where Scottie and Madeline kiss for the first time, a perfectly timed kiss accompanied by rising music and a perfect splash. Incredible. A lot of times, Hitchcock uses the setting to make Novak look absolutely stunning, a gal who--despite those weird eyebrows--is worth obsessing over. That profile against a background of gaudy red wallpaper? The colors zing in this movie. Speaking of Novak, how wonderful is the provocative title screens with Novak lips and an eye close-up that might, unless I'm just goofy, recall the eye-slicing shot from Un Chien Andalou? More shots just, especially after repeated viewings, drop the jaw. I wonder if I'm--with the knowledge that she knows she's being followed--really picking up on things during Scottie's following of Madeline. I could have sworn that I picked up a subtle glance or two. More tricky Hitchcock when Stewart's wandering around and thinking that he's seeing Madeline. I just know that's Novak in some of those shots. I also like the way Hitchcock makes the ceiling look so large and oppressive following that "trial" or whatever it was, Midge's walk down a gray hallway, that nutty dream sequence, the ghostly image when Judy puts her hair back and re-enters the room, the revolving kiss with the washed-out colors transforming into an entirely different setting before transforming back again, the really lengthy dialogue-free scenes where Scottie follows Madeline around with only the sound of footsteps and the music, the "dolly cam" and the shot of Stewart walking down the stairs after Madeline's death. Oh, and I love the slow pan across Scottie's apartment after he's saved Madeline from drowning in the bay, a slow pan that reveals her clothes hanging in the kitchen which lets us all know that he's seen her naked. This is a movie you watch and every single second seems intentional. If you've seen this movie recently, you're probably thinking, "Shane seems pretty easily impressed with all this," and maybe I am. But all these perfect little moments just add up to a perfect motion picture.

 

Stewart and Novak are terrific, really two of the finest performances you're likely to see. You really only need to watch one scene with a look the two exchange in the car on their way to the mission for the first time to find out that I'm right. Yes, Novak's eyebrows are the most distracting in the history of movies, but everything else about her is almost perfect. Perky breasts, eyes that know more than the audience does, lips that want to tell us more than the screenwriter is allowing her to tell us. My favorite Novak moment in this might be the first time she speaks, right around the 46 minute mark. Her "What am I doing here?" is such a simple but perfectly written line, another little part of this movie that just seems so brilliant when you watch this a second time. Stewart's even more brilliant in what I think is his best performance. If a Jimmy Stewart aficionado read this blog, maybe he could put in his two cents. He's masterful here though. The body language when he steps onto a chair, the way he stretches his neck to look at something, his gripping of a steering wheel. I also like how he walks up the hotel stairs, almost like he has to poop or something. The way his eyes examine Novak before and after the rescue, the madness in his eyes after Madeline's death, the way he becomes so quietly crazed, the little smile he gives Novak after she asks him what he is doing when they're making their second trip to the mission. He's speechless for a couple big chunks of this movie and still has this way of making his character say so much. It's brilliant.

 

Is this movie flawless? Probably. Sure it's got those eyebrows, and I'm not always entirely sure I like the big reveal and where it takes place. And sometimes, I have trouble figuring out why there's so much Midge in the movie. But then I realize that I don't know what I'm talking about and go back to believing that this is a perfect movie. It's one that I can't think of a single thing that needs to be changed about it.

 

Bernard Herrmann's score is one of my favorites, and so is that movie poster up there.

 

Next in the "Shane Reviews the Greatest Movies of All Time" series is Citizen Kane, the former "Greatest Movie Ever" on the Sight and Sound movie list. I'll write about that one on October 1st and not like it as much as Vertigo.