Inevitably, Scottie falls madly in love with the mystical, mystifying Madeleine. As the ruse continues and deepens, Elster plants the seed in Scottie’s mind that Madeleine is possessed by the ghost of a dead woman, Carlotta Valdes, the mistress of a European man who went insane when he took their child and deserted her, and that she may be suicidal.
In fact, it is Elster’s mistress (Novak) posing as his wife whom Scottie is following. Life takes a sharp turn when the wealthy shipbuilder Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore) hires Scottie ostensibly to shadow his wife, Madeleine, and uncover the roots of her sudden strange behavior. Recovering from the trauma with the help of loving friend and former fiancée Midge (the wonderful Barbara Bel Geddes), Scottie seems restless, unsatisfied and essentially marking time. His terrible fear of heights and the role it plays in the accidental death of a fellow officer lead him to retire from the force. Stewart plays John “Scottie” Ferguson, a one-time lawyer turned policeman, who once had the aspiration to become San Francisco’s police chief. Vertigo has its apparent flaws, including an implausible murder plot, certain trite or banal elements, and an uneven performance from Novak, but it has endured and proven to be one of the most troubling American films of the postwar period. Its darkness and obsessiveness may have seemed odd to audiences at a time when American affluence and power were supposedly at their height.
VERTIGO HITCHCOCK MOVIE
The movie was not a box office success, despite being a glamorous, big-budget effort directed by the “master of suspense,” and featuring one of Hollywood’s most beloved actors (James Stewart), along with budding sex symbol Kim Novak. The 1958 classic psychological thriller was based on the 1954 novel D ’ entre les morts ( Among the Dead) by French crime writers Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud (whose pen name was Thomas Narcejac).
After succeeding in saving her from a suicidal jump into San Francisco Bay then failing to save her, because of a vertigo attack, from a fatal fall at a California Mission, he is almost catatonic with grief until he sees a woman on a downtown street who looks remarkably like Madeleine (Novak, again). She leads him all over town and beyond and appears to be possessed by the spirit of her great grandmother, Carlotta Valdes. Obsession is the key word here when he is drawn not once, but twice, into the suffocating embrace of a beautiful wom an.ĭetective Scottie Ferguson (Stewart) is hired to trail Madeleine (Novak), the wife of an old acquaintance, and report back on her strange wanderings. The confusion of James Stewart's character Scottie is perfectly captured as he follows the entranced Kim Novak's Madeleine around the vertiginous streets of the city. Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo has been a huge audience favorite since it premiered in San Francisco at the Stage Door Theater at 420 Mason Street on May 9, 1958.
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