7tavern: Vertigo (1958)

Vertigo (1958)

Sound (4)
3.3
Plot (4)
2.9
Cast (4)
3.4
Special Effects (4)
2.9
Length & Pace (4)
3.2
Cinematography (4)
3.7

Directors: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Alec Coppel (screenplay) & Samuel A. Taylor (screenplay)

Release: 21 July 1958 (Brazil)

Tagline: A Hitchcock thriller. You should see it from the beginning!

Plot: John "Scottie" Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia. An acquaintance from his college days approaches him and asks him to follow with his wife as he believes that she is possessed and fear that she might commit suicide. Scottie is reluctant at first but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.

Cast:   James Stewart - Det. John 'Scottie' Ferguson, Kim Novak - Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton, Barbara Bel Geddes - Marjorie 'Midge' Wood, Tom Helmore - Gavin Elster, Henry Jones - Coroner, Raymond Bailey - Scottie's Doctor, Ellen Corby - Manager of McKittrick Hotel, Konstantin Shayne - Pop Leibel, Lee Patrick - Car Owner Mistaken for Madeleine

Runtime: 128 min  | USA:129 min (1996 restored version)

Country: USA

Language: English

Company: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions

Links: IMDb Profile

Categories: Crime, Romance, Thriller

Main

Trailer

FRCRuben
Reviews: 76
Points: 0 (Level 1)
Reviewer

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Plot:
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Length & Pace:
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3.3

4.5

Alfred Hitchcock's High Anxiety

I've never made any excuse about my feelings towards Vertigo. I have a  good friend, Romp, one of the artsy film dork-types (oooh, I have an  MFA in multimedia arts.....la la la......) that finds Vertigo to  be the best of the Hitchcocks.

To each his own and different strokes and all that garbage. I think  it's a good movie, weird at times, melo-dramatic with a decently tight  story.

Unfortunately, the film doesn't hold up in any meaningful way 52 or 53  years after its release. Some movies are timeless and some movies have a  definite time and place, and Vertigo falls into the latter  category.

Jimmy  Stewart plays John "Scottie" Ferguson, a San Francisco cop that  retired early because he has vertigo, which is a temporary phenomenon  that has been turned into a "real" affliction by "doctors" in the 50's  (other ailments mentioned in Vertigo in place of actual  psychological diagnoses: acute melancholia and a guilt complex).

Because of his early retirement, Scottie takes a P.I. job from an old  college chum (Tom Helmore)  to follow his wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), as he  suspects her of being possessed by a 19th century SF socialite's ghost  (acute Paranormia enhanced by a sixth sensical complex).

Weird things happen, Madeleine kills herself, Scottie gets all weird on a  girl that looks like her. I'm sure most of you have seen this movie,  so I won't get into specifics.

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To me, Vertigo is the kind of movie where you can talk and drink wine and bitch about inconsistencies throughout. It was filmed in and around San Francisco, so its fun to be all "Been there". In fact, it is the first in my "Local Locales" blog series, which I have yet to post.

Of course, to say that Vertigo is an average Hitchcock, still places it above 90% of the shlock that has been made throughout cinematic history. Even though I see George Bailey every time Jimmy Stewart shows up in a film, Alfred Hitchcock seems only too aware of Jimmy Stewart's Well awww shucks persona, and likes to put him in super-awkward positions where his mutterings and stammerings are no longer charming.

In Vertigo, Stewart's character gets a royal mindfuck, and gets all obsessive over this girl -- giving her clothes to wear and telling her how to do her hair and all sorts of awkward weirdness. With good reason, mind you, but it's totally creepy to see someone as square as your next door neighbor Mr. Filbert turn into the guy that tried to kill Bjork.

To put it in film terms that everyone would be familiar with: imagine if the befuddled Hugh Grant played the guy that wore the pokey strap-on in Seven. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry.....I mean, you see, the thing is, well....how do I put this in such a delicate manner.....unfortunately, I fucked her, you see? Understand please, but the fucking gun, you see, was in my throat. Oh my. Oh my. Would you be so kind as to help me?"

Anyway, I drank a bottle of wine. SY and SS drank a bottle of chardonnay each, and we were munching on tartlets. The whole time we were saying things like "Been there, that's on Sacramento and Mason" and "How freaking short are their sweaters?" We have fun.

Ruben of the Floating Red Couch<br />
http://www.floatingredcouch.com

Last updated: 2010-05-27 09:54:25 by FRCRuben

2010-05-27 09:52:27

Squish
Reviews: 740
Points: 0 (Level 1)
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2.5

Vertigo (1958)

Hitchcock! Hitchcock! Hitchcock!

Eeee, time travel doesn't suit Jimmy's complexion...

Genre: Drama Mystery Thriller Romance

Starring: James Stewart (Rope; It's a Wonderful Life), Kim Novak (The Man With The Golden Arm)

Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock (Spellbound; The Manxman)

Overview: A detective suffering from vertigo takes a job following a man's wife, embroiling himself in a strange mystery.

Performance:

I read once that Kim Novak, while in this role, constantly felt as thought she was pressured by Hitchcock to play Grace Kelly, or rather BE Grace Kelly. You see, he had Grace as a leading lady for three recent films, and it was pretty obvious to Kim that there was no way she could live up to the high expectations Hitchcock already had in his mind. Poor girl. But just between you and me, she ain't got the same charm and chemistry with Stewart either...
Rating: 8

Cinematography:

I was astounded at how not impressed I was with this. Don't get me wrong, it's a great little movie and those harrowing moments are quite something, but when you have good story it's nice to crop it visually rather than simply set up a standard framing. For the high tension at great times it's fantastic but it could have been so much more frightening.
Rating: 8

Script:

Crap all over me for this but I found the script uninspired and all too expository, "Hey we were engaged once, you remember that?" Who the hell asks that question if not for an audience? Jimmy might as well just have stood up, walked stage front-left while a spotlight fell on him as he spoke directly to the camera, Jesus.
Rating: 7

Plot:

A deep psychological fear meshed with a clunky story. Potential defiled. I'm being so hard on this one only because I expected so much, but the mystery of the first half was really quite bland. The end, that twist with all the dominoes falling into place does quite the interesting thing to the mind, but I didn't find that it redeemed the rest of the film for me.
Rating: 7

Mood:

It's called Vertigo for a reason, and that reason should have been played up a little bit more. One more scene where he's deeply affected by the nausea that sweeps over him would have made it just that much better. I'll tell you this too, the whole early part of the mystery, the following of the wife, it's rather ordinary, regardless of all the expository mystery about it. The mood set was fine, but really nothing more.
Rating: 7

Ding-A-Dang Dong my Ding-A-Long Novak!

Overall Rating: 74% ("I'm Just Sick About This...")

Aftertaste:

I must say that I remember this being much more impressive the first time I saw it. I think it was the first Hitchcock film I'd ever seen and perhaps I was blinded by the veneer of the legend. Yes this is a classic, and yes it's solid, but the power balance between the sexes is so ridiculously dated, it suffers for it. Culture Shock, for sure. Wow, I guess women really WERE spineless back then. Still, the now-retro-cool special effects definitely haven't lost their edge for me, and though not one of my favorites was enjoyable enough.

(Read Less...)

Recommendations: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009), Requiem for a Dream, Dawn of the Dead

2010-05-16 01:44:50

FRCRuben
Reviews: 76
Points: 0 (Level 1)
Reviewer

Alfred Hitchcock's High Anxiety

I've never made any excuse about my feelings towards Vertigo . I have a good friend, Romp, one of the artsy film dork-types (oooh, I have an MFA in multimedia arts.....la la la......) that finds Vertigo to be the best of the Hitchcocks. To each his own and different strokes and all that garbage. I think it's a good movie, weird at times, melo-dramatic with a decently tight story. Unfortunately, the film doesn't hold up in any meaningful way 52 or 53 years after its release. Some movies are timeless and some movies have a definite time and place, and Vertigo falls into the latter category. Jimmy Stewart plays John "Scottie" Ferguson, a San Francisco cop that retired early because he has vertigo, which is a temporary phenomenon that has been turned into a "real" affliction by "doctors" in the 50's (other ailments...

(Read More...)

2010-05-27 09:52:27

Squish
Reviews: 740
Points: 0 (Level 1)
Reviewer

Vertigo (1958)

Hitchcock! Hitchcock! Hitchcock! Eeee, time travel doesn't suit Jimmy's complexion... Genre: Drama Mystery Thriller Romance Starring: James Stewart ( Rope ; It's a Wonderful Life), Kim Novak ( The Man With The Golden Arm ) Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock (Spellbound ; The Manxman ) Overview: A detective suffering from vertigo takes a job following a man's wife, embroiling himself in a strange mystery. Performance: I read once that Kim Novak, while in this role, constantly felt as thought she was pressured by Hitchcock to play Grace Kelly, or rather BE Grace Kelly. You see, he had Grace as a leading lady for three recent films, and it was pretty obvious to Kim that there was no way she could live up to the high expectations Hitchcock already had in his mind. Poor girl. But just between you and me, she ain't got the same charm and chemistry with Stewart either... Rating: 8 Cinematography: I was astounded at how not impressed I was with this. Don't get me wrong,...

(Read More...)

2010-05-16 01:44:50

AlexDelarge
Reviews: 71
Points: 0 (Level 1)
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4.5

Vertigo: Faded Apparition

Scottie is a faded apparition who haunts the crowded streets of San Francisco, his love transformed into a bleached vertiginous obsession. Considered by many to be Hitchcock’s masterpiece, VERTIGO attains the dizzying height of a suspenseful murder mystery but deep below the taught surface tension lurks a bestial narrative of male entitlement and naked aggression.

Bernard Herrmann’s score amplifies the psychological dimension, invigorating the trauma with an illusive uncertainty; dialogue is often replaced by suggestive musical cues punctuated by Stewart and Novak’s subtle expressions and body language. Jimmy Stewart plays against type as John “Scottie” Ferguson, an ex-cop who suffers from debilitating acrophobia, a man unable to commit to a healthy relationship with Midge, his college girlfriend who adores him. She is the counterpoint to his fragile emotional state; we judge his spiraling madness against her feminine strength in an attempt to understand his sexual addiction…because Scottie seems to destroy those whom he loves most.

Kim Novak’s duel performance is exceptional: she is a doppelganger; a cruel mistress of deception and lust who becomes imbued with a graceful humanity, a lovely woman torn between her past…and passion. Hitch is at his best with a dazzling 360-degree shot: as Judy and Scottie embrace in her room, his mind reels backwards and we see revealed the carriage-house; the place of the final zealous kiss before the bone-shattering tragedy. As he constructs Judy piece-by-piece like a sex doll she becomes a rapturous puzzle of soft flesh and lipstick, a fabricated ghost deluged with a violent green miasma of jealousy and delusion.

Hitch understands suspense: he reveals the cruel charade, which powers the nuclear fission between the audience and the characters. A dark form emerges from the shadows of a bell tower, startling Judy quickly towards her final judgment…and leaves Scottie to bear his own cross of guilt and shame. Final Grade: (A+)

Recommendations: The Birds, Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Funny Games

All reviews copyright Korova, Ltd. Visit Alex at his Home Theatre Blog, http://korovatheatrepresents.blogspot.com/

2010-02-27 06:46:22

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