Vertigo (film)

''Vertigo'' is a 1958 American film noir psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on the 1954 novel ''D'entre les morts'' (''From Among the Dead'') by Boileau-Narcejac. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor. The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson, who has retired because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo, a false sense of rotational movement. Scottie is hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, as a private investigator to follow Gavin's wife Madeleine (Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely.

The film was shot on location in the city of San Francisco, California, as well as in Mission San Juan Bautista, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, and Paramount Studios in Hollywood. It is the first film to use the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie's acrophobia. As a result of its use in this film, the effect is often referred to as "the ''Vertigo'' effect". In 1996, the film underwent a major restoration to create a new 70 mm print and DTS soundtrack.

''Vertigo'' received mixed reviews upon initial release, but is now cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of his defining works. In 1989 it was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film appears repeatedly in polls of the best films by the American Film Institute, including a 2007 ranking as the ninth-greatest American movie ever. Attracting significant scholarly criticism, it replaced ''Citizen Kane'' (1941) as the greatest film ever made in The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012 poll, and came 2nd in 2022.

Plot

After a rooftop chase, where a fellow policeman falls to his death, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson retires due to fear of heights and vertigo. Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his ex-fiancée, underwear designer Marjorie 'Midge' Wood, says that another severe emotional shock may be the only cure.

Gavin Elster, an acquaintance from college, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming that she has been behaving strangely and her mental state is abnormal. Scottie reluctantly agrees and follows Madeleine to a florist where she buys a bouquet, to the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the grave of Carlotta Valdes (1831–1857) and to the Legion of Honor art museum where she gazes at the ''Portrait of Carlotta''. He watches her enter the McKittrick Hotel, but upon investigating, she does not seem to be there.

A local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes committed suicide: she had been the mistress of a wealthy married man and bore his child; the otherwise childless man kept the child and cast Carlotta aside. Gavin reveals Carlotta (who he fears is possessing Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine has no knowledge of this and does not remember the places she has visited. Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point and when she leaps into the bay, he rescues her.

The next day, Madeleine stops to deliver a letter of gratitude for Scottie, and they decide to spend the day together. They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where Madeleine runs down towards the ocean. Scottie grabs her and they embrace. The following day, Madeleine visits Scottie and recounts a nightmare. Scottie identifies its setting as Mission San Juan Bautista, the childhood home of Carlotta. He drives her there and they express their love for each other. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower. Scottie, halted on the steps by his acrophobia, sees Madeleine plunge to her death.

The death is declared a suicide. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie breaks down, becomes clinically depressed and is sent to a sanatorium, almost catatonic. Following his release, Scottie frequents the places that Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her. One day, he notices a woman on the street who reminds him of Madeleine, despite her different appearance. Scottie follows her to her hotel room where she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.

Judy has a flashback revealing that she was the person Scottie knew as "Madeleine Elster." She was impersonating Gavin's wife in an elaborate murder scheme. Judy drafts a letter to Scottie explaining her involvement: Gavin had deliberately taken advantage of Scottie's acrophobia to substitute his wife's freshly killed body in the apparent "suicide jump." However, Judy rips up the letter and continues the charade because she loves Scottie.

They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with "Madeleine." He asks Judy to change her clothes and dye her hair to resemble Madeleine. After Judy complies, hoping that they may finally find happiness together, he notices her wearing the necklace portrayed in Carlotta's painting. Scottie realizes the truth and insists on driving Judy back again to the Mission.

There, he tells her he must re-enact the event that led to his madness, admitting he now understands that "Madeleine" and Judy are the same person, and that Judy was Gavin's mistress before being cast aside, just as Carlotta was. Scottie forces her up the bell tower and makes her admit her deceit. Scottie reaches the top, finally conquering his acrophobia. Judy confesses that Gavin paid her to impersonate a "possessed" Madeleine. Judy begs Scottie to forgive her because she loves him. He embraces Judy, but a shadowy figure — actually a nun investigating the noise — rises from the tower's trapdoor, startling her. Judy suddenly lunges backward and accidentally falls to her death. Scottie, bereaved once again but cured of his fear of heights, stands on the ledge while the nun rings the mission bell.

Cast

*James Stewart as John "Scottie" Ferguson
*Kim Novak as Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster
*Tom Helmore as Gavin Elster
*Barbara Bel Geddes as Marjorie "Midge" Wood
* Henry Jones as the coroner
*Raymond Bailey as Scottie's doctor
*Ellen Corby as the manager of the McKittrick Hotel
*Konstantin Shayne as bookstore owner Pop Leibel
* Lee Patrick as the car owner mistaken for Madeleine
Uncredited

*Margaret Brayton as the Ransohoff's saleslady
* Paul Bryar as Capt. Hansen (accompanies Scottie to coroner's inquest)
*Dave McElhatton as the radio announcer (alternative ending)
* Fred Graham as Scottie's police partner (falls from rooftop)
*Nina Shipman as the girl mistaken for Madeleine at the museum
*Sara Taft as nun during closing scene

Alfred Hitchcock makes his customary cameo appearance walking in the street in a gray suit and carrying a trumpet case.

Themes and interpretations

Charles Barr in his monograph dedicated to the study of ''Vertigo'' has stated that the central theme of the film is psychological obsession, concentrating in particular on Scottie as obsessed with the women in his life. As Barr states in his book, "This story of a man who develops a romantic obsession with the image of an enigmatic woman has commonly been seen, by his colleagues as well as by critics and biographers, as one that engaged Hitchcock in an especially profound way; and it has exerted a comparable fascination on many of its viewers. After first seeing it as a teenager in 1958, Donald Spoto had gone back for 26 more viewings by the time he wrote ''The Art of Alfred Hitchcock'' in 1976. In a 1996 magazine article, Geoffrey O'Brien cites other cases of 'permanent fascination' with ''Vertigo'', and then casually reveals that he himself, starting at age 15, has seen it 'at least thirty times'."

Critics have interpreted ''Vertigo'' variously as "a tale of male aggression and visual control; as a map of female Oedipal trajectory; as a deconstruction of the male construction of femininity and of masculinity itself; as a stripping bare of the mechanisms of directorial, Hollywood studio and colonial oppression; and as a place where textual meanings play out in an infinite regress of self-reflexivity." Critic James F. Maxfield has suggested that ''Vertigo'' can be interpreted as a variant on the Ambrose Bierce short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890), and that the main narrative of the film is actually imagined by Scottie, whom we see dangling from a building at the end of the opening rooftop chase.

Production

Development

The screenplay of ''Vertigo'' is an adaptation of the French novel ''D'entre les morts'' (''From Among the Dead'') by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Hitchcock had attempted to buy the rights to the previous novel by the same authors, ''Celle qui n'était plus'' (She Who Was No More), but he failed, and it was made instead by Henri-Georges Clouzot as '' Les Diaboliques''. Although François Truffaut once suggested that ''D'entre les morts'' was specifically written for Hitchcock by Boileau and Narcejac, Narcejac subsequently denied that this was their intention. However, Hitchcock's interest in their work meant that Paramount Pictures commissioned a synopsis of ''D'entre les morts'' in 1954, before it had even been translated into English (it appeared in translation as ''The Living and the Dead'' in 1956).

In the book, Judy's involvement in Madeleine's death was not revealed until the denouement. At the script stage, Hitchcock suggested revealing the secret two-thirds of the way through the film, so that the audience would understand Judy's mental dilemma. After the first preview, Hitchcock was unsure whether to keep the "letter writing scene" or not. He decided to remove it. Herbert Coleman, Vertigo's associate producer and a frequent collaborator with Hitchcock, felt the removal was a mistake. However, Hitchcock said, "Release it just like that." James Stewart, acting as mediator, said to Coleman, "Herbie, you shouldn't get so upset with Hitch. The picture's not that important." Hitchcock's decision was supported by Joan Harrison, another member of his circle, who felt that the film had been improved. Coleman reluctantly made the necessary edits. When he received news of this, Paramount head Barney Balaban was very vocal about the edits and ordered Hitchcock to "Put the picture back the way it was." As a result, the "letter writing scene" remained in the final film.

Writing

There were three screenwriters involved in the writing of ''Vertigo''. Hitchcock originally hired playwright Maxwell Anderson to write a screenplay, but rejected his work, which was titled ''Darkling, I Listen,'' a quotation from Keats's ''Ode to a Nightingale.'' According to Charles Barr in his monograph dedicated to ''Vertigo'', "Anderson was the oldest (at 68) f the 3 writers involved the most celebrated for his stage work and the least committed to cinema, though he had a joint script credit for Hitchcock's preceding film ''The Wrong Man''. He worked on adapting the novel during Hitchcock's absence abroad, and submitted a treatment in September 1956."

A second version, written by Alec Coppel, again left the director dissatisfied. The final script was written by Samuel A. Taylor—who was recommended to Hitchcock due to his knowledge of San Francisco— from notes by Hitchcock. Among Taylor's creations was the character of Midge. Taylor attempted to take sole credit for the screenplay, but Coppel protested to the Screen Writers Guild, which determined that both writers were entitled to a credit, but to leave Anderson out of the film writing credits.

Casting

Vera Miles, who was under personal contract to Hitchcock and had appeared on both his television show and in his film ''The Wrong Man'', was originally scheduled to play Madeleine. She modeled for an early version of the painting featured in the film. Following delays, including Hitchcock becoming ill with gallbladder problems, Miles became pregnant and so had to withdraw from the role. The director declined to postpone shooting and cast Kim Novak as the female lead. By the time Novak had delayed prior film commitments and a vacation promised by Columbia Pictures, the studio that held her contract, Miles had given birth and was available for the film. Hitchcock proceeded with Novak, nevertheless. Columbia head Harry Cohn agreed to lend Novak to ''Vertigo'' if Stewart would agree to co-star with Novak in ''Bell, Book and Candle'', a Columbia production released in December 1958.

Filming

Initial on-site principal photography

''Vertigo'' was filmed from September to December 1957. Principal photography began on location in San Francisco in September 1957 under the working title ''From Among the Dead'' (the literal translation of ''D'entre les morts''). The film uses extensive location footage of the San Francisco Bay Area, with its steep hills and tall arching bridges. In the driving scenes shot in the city, the main characters' cars are almost always pictured heading ''down'' the city's steeply inclined streets. In October 1996, the restored print of ''Vertigo'' debuted at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco with a live on-stage introduction by Kim Novak, providing the city a chance to celebrate itself. Visiting the San Francisco film locations has something of a cult following as well as modest tourist appeal. Such a tour is featured in a subsection of Chris Marker's documentary montage ''Sans Soleil''.

The scene in which Madeleine fell from the tower was filmed at Mission San Juan Bautista, a Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista, California. Associate producer Herbert Coleman's daughter Judy Lanini suggested the mission to Hitchcock as a filming location. A steeple, added sometime after the mission's original construction and secularization, had been demolished following a fire, so Hitchcock added a bell tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the Paramount studio in Los Angeles."Obsessed with ''Vertigo''", directed by Harrison Engle, documentary included on many DVD releases The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film's version. The tower's staircase was later assembled inside a studio.

=List of shooting locations

=
*Scottie's apartment (900 Lombard Street) is one block downhill from the "crookedest street in the world". The facade of the building remained mostly intact until 2012, when the owner of the property erected a wall enclosing the entrance area on the Lombard side of the building.
*The rooftop chase took place on Taylor Street between 1302 and 1360 Taylor. 1308 Taylor went up for sale in 2016 for $2.2 million.
*The Mission San Juan Bautista, where Madeleine falls from the tower, is a real place, but the tower had to be matted in with a painting using studio effects; Hitchcock had first visited the mission before the tower was torn down due to dry rot, and was reportedly displeased to find it missing when he returned to film his scenes. The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film's version.
*The Carlotta Valdes headstone featured in the film (created by the props department) was left at Mission Dolores. Eventually, the headstone was removed as the mission considered it disrespectful to the dead to house a tourist attraction grave for a fictional person. All other cemeteries in San Francisco were evicted from city limits in 1912, so the screenwriters had no other option but to locate the grave at Mission Dolores.
*Madeleine jumps into the sea at Fort Point, underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.
*The gallery where Carlotta's painting appears is the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The Carlotta Valdes portrait was lost after being removed from the gallery, but many of the other paintings in the background of the portrait scenes are still on view.
*What purports to be Muir Woods National Monument in the film is in fact Big Basin Redwoods State Park; however, the cutaway of the redwood tree showing its age was copied from one that can still be found at Muir Woods.
*The coastal region where Scottie and Madeleine first kiss is Cypress Point, along the 17 Mile Drive near Pebble Beach. However, the lone tree they kiss next to was a prop brought specially to the location.
*The domed building Scottie and Judy walk past is the Palace of Fine Arts.
*Coit Tower appears in many background shots. Hitchcock once said that he included it as a phallic symbol. Also prominent in the background is the tower of the San Francisco Ferry Building.
*The exterior of the sanatorium where Scottie is treated was St. Joseph's Hospital, located at 355 Buena Vista East, across from Buena Vista Park. The hospital, which was not a sanatorium, was closed in 1979 and then converted into condominiums. The building, built in 1928, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
*Gavin and Madeleine's apartment building is "The Brocklebank" at 1000 Mason Street on Nob Hill, which still looks essentially the same. It is across the street from the Fairmont Hotel, where Hitchcock usually stayed when he visited and where many of the cast and crew stayed during filming. Shots of the surrounding neighborhood feature the Flood Mansion and Grace Cathedral. Barely visible is the Mark Hopkins Hotel, mentioned in an early scene in the movie.
*The "McKittrick Hotel" was a privately owned Victorian mansion from the 1880s at Gough and Eddy Streets. It was torn down in 1959 and is now an athletic practice field for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School. The St. Paulus Lutheran Church, seen across from the mansion, was destroyed in a fire in 1995.
* Podesta Baldocchi is the flower shop Madeleine visits as she is being followed by Scottie. The shop's location at the time of filming was 224 Grant Avenue. The Podesta Baldocchi flower shop now does business from a location at 410 Harriet Street.Podesta Baldocchi
World's Oldest Family Owned Florist – Since 1871.
*The Empire Hotel is a real place, called the York Hotel, and now (as of January 2009) the Hotel Vertigo at 940 Sutter Street. Judy's room was created, but the green neon of the "Hotel Empire" sign outside is based on the actual hotel's sign (it was replaced when the hotel was renamed).
* Ernie's (847 Montgomery St.) was a real restaurant in Jackson Square, one mile from Scottie's apartment. It is no longer operating.
*One short scene shows Union Square at dawn. Pop Leibel's bookstore, the Argosy, was not a real location, but one recreated on the Paramount lot in imitation of the real-life Argonaut Book Store, which still exists near Sutter and Jones.
*Elster's fictitious Dogpatch shipyard office. Filmed at the real (or simulated with mattes) Union Iron Works shipyard, by then the post-WW2 Bethlehem Steel shipyard. Elster's office has a MIssion telephone exchange (MI or 64) prefix, regarding which Midge says "Why, that's Skid Row", probably because the city's southern MIssion exchange served all of the south-of-slot (SoMa today) and southern (Mission District) phones, and this shipyard area of course met the description of a Skid Row.

Subsequent studio shooting

Following 16 days of location shooting, the production moved to Paramount's studios in Hollywood for two months of filming. Hitchcock preferred to film in studios as he was able to control the environment. Once sufficient location footage had been obtained, interior sets were designed and constructed in the studio.

Hitchcock popularized the dolly zoom in this film, leading to the technique's sobriquet, amongst several others, "the ''Vertigo'' effect". This "dolly-out/zoom-in" method involves the camera physically moving away from a subject whilst simultaneously zooming in (a similar effect can be achieved in reverse), so that the subject retains its size in the frame, but the background's perspective changes. Hitchcock used the effect to look down the tower shaft to emphasise its height and Scottie's disorientation. Following difficulties filming the shot on a full-sized set, a model of the tower shaft was constructed, and the dolly zoom was filmed horizontally. The "special sequence" (Scottie's nightmare sequence) was designed by artist John Ferren, who also created the painting of Carlotta used in the film.

The rotating patterns in the title sequence were done by John Whitney, who used a mechanical computer called the M5 gun director, AKA the Kerrison Predictor, which was used during World War II to aim anti-aircraft cannons at moving targets. This made it possible to produce an animated version of shapes (known as Lissajous curves) based on graphs of parametric equations by mathematician Jules Lissajous.

Costume design

Hitchcock and costume designer Edith Head used color to heighten emotion. Grey was chosen for Madeleine's suit in an attempt to be psychologically jarring, as it is not usually a blonde's colour. In contrast, Novak's character wore a white coat when she visited Scottie's apartment, which Head and Hitchcock considered more natural for a blonde to wear.

Alternative ending

A coda to the film was shot that showed Midge at her apartment, listening to a radio report (voiced by San Francisco TV reporter Dave McElhatton) describing the pursuit of Gavin Elster across Europe. Midge switches the radio off when Scottie enters the room. They then share a drink and look out of the window in silence. Contrary to reports that this scene was filmed to meet foreign censorship needs, this tag ending had originally been demanded by Geoffrey Shurlock of the U.S. Production Code Administration, who had noted: "It will, of course, be most important that the indication that Elster will be brought back for trial is sufficiently emphasized."

Hitchcock finally succeeded in fending off most of Shurlock's demands (which included toning down erotic allusions) and had the alternative ending dropped. The footage was discovered in Los Angeles in May 1993, and was added as an alternative ending on the LaserDisc release, and later on DVD and Blu-ray releases.

Music

The score was written by Bernard Herrmann. It was conducted by Muir Mathieson and recorded in Europe because there was a musicians' strike in the U.S.

In a 2004 special issue of the British Film Institute's (BFI) magazine ''Sight & Sound'', director Martin Scorsese described the qualities of Herrmann's famous score:

Hitchcock's film is about obsession, which means that it's about circling back to the same moment, again and again ... And the music is also built around spirals and circles, fulfilment and despair. Herrmann really understood what Hitchcock was going for — he wanted to penetrate to the heart of obsession.

Graphic design

Graphic designer Saul Bass used spiral

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