Falling into Obsession: A Revival Review for “Vertigo”

Kim Novak and James Stewart in "Vertigo"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Alfred Hitchcock doesn’t need any introduction, but it’s so much fun to discuss him nonetheless.  He was a filmmaker who exhibited a remarkable carefulness in constructing his films, and it’s this approach that draws me to his work.  I saw several of his films in a Hitchcock class during my senior year of college, but I always craved a chance to see one of his movies on a big screen.  

Well, I was given that chance last week with “Vertigo,” a psychological thriller that brings you through a labyrinthine plot and leads to some troubling places.

When San Francisco police detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) develops acrophobia (a fear of heights) following a tragic incident when on duty, he goes into an early retirement.  Soon after, he’s hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), to follow his wife, Madeline (Kim Novak), whom he says has been acting strangely.

Stewart does well in bringing across the tortured persona of a man who experiences a crippling phobia and a fixation on the woman whom he’s following.  Some of his best moments come when he’s stricken with episodes of acrophobia because he’s able to display in his eyes the intense fear that he’s experiencing, presenting a detective who has something major to try to overcome.  As the film goes on, we see his mentality begin to unravel as he tumbles more and more into his central obsession, and this causes us to care about his well-being because he can’t seem to tear himself away from what he’s chasing.  All of this helps in creating one of Hitchcock’s most-captivating protagonists to date.

Throughout Novak’s first couple of scenes, she doesn’t have any dialogue.  This is when Scottie’s following her, and as he’s watching her, we’re in his position where we have to decipher what’s going on with Madeline.  During these sequences, Novak has to rely on her facial expressions in order to allow us into her character’s mind.  As her arc continues and she’s given dialogue, we can hear the panic and anguish within her as she tries to convince Scottie of what she believes is happening to her (I won’t give that “what” away), and it’s a performance that grips you with its enigmatic qualities.

The cinematography by Robert Burks (who worked on several of Hitchcock’s films, including “The Birds,” “Rear Window,” and “Strangers on a Train”) makes superb use of a dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that creates a feeling of Scottie’s acrophobia.  We feel the effect of his fear when this dolly zoom is used, which leads to point-of-view shots of Scottie looking down from a high area.  All of this provides us with a dizzying sensation as we’re placed in a situation to experience the same fear that Scottie has to face. 

I’d be remiss not to mention the colorful and disturbing opening-credits sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass (who also provided the opening-credits sequences for “Psycho” and “North by Northwest”) that’s paired with Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score.  And, just like Bass, Herrmann would go on to lend his talents to Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and “North by Northwest.”  It’s a sequence that makes you feel as though you’re entering a twisted dream, and it sets you up for the psychological wringer that you’re about to experience.

The screenplay by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, which is based on Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac’s 1954 crime novel, “D’entre les morts (“Among the Dead”) offers a probing study of how Scottie’s obsession effects his psyche and presents one of the best examples of Hitchcock’s trope of an ordinary person who’s pulled into a dangerous situation.  What seems to be a simple investigation into Madeline’s behavior soon turns into something more where we’re not sure what or who to believe, all of which immerses the viewer into the narrative as they work alongside Scottie to figure out what’s happening.

One of the best aspects of the film is how we’re given a couple of sequences within the first hour where there isn’t any dialogue, only music, and this allows us to just be absorbed in the images and the story that they’re trying to tell.  In these scenes, where Scottie’s following Madeline, Hitchcock and Burks use many point-of-view shots for Scottie, putting the viewer in his position and making us eager to figure out what’s going on with Madeline.

For the duration of the movie, you can see the level of dedication that Hitchcock put into the details of “Vertigo,” with everything looking as though it had been selected in a careful manner to bring each scene to life.  He was someone who let the technical aspects tell the story as much as the characters and dialogue, knowing that every component of filmmaking is essential with moving the narrative forward.  In this movie, scenes play out for as long they have to, letting the audience take in as much as they can from shot to shot as they try to piece together the film’s mystery.

Sixty years later, “Vertigo” still endures as one of American cinema’s finest psychological thrillers.  The classic performances from Stewart and Novak and the always-brilliant direction from Hitchcock make this a film that clutches you in its deep, dark journey and keeps you in its grasp until the final Hitchcockian shock.  Like many of the films from “the Master of Suspense,” this is one that shouldn’t be missed.

Final grade: A

*From June 6-28, the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York, will be holding a film series called, “Back on the Big Screen: Hollywood Highlights 1952-1982,” which is part of their ongoing “Retro Revival” series, in which they present classic films.  “Vertigo” screened during the series on June 14.