Vertigo is a super weird movie. It is one of those that keeps you guessing the whole time and is the best the first time you watch it. I thought it was perfect for the Unhappy Valentines Blogathon because things go horribly wrong for the two main characters.
The movie completely flopped at the time it came out. Many, including director, Alfred Hitchcock, attribute the failure to Jimmy Stewart because he was thought too old to play a romantic lead. Hitchcock also thought Kim Novak was miscast. Seems he wasn’t happy at all with this! It is now considered one of the best.
Synopsis:
In this confusing Alfred Hitchcock classic, a retired detective suffering from a fear of heights is asked by an old friend to help him with his wife’s strange behavior by tailing her. As he does, he becomes obsessed with her. Twists and turns ensue!
The Players:
Jimmy Stewart-I think it was unfair to blame the original failure of this film all on Jimmy. I think he does a great job as Scottie. He’s so intense and his character’s obsession really shines through!
Hitchcock never worked with him after this since he blamed him for the movie’s failure. It’s now considered one of Hitchcock’s best films.
Kim Novak- Kim was loaned out from Columbia for this movie, which she accepted gratefully. She was happy to get away from Harry Cohn for any amount of time! She did feel that Columbia was paying her too little for how much money they were making from loaning her out. So she went on strike during filming, got a raise and then went back to work {good for her!}.
She played dual roles in this-one of Madeline, the blonde wife, and Judy, the woman that Jimmy Stewart’s character meets and tries to makeover to look like Madeline.
Their Real-Life Relationship-This was their first film together and was followed up later in the year with Bell, Book and Candle. Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak became very close during the filming of this and their next movie.
Their On-Screen Relationship
Well, this one is a doozy. Scottie is so obsessed with Madeline that when he meets Judy, he works so hard to make her over to look like Madeline. They could have been happy, but Madeline/Judy’s deception drives him crazy and he is too obsessed with Madeline that he can’t accept Judy. What she did to him is awful, but it was originally just a job. She grew to care for him, but it was too late to change his mind. They were doomed from the beginning and…
********Spoiler**********
Judy ends up paying the ultimate price.
Why You Should Check it Out:
Honestly, this is a weird movie and if you haven’t seen it before, the ending will definitely surprise you. It keeps you guessing all along, but it is not one of my favorites to watch over and over.
This post was written specifically for Pure Entertainment Preservation Society‘s Unhappy Valentines Blogathon!
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I love Hitch’s movies and this one… is one of my favorites, just because it’s so twisted… the idea of making over a woman and modeling her into what you want her to be. In a creepy way, it parallels what Hitchcock was doing with all his leading ladies — modeling them into an ideal of his chosen design (having power over their voice, what they wore, their tailored suits, etc), only Hitch never got to ‘have’ any of them.
Steward was perfect for this movie, so it’s a shame Hitch blamed him instead of just realizing that audiences at the time weren’t able to understand the deep psychological drive of his plot.
This may not be a popular opinion, but this movie is in the queue for my series “Movies Everybody Loves That I Hate.” While I don’t want to give away the thrust of that future post, let’s just say your first paragraph sets the table for my issues with “Vertigo.” There’s a lot of Jimmy Stewart movies I liked the first time I saw them, and the more I saw them, the more I realized he plays a lot of characters who really are dicks when you give them a closer look.
Take “Scottie” for example. Here’s a guy who is hired to keep an eye on somebody else’s wife, and literally 60 seconds after meeting her, he spends the rest of the movie trying to screw her.
I’m with you on this movie. I thought it was captivating the first time I watched it since you don’t know what’s going on, but man, Jimmy Stewart’s character is intense and hard to watch. His obsession is so disturbing with how he makes her over. I don’t find this a movie I want to rewatch really. That said, I do enjoy other movies of his, including the other one they did together – Bell, Book and Candle.