In Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic thriller Vertigo, Jimmy Stewart’s over-done body language, cottonmouth voice and general age detracts from an otherwise solid film. In a previous review, I’d watched the 1954 film Rear Window and commented on how Stewart was clearly too old for the role. Much can be same four years later in a role that depended on the romance between Stewart and Kim Novak.
The film begins with a police chase. Stewart plays the character John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson. During the police chase that includes roof hoping, Scottie doesn’t make the jump and is left hanging from the side of a building. In an attempt to save his live, a fellow officer inches his way towards Scottie only to fall to his death. We cut forward and learn that Scottie has survived somehow, but now he’s deathly afraid of heights. He’s deemed unfit for police work and seems depressed until an old friend enlists him in a task of following his wife. This woman, Madeleine played by Novak is acting strange and it’s feared that she may be considering suicide. Scotty follows her until she “falls” into a river only to be saved by Scottie. The two begin an awkward relationship that’s the backbone of the film. I say awkward because Stewart is so much older than Novak. This truly seems like a father/daughter relationship until they become romantically involved, then the scenes just come off as creepy. Without spoiling the end of this thriller, suffice it to say that Madeleine seems destined to kill herself and finally does. Scottie again seems depressed until meeting a woman that looks similar to Madeleine. In an odd turn of events, Scottie insists the woman wear the same clothes as Madeleine and wants her to become Madeleine. The ending scene is beautifully done and really makes up for the first part of the film that I really struggled with.
As I mentioned, the ending of the film is fantastic and worth seeing the movie just to experience the end. Essentially everything after Scottie has his dream is cinematic gold. Before that point, I really couldn’t be bothered with Scottie as I felt the performance really suffered. I knew nothing of this film before watching it and I was hoping for some more instances where Vertigo itself would come into play. Another thing I didn’t understand was Scottie wasn’t interested in Midge Wood currently, although they were once engaged. She seems to be a much better character for Scottie and I would have liked to see them together a bit more. This was really a tough watch for me as normally I don’t have a problem with older films, but Stewart’s performance really grated on me. If it wasn’t for the ending, this would have been one of the bigger disappointments so far in this journey.