Convoluted Plot
In keeping with Hitchcock, the convoluted, calculated plot is fitting. However, one cant help but question whether anyone would ever be able to think up and then carry out such a crazy scheme that Gavin Elster manages to execute. In order to inherit his wifes fortune, he hires a woman to undergo a serious make-over to resemble his wife; he then hires his old friend who he has learned has developed Vertigo to track her saying he believes she is possessed by the spirit of Carlotta Valdes who tragically committed suicide years earlier and he worries his wife will suffer the same fate. She manages to lure Scottie to a clock tower, where Gavin waits with his real wife, who he has drugged. Scottie is slow to catch the fake Madeline and arrives just after Gavin has thrown his real wife out of the building and then made a quick escape with the impostor. Hello inheritance money! If a detective were to reach this conclusion and share it with his superior, would he not be laughed out of the room? Would anyone but Hitchcock be able to get away with this as a plot?
Slow Burner
The single greatest flaw of Vertigo is the movie takes far too long to get to the crux of the plot. Vertigo is two hours and nine minutes long. And for me, this is thirty minutes too long. Far too much time is spent watching Scottie follow and watch Madeline around San Francisco, which Hitchcock clearly fell in love with almost as much as one of his leading ladies. Has San Francisco ever been photographed so extensively or made look so beautiful? Hitchcock has often been billed as somewhat of a travel photographer as he tended to photograph the nice areas and tourist areas of the cities he filmed in. Far too much time is spent on Scottie and Madelines relationship, which builds a snails pace. Its ninety minutes into the film when Madeline dies/ is murdered, leaving the final forty minutes of tension feeling rushed. And while I appreciate the first half of the movie is a detective story and these tend to operate at a slow, lingering pace, I do find the first ninety minutes to be flabby. On the whole the film is top heavy, and Im not surprised audiences of the time were bored by it and crowds left the cinema before it really gets interesting.
The Good
There are, of course, lots of outstanding elements in the movie. I think the second half of Vertigo from the moment Madeline is murdered is superb. The choice to break from the restricted perspective of Scottie to an omniscient narration and allow Judy to reveal the twist in the plot with thirty minutes remaining is bold and effective. The flashback that recalls the death/ murder of Madeline from the perspective of Judy is superbly constructed and succinctly and masterfully conveyed with a voice over that is effective, emotional and inventive. Judy isnt simply talking to herself but rather we are hearing her internal narration of a letter of confession she is writing to Scottie. Bernard Hermanns score is one of the most haunting pieces ever composed for cinema. It is employed with perfect effect in two scenes in particular: the iconic, opening credits by Saul Bass and Scotties nightmarish dream sequence. The score fused with the deep colours that drown the frames and vibrant animations suck us into this twisted world. The performances from Stewart and Novak are also exceptional. Stewart as always manages to seamlessly shift between being an everyman to a man of exceptional skill and charisma and then to someone on the edge of insanity. The ability to be sexy and demure came easily to Novak, but executing complex emotions and a troubled state of mind on screen were skills that she was often found lacking. In Vertigo she exhibits all of his traits with great aplomb. And her transformation both in looks and more importantly character from Madeline to Judy is equally impressive. Great kudos must go to the make-up department for this, as for sometime the resemblance between the two disparate women remains unclear. Best of all for me is the fact Vertigo is a film about filmmaking; maybe the best example of it. Scotties obsession with transforming Judy into the blonde Madeline his ideal woman mirrors Hitchcocks own obsession with blonde, Norse women. The way Scottie transforms Judy is just how Hitchcock transformed Novak and countless other actresses. Vertigo is perhaps the clearest insight into the mind of Hitchcock; which seems darker and more misogynistic the deeper one delves into it. Nonetheless, its not the character of Hitchcock that is on trial when you view his movies, but rather his skill as a filmmaker, and this is unquestionably magnificent for the majority of his work. And yet, despite all of this flair and class, Vertigo is never a film I feel myself compelled to watch as an entire piece and Im not a film viewer who likes to or rather believes that a film should be watched in clips or skimmed. It is for this reason I believe it is overrated and what I call an interesting mess. There are many films that I place in this category. Scorseses Casino, and everything from Tarantino post-Jackie Brown quickly come to mind. There are moments in them I find deeply enjoyable, and I see the potential if you dont look at them as a whole for them being truly great films. But when you watch them as a whole you see the cracks around these moments of brilliance. I would much rather an interesting mess than a polished piece of mediocrity that doesnt push the boundaries or try new things but just is successful because it covers all the bases. This said, I do believe there are a great many films that fail to make this list or are much further down which are far superior pieces of cinema and do everything Vertigo does but also manage to be adeptly paced and consistently solid throughout. To finish, I would like to quote the closing remark from Varietys review of Vertigo in 1958, which I feel is one of the few critiques of a film I have ever read that perfectly surmises my thoughts on a film. Unfortunately, even all mastery on show is not enough to overcome one major fault, for the plain fact is that the film's first half is too slow and too long. This may be because: (1) Hitchcock became overly enamoured with the vertiginous beauty of Frisco; or (2) the Alec Coppel-Samuel Taylor screenplay (from the novel "D'entre Les Morts" by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac) just takes too long to get off the ground.