Review of Vertigo (1958) by Dawdlingpoet — 23 Nov 2021

Any fan of Alfred Hitchcock will have heard of Vertigo - its held in high esteem by fans of his as well as fans of classic mystery and thriller movies in general. This movie, as others of its time, uses a heavy classical score to add a strong air of mystery and suspense, with the different instruments (such as strings and drumlines) putting across how the director wanted the audience to feel about the different scenes (like in the equally well known and regarded 'Psycho'). When I think of this being used to such an effect in a modern movie, the first one that comes to mind being Jurassic Park and you certainly can't argue that was used to add to the atmosphere, to make the viewer (hopefully) feel overawed and taken aback by the scale of it all, given that particular story.

The opening titles to this movie are quite psychadelic, depicting multiple colours in a kaleidoscope type sequence, its quite hypnotic and very mysterious. There's one other scene that portrays John clearly in a deep sleep, having a disturbing dream, or more of a nightmare, which is highlighted by bright multi-coloured neon lights flashing across him, so there is a strong effort to put across tension through colour, which makes sense given the original movie dates from the late 1950s and colour in film was presumably fairly new then (correct me if I'm wrong). Its clear fairly early on that both the main characters are somewhat mysterious - we learn that John, or Scottie as he's sometimes referred to, has this acrophobia very early on but yet its clearly put across that what he witnesses early on isn't what caused this phobia to form, rather it highlighted that he already had it and we don't really know where this originally came from, so even if though minor, you wonder about the background of this person. The way he puts himself across on screen, you can't help but wonder about his motives and background as well, so he is rather mysterious in a sense, although much more mysterious is the other main character, Madeleine. She is, obviously, a rather fragile woman, who keeps things to herself but even from a distance John can see that things aren't necessarily as they may seem... the friendship or even romantic element between the two is quite intriguing, as John becomes more and more fascinated by her. She is very coy and as a viewer its a case of the fact that she gives away so little, that makes you more intrigued to find out more. However, this is only one half of the movie, after it takes a sinister turn and certainly there are a couple of plot twists present in the movie, one of which I felt was more obvious, for want of a better term, than the other. The ending is rather shocking and very sudden, given the lack of ending credits - instead the last scene is shown and it cuts abruptly to the 'Paramount Pictures' screen, which I suppose gives it more impact. I'd say that after shortly after a certain point, after the first plot twist (if you can call it that) occurs, you may have an idea of where the story is going, although its not entirely confirmed until close to the end but even then, the ultimate outcome is still rather shocking. If your prepared to watch and follow the story right through to the end then it should have some impact, although it may move a little slowly for you given on what you prefer. This movie is mainly about the characters, although the story itself is obviously rather well thought out. Given the age and type of movie that it is, there isn't alot of action as such, there's no strong violence or language or obviously CGI of course but then this is a different type of movie, its really about putting across a constant air of mystery and intrigue about these characters and if your happy to buy into it and follow the story through John's eyes then its certainly an enjoyable watch. Yes I'd recommend this movie. The performances or characters, especially that of the two main characters portrayed by James Stewart and Kim Novak are both very well portrayed and there's quite a strong sense of mystery and intrigue put across throughout.