Vertigo ***1/2

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Released in 1958.
Written by Alec Coppel & Samuel Taylor.
With James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore.
Seen in Theater.

School has started and I'm way behind in blogging. Must..... keep..... short! This is two films in one. It starts off as a kind of ghost/detective story and turns into a psychodrama for the last fourth of the film. The latter part of the film, I thought, was more interesting.

An idle detective with vertigo is grounded from duty to to an accident in which his vertigo got in the way of saving some one's life. He is asked by an old friend to watch his wife. His friend is convinced that his wife is possessed. This is the slower part of the movie, since we are privy to the slow and monotonous life of a detective on watch. As he follows her around, he begins to have feelings for her as she is of course, in the Hitchcock tradition, beautiful. He watches her jump into a river and proceeds to save her. From there, he falls in love and she (Novak) seems to return his affections. They proceed together to an old mission in the country that has a large tower and Madeleine (Novak) has an "episode" of other worldliness and runs up the tower in a panic. Stewart's character (the detective - "Scottie") runs after her, but of course since he has vertigo, he can't make it up to the top and he hears her scream and sees her falling body from the window.

At this point in the film, there is a beautiful shot of the church from a bird's eye view in which the audience can see the woman laying on the roof, the police hurrying in one side of the mission, while Stewart staggers out the other side of the mission. All in one shot. If I recall, there was many beautiful shots but after two weeks, I can't remember any of them - except for that scene. it was simply stunning! I should start taking notes!

So now the second half of the film begins. Stewart has a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized. When he gets out, every one and every thing he sees reminds him of her. One day he sees a woman that reminds him so much of her that he pursues her. He bullies and coerces her to go out with him. When she does, he tries to turn the new girl into Madeleine, his love. Stewart starts to get controlling and manipulative. He's down right mean. Something you don't see often with him except for maybe in his roles in Anthony Mann's westerns. Meanwhile Novak's character (she plays both roles - so she really DOES look like his dead lover) is starting to get scared and nervous. It turns into this incredibly uncomfortable narrative that makes a person squirm in their seat.

There's a twist in the film, but I won't divulge it here.