Vertigo (1958)

This is the third or fourth time I've watched Vertigo, and although I'm going to keep the 5-star rating, man... can we talk about the ending? Scottie (Jimmy Stewart) needs to go back to the tower to "put the past behind him," and to prove to himself that he can make it to the top. That's fair, but as for the rest of the ending -- what happens at the top of the tower -- it just feels abrupt and leaves a lot of loose ends.

Maybe we can assume that a few things will happen, but we never know for sure. Will Scottie finally put the past behind him and settle down with Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes)? I'm guessing she'll still take him, even if she knows she's his consolation prize. And what about Gavin (Tom Helmore)? Can we assume that Scottie will track him down and bring him to justice? But what "proof" does he have that Gavin did anything? The necklace? Not much more, really.

But let's think a little bit more about the "behind the scenes" to the crime itself. How did Gavin get his wife to the tower, and where did he park his car? When you watch this movie, San Francisco often feels empty. It's just Scottie and the woman Gavin has hired him to follow. Even at the tower, when Scottie and the woman he thinks is Gavin's wife originally go there, her's is the only car we see, and no one else is around until the body hits the roof. 

As with a lot of Hitchcock movies, we don't get much of a motive. Sure, Gavin wants his wife's money, but how is he able to so cold-bloodedly kill her and then use his friend's vertigo for the cover? Although I don't want Gavin to monologue how he developed the plan and why he decided murder was the best option, I would like a little more explanation than the movie provides. Likewise, I would like to know why Kim Novak's character goes along with the plan. Was it, as Scottie suggests, that she was in love with Gavin? She admits that she was once picked up by a man. Was that man Gavin?

I would also like a little more Midge in the movie. Scottie spends a little time in the asylum after the woman falls from the tower, but then when he's released, for the last 30 minutes or so, Midge is completely gone. When he's in the asylum. she visits and tells him she's there for him, and she's always been there for him. Why, after he leaves the asylum, would she just vanish from his life? My thought is, and we've previously seen her drive by his apartment -- so we kind of know she has watched over him in the past -- she should be acting as a sort of "detective," following him to see what he's up to. That would even, potentially, get her to the tower at the ending. Women in Hitchcock films do like being part of the action -- think about Lisa (Grace Kelly) in Rear Window, for example. She jumps at the chance to help L.B. (Stewart) figure out what's going on across the courtyard of the apartment complex. 

Since Novak's character knows she's being followed, it doesn't much matter, but I wanted to point out that Scottie is horrible at discreetly following someone in a car. But like I noted above, it doesn't help that San Francisco feels deserted. I have to laugh when Novak's character just parks right in front of the museum, rather than a parking lot, for example, and there are no other patrons there. When's the last time you went to a completely empty major art museum? One that didn't even have a parking lot, no less.

All my gripes aside, the partnership of Hitchcock and Bernard Hermann is so perfect. The soundtrack in the movie is great, and it's difficult to imagine this film being half of what it is without it. 

I'm also amazed at the color palette, the different camera shots -- from above, from below, and just at angles and distances that you knew took thought and carefully planning. Then, of course, Scottie's "acid dream" and the Novak character's "final reveal" to be the woman Scottie wanted.  Just amazing. Watch Novak come out of that bathroom. You can't avoid having a reaction to that scene. 

Last thought: If Scottie wanted "his woman" so badly, why can't he overlook the necklace? Sure, he was duped, and the woman he wanted was never "real," but he had "his creation," and considering his state of mind, to paraphrase what he says to Novak's character, "it couldn't matter" to him is she's real or created, as long as she's his. 

Last, last thought: Jimmy Stewart is so characteristically Jimmy Stewart in this film -- his mannerisms and way of speaking. I only mention this because in Rope (1948) and Rear Window (1954), yeah, that's Jimmy Stewart playing the roles, but he's not the almost cliche Stewart that comes to mind -- the one the mannerisms and way of speaking that impersonates would amplify 

Last, last, last thought: I like seeing a younger Barbara Bel Geddes. I only really know her as the old woman -- J.R.'s mom -- in Dallas. But if Midge wants to paint a sexy portrait and give it to the man she would like to woo, she should lose the glasses. 

Rating: 5/5 stars