Hitchcock's Masterpiece? VERTIGO (1958) FIRST TIME WATCHING Reaction | Review x Commentary 

The Jimmy Stewart story, OK Shree here goes. In 1982 I worked at a 5 star hotel in downtown Denver. I was working a charity banquet he and his wife were attending. They were sitting alone at their assigned table. She got up to talk with some people not at their table. I was walking by when he waved at me to speak with him. He then asks me to sit down and keep him company while his wife was at the other table. Well, right as I sat down my manager happened to see me sit in the chair. He approached to ask me why I was seated. Jimmy Stewart stopped him right away and said "this nice young man is going to keep me company for a while, you don't have a problem with that do you?" He made sure I was to be seated with him throughout the dinner! WHAT A FASCINATING MAN, AS WELL AS A GENTLEMAN! I'll NEVER forget that experience! I got to have a banquet dinner with a Hollywood ICON!😊

Great reaction, Shree!! FYI - She didn't jump at the end. She backed away from the figure of the nun who appeared as the 'angel of death' to her in the dark, and fell off the edge.

I think you're mistaken, in your read of two key events in the film: 1) Midge WASN'T playing a practical joke on Johnny, with the Carlotta painting. If it HAD BEEN a practical joke, then she would not have reacted the way she did, when Johnny said, "not funny!" and left the apartment. Midge was devastated, and angry at herself for putting a lot of effort into a plan that failed completely. Her actions weren't intended to 'toy' with Johnny or to get a rise out of him. Rather, she wanted him back as a lover and as a romantic partner. She learned that Johnny was developing a strong attraction to Judy/Madeline, and Midge was trying to 'shock-persuade' Johnny to get him to see her once again as a lover, rather than as a friend-confidante or as a surrogate mother. 2) Judy/Madeline didn't JUMP off the tower at the film's end. She was backing away from the image of the nun, in fear, and she FELL off the tower. (If she had JUMPED, then she wouldn't have screamed - and we heard the scream.) You scream when confronted with something unexpected. When you jump, that's a planned action. (It's a mirror-image of a dual-reality question that happens earlier in the film: Did Judy/Madeline ••FALL•• into San Francisco Bay, as Johnny tells her? No: we see her ••JUMP•• into San Francisco Bay. Johnny isn't sure what he's dealing with at that point, and doesn't want to further spook the woman he's with, so he alters the event: He informs her not that she JUMPED in, but rather FELL in.) || LATE EDIT: In the very last minutes of the reaction video, you do acknowledge that Judy/Madeline •FELL• to her death (rather than jumped). The dual-reality ambiguity, occurs throughout the film: - Is the main character "really" named Johnny, Johnny-o, or Scottie? - Is Madeline herself, or Carlotta? - Is the husband a good friend, looking to help his stricken wife, or rather a heartless arch-villain planning a cruel murder and using his friend? - When the investigator at the trial, declares that Johnny "was (unwilling) to save the life of the police officer," (implying that Johnny could have acted differently), is that accurate? (No, there was nothing that Johnny could reasonably have done to prevent that death.) - When we see Judy/Madeline, are we seeing the real person who actually is Ulster's wife? - What is the nature of the relationship between Midge and Johnny? (Midge wants the relationship to be one way - as intimates/lovers, but Johnny forces it to be another way, as Midge states when we see one of her final appearances in the film: "Mother's here!") (This is the opposite of the usual dynamic: It's usually the woman who pushes the would-be male suitor into the 'friend-zone.') - Will Johnny take the love of a •real• woman? (No, he rejects TWO real women, in two different ways, in favor of a fantasy: He rejects the real woman, Midge, with whom he could have had a real relationship. And he also rejects Judy, and insists on re-creating the fantasy woman (the image of Madeline, in his mind), using "Judy's" body.)

Great reaction to one of my favorite movies of all time! About the ending: think about how deeply invested Judy got with Carlotta's story, including talking about the nuns scolding her and the other children at the mission. At the end, when the nun rises up, whether Judy realizes it's a nun or not, she sees this figure as coming for punishment for what she has done. In that moment, she's little Carlotta scared of the nuns, she's Judy scared of a dark mass coming to get her for her crime, she's the fake Madeline scared of this dark web of possession she is caught in, and she's the real Madeline scared of her husband's plan to destroy her. She turns to run, but, of course, runs right off the top of the tower. This is really the only way this movie could end: as you said, she is a tragic figure--guilty of murder and yet so vulnerable and desperate to be loved. Her tragic character arc ends in death, befitting of such a dark story.

She didn't "jump" at the end. When she sees a shadowy figure walk up the stairs, she froze at first (was it 'Elster,' finding her??) and then she runs back --- but goes over the ledge and falls over it and down. It was just a moment of reaction. Like when you jump out of being scared and moved away or move backwards -- and go over the edge (or ledge). It was also Hitchcock's own private joke: he hated Catholic nuns (and cops and all disciplinarians): it was a trauma from his childhood and school days. And the big irony is that, after Scottie makes over his woman, he loses her -- and yet he finally finds himself and loses his trauma and his Vertigo!

Carlotta was not "murderous". The historian's accent was very heavy. He said "she stopped people on the street to ask 'Where is my child'", not "she stabbed people on the street to ask..." That line is commonly misheard. You will notice on your rewatch that the floor of the tower is flat. There is no step up or other barrier to the opening. When Judy saw the nun, her own feeling of guilt made her think it was the ghost of Elster's wife or some other kind of apparition intent on making her pay for her crime. So she backed up. With no step up or other barrier to stop her, she simply backed up too far and fell. You are one of the first reactors that I have seen that remembers that Scotty is / was a detective. As a detective, subconsciously he knew that there was something not fitting in the way Madeleine died. It seems like he is going crazy or is obsessed with trying to turn Judy into Madeleine, but I believe that he is actually trying to figure out those details that continue to bug him. And of course, that is combined with his grief at losing Madeleine and his own feelings of guilt at being either directly or indirectly responsible for two deaths.

one of Hitchcock's masterpieces, inspiring french director Chris Marker with 1962 "La Jetée" and subsequently 1995 "Twelve Monkeys" by Terry Gilliam! As Marker once said about his science-fiction short film, the vertigo that haunts the main character is mainly a vertigo of time itself...

Concerning the ending: She turned and ran from someone suddenly stepping out of the shadows. She fell by accident. This is Hitchcock's Shaekspereian tragedy.

One of the best psychological thrillers ever made! The film was #1 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, until Citizen Kane took the top spot 10 years ago.

Been many years since i've seen this.. still a stunning movie. Even though I've been actively watching movies for over 28 years, rating and writing scripts on my own etc...you can't imagine anymore...that to presents cinema or TV "a bra in a movie" like this...that was once considered something brave, provocative...when i tell or show it to my nephews who are now 19 and 20now, something like that, it's like I'm reporting from the Middle Ages. It's insane how society evolved and in some cases devolved. P.S That blazer looks fantastic on you girl 😘

Couple of related movie suggestions. Vertigo was based on a novel by the French novelists Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac. Another of their novels, She Who Was No More, was turned into another great movie called Les Diaboliques by the great, French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot. Hitchcock had originally wanted to make that book into a film, but Clouzot beat him to the punch. Clouzot made another great film called The Wages of Fear (1953) that is real nail-biter.

This is my favourite Hitchcock movie. I love it. God forbid if someone decides to remake it. As for the nun ending, my interpretation is that Judy didn't know it was a nun. She got terrified at a ghostly figure ascending the stairs, freaked out, and just impulsively jumped. I still enjoy watching it every now and then. Keep up the great reactions Shree 👍

She didn't jump off the roof!! She freaked out being at the scene of the crime once again. The nun scared her coming out of nowhere and she backed up and fell in a panic.

Judy didn't jump. She was startled and fell. HItchcock really was a genius. The movies of his which you'll be recommended here will be great, but they'll be recommended mostly by people who know very little of his work. It will be the same 5 movies over and over. Some other great movies of his are: "Marnie" "Strangers on a Train" "Suspicion" "The Lady Vanishes" "The 39 Steps" "Lifeboat" "Rebecca"

Madeleine jumps into the San Francisco Bay near Golden Gate Bridge, where the Bay connects to the Pacific Ocean in the west. Puzzles me how much the local geography comes into play in Vertigo - in the book, she jumps into an actual river in France, the Seine. Scottie doesn't hesitate jumping from that height, anyway. If ppl watch Mr Aki Kaurismäki's films (Fallen Leaves was voted best film of 2023) shot in Helsinki, we here all know the points he makes about our history, geography, people's lives in the past, but US geography is foreign to me. Smb wrote that where Midge lives, she can see John's apartment from her window - would anyone watching know that? Or that one of the buildings we see in view near Madeleine is called The Coit Tower, which according to Hitchcock is a phallic symbol reference, as the name alone says. Or that the street where Scottie lives is the most zig-zagging street in the world. You could write a book about just the locations in the film. Mr Peter von Bagh, our most famous film expert, wrote his thesis on just Vertigo alone, unheard of at the time, about just one film - he watched it through so many times he knew it by heart and also interviewed Sir Alfred. For a heavily psychological film by Hitchcock, try Spellbound, too.

Also if you look carefully at the hotel that Judy lives at, there's a sign somewhere that says 'Twelfth Knight', while the hotel itself is called 'Hotel Empire'!!

47:39 You realize Judy's guilt from being part of the murder plot. Most reviewers don't at this stage and still give Judy lots of sympathy, which is weird.

Scotti at the very end standing on the ledge at the top of that Bell Tower looking down is completely relaxed and there's no trauma on his face. He is a freed Man. You don't seem to really understand that. The trauma that he got at the beginning is resolved ultimately through his experience with Madeline. In fact they spell that out earlier in the movie in a dialogue - that if you revisit that kind of thing in that very revisiting of that kind of trauma it destroys it.

I am eagerly awaiting your analytical insights to this classic movie. It was a box office failure at the time of its release due to the overtly slow build up to the denouement and the audience’s general lack of knowledge of the darker psychological undertones that Hitchcock was portraying.throughout the movie. Namaste 🙏.

Perfect Timing, Shree💝Our Friend (Eric) was asking Me, just the other day, what Your Next Reaction would be...and now I can give Him the Right Answer! (LOL) Your 4th Hitchcock today🤔this should be Interesting, especially since I'm Afraid of Heights IRL!😂Either way, I'm always looking forward to wasting some time with YOU...🥰

This movie is so well done. The camera shots are all art work, and I love the invention of the vertigo shot.

It's interesting how you were suspect of the supernatural angle in this film. The first time i saw it, as I was watching, I felt really surprised and disappointed Hitchcock would go this route. Little did I know what his true intentions were.

A masterful film and not a one time watch; it reveals more each time one watches it. It pretends to be a ghost haunting and possessing someone, but what becomes a ruse actually happens to Scottie psychologically. He even says to Gavin, Well, anybody could be obsessed with the past with a background like that!" And Scottie does. Plus the visual design is all spirals and mirror imagery repeating itself. Btw, Judy doesn't jump at the finale, but falls backwards dreading that the nun in darkened silhouette (Judy can't see what she is) is a ghost since the whole film psycholically is constantly invoking specters of one kind or another and to Judy's fradile state of mine there actually is now a ghostvemerging from the shadows (after all she is in part responsible for the real Madeleine's death.Thankfully Vertigo doesn't explain it away with a tidy explanation, but it's very evident on repeat viewings.

A lot of people have been comparing Scottys behaviour towards Judy with necrophilia (since he still loves Madeleine more than her) which was probably why a lot of people at the time were (and even now are) very uncomfortable with the movie. Still, at least we do find out it's just good old detective instincts too! Also, love your varied taste in movies and hope you'll discover many more!😊

Hello Again, Shree👋took Me a little while but I've finally finished My re-watch!😅As much as I was Enjoying Our Chat😉 I definitely Missed a few things here, which all together makes Perfect sense to Me now🤔or at least, I think that it does! All and All, Hitchcock has given Us a 'Mental Mystery' that's equally Impressive and Challenging...just when You think that You've got it all figured out, That Twist turns everything Inside-And-Out! Bravo, My Friend👏and Thanks for Your Brilliant Reaction today!👍 Speaking of 'Acrophobia' here's another Fun Recommendation for You: "Runaway" ('84). Surprisingly similar in parts, but with more of a Sci-Fi setting: Tom Selleck (from "Quigley Down Under") stars as an Acrophobic-Cop in pursuit of a killer! The Film was Written-&-Directed by Michael Crichton (as in "Jurassic Park"), the Effects are All Practical Mechanics and this is one of the Coldest / Creepiest Villains that I have EVER seen!👌

Probably my favorite Hitchcock film

My favourite is Strangers On A Train.

You missed half the film because of your running commentary, judy didn't jump on purpose she was startled by the Creepy Nun and lost her balance and fell to her death.

Until the mid-19th century, the only place you could get buried would be next to a church, on church property, which was considered hallowed ground. But you had to be a member of said church, in good standing. (Or you could get buried in "potter's field" for poor people and non-believers.) As cities grew, the grave yard acreage became too valuable, and also crowded with graves as populations also grew. So in 1831, the "rural cemetery movement" began in America, setting aside vast acreage on the outskirts of a city. Burial was open to anyone. These grounds were carefully landscaped. With the rise of trolley cars, on a good Sunday, families would pack a lunch, catch a trolley to the nearest cemetery, and spend the day picnicking among the gravestones. (Yes, from our view point today, gruesome and ghoulish.)

so much symbolism but ill sum it up a little as ive seen this film hundreds of times- 1st red is symbolic of a warning- red is used alot ilaround gavin allister showing that he is the mastermind. green is used around madaline and judy alot one- as lust or desire and its used to create an almost dream light state in judys apartment. the towers filmed through out the driving scene is a phalic sybolism, hitchcock likes to include towers in backgrounds. the cars used in the film are also important- scotty/john drives a 1956 desoto fireflite sportsman- desoto was chosen as a reference to spain and the spainish imagery- the color is white as scotty wants to be seen as a hero thus the desoto is his so called”white horse”. the jaguar madeline drives is a jaguar as a jaguar cat is exotic beautiful and dangerous. most people say the ghost stuff is a mcguffin(a plot device that is used just to get the plot going but isnt really as important as ur led to believe) actually there are muliple, the mission, necklace, the death dream(was the main one in my opinion as it was just called back to drive scottie mad) and carlottas potrait along with carlotta. all of this can be seen as the same macguffin but they are used serperatly with in the movie. then there is all the mother stuff and the cunsumating with the dead stuff. in other words scottie is one of those guys with a hero complex, but fails when given the chance l, midge babies him ever though she loves him and he loses his job and loses his mind in a downward spiral. i reccoment the Hitchcock-traffaut interviews from the mid 1960s he breaks this film down a lot as it was a deep cut for hitchcock that bombed hard.

This Hitchcock movie is a classic happy to see you reacting to this movie.

"She jumped because she saw a nun?!?" - Hah, perfect.

Shree, it is still debated whether Judy jumped or fell. I am in the later camp. Either way she had to die because of the Hayes Code. This was a code in operation from 1934-1968 that created moral standards for movies. One rule was was that if you committed a capitol crime, or aided someone that did, you had to die or get caught by the cops.

Elster/s plot depended on knowing how our hero was going to react at any given moment, (the fake suicide, the tower). Hitchcock seeps us up in this perverse romance so breathlessly that we don't have time to think how absurd this plot is.

Went skydiving once,just to see if I could jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Well I lived to tell the tale. All I can say is ' NEVER AGAIN! ' Hi Shree...great choice! 😊

You hit the nail on the head with your excellent reaction to Hitchcock’s’ most popular failure. This is a movie about deception, obsession, and physical and mental manipulation with a bit of Pygmalion and Frankensteinian reconstruction of a “live- dead” individual. The green colouring is typically used in stage plays and movies to represent an illusionary concept like a ‘ghost’ or something that is not real. Hitchcock used it to say that Madeline/Judy was not what she seemed. The red colour is typically used to represent danger, passion, desire, and tension. Hitchcock uses this to emphasize Scotties’ emotions toward Madeline and his fear and tension about his acrophobia. Trivia-the opening credits for Vertigo was the first use of computer-generated graphics. The zoom effect that represents the sensation of falling was invented for the first time in this movie. It is now called the Vertigo Dolly Zoom. Namaste 🙏.

I think you may be the first person to think Barbara Bel Geddes seems similar to Grace Kelly. They are both blonde anyway.

Vertigo is Hitch's strangest film, and his most complex. Funny enough I didnt love it the first time I saw it. Over the years it began to grow on me and now it's my favorite... I also love North By Northwest with Cary Grant.

She was next to the window and stepped back in fright when the nun appeared from nowhere

This movie is deeply political. The businessman guy speaks with an Englishy accent and he goes back to Europe in the end, and he talks about how he doesn;t like San Fransisco anymore. It's not his city anymore, like it was when he was growing up. He's like the evil businessman who married Carlotta, with the money and the power to do as he pleases. Or missing it in his case. Madeline is the new rising woman, determining her own fate when it comes to who she ants to be with, even if it means marital betrayal. You can see some of this in North by North West, the blonde woman in the train, and also The Birds, again the blonde woman who jumps into the fountain naked. And birds are the classic symbol of freedom.

As a murder story, Vertigo is preposterous. Would someone who wanted to kill his wife and get away with it come up with a convoluted plan like this, with so many ways it could go wrong? But as a story about obsession, it's without peer. The bit about an aircraft engineer designing the bra is a joke about Howard Hughes. He founded Hughes Aircraft, and was one of the richest people in the world. He was also a filmmaker .He produced The Outlaw starring Jane Russell, and designed a bra for her to wear in that movie to made her look even more busty than she already was. She hated the thing because it was so uncomfortable, so she secretly discarded it and wore her own bra (with added padding for effect). The movie was controversial because of her skimpy outfits. San Franciscans love Vertigo for all the location shots. People go on tours to see all the places where it was shot. The city has changed a lot since 1958, but a lot of the places still exist, like the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Mission Dolores, and Fort Point. Essays have been written about the color symbolism. Green represents Madeleine and Scottie's obsession with her. Red indicates danger and the troubles brewing in their relationship. Kim Novak's acting in this movie is fantastic. She played two characters who were really the same character, and did a slow transition from one to the other as Judy became Madeleine again. It wasn't just the hair color. Judy talked differently from Madeleine, she held her face differently, she walked differently. It would have been easier for Novak if the transition were sudden. But there were times when Novak had to be 50% Judy and 50% Madeleine. And on top of that, she had to portray someone who was acting like she was possessed, or in a trance, and make it believable. The effect where the background recedes when Scottie is climbing the stairs was done with a dolly zoom (AKA a trombone shot). It's done by simultaneously moving the camera forward while zooming out. Judy falling out of the window gives the story a sort of symmetry, and it also satisfied the Hays Code, which was still in force at the time (though it was fading). According to the Code, wrongdoers could not be shown getting away with their crimes, and Judy did engage in a murder plot. You have to wonder what happened to the husband (and to Scottie) once the law got involved again.

I think your reaction is one of the most perceptive I've seen. I share your belief that this is a dark tale of trauma and karma. You hinted at things in the beginning that were actually spot on - you clearly have a good mind for screenplays and plot twists, and it comes across clearly in what's perhaps the masterpiece of all plot twists. Well done!

Never seen this one, so I'm not going to watch a reaction, but I kind of want to to see if a 21st century Indian gets mid-20th century American film in certain ways. Yet, my ignorance prevents me. Hope you liked the film, Shree.

I'd glad you spotted the karma of Judy being manipulated after she totally played Scotty to the point he was in a mental institution. To put it another way, Scotty treated Judy really badly because of his mental issues, but what caused those mental issues? Then their roles are reversed by being obsessed with the past and possibly going mad.

I believe she mistook the shadow of the nun as the ghost of her murder victim coming back for revenge.

She didn't jump she fell.

Am I wrong in thinking that she stepped/jerked back in fright when the nun scares her and falls off the bell tower? Not jumped? I don't know.

It's my favourite Hitchcock movie and practically every movie of his is a classic! Please watch 'Marnie'.

The first reactor with sympathy and compassion for John/Scotty in his deranged state. Most others find him just creepy and disgusting.

Vertigo is one of the greatest movies of all time, although Rear window is propably my favorite Hitchcock movie.

a fun fact- the spirals were made using computers. so theoreically the oldest film with CGI used 😂

The only thing I hate about this movie is the story. The story is absurdly stupid. It's a murder plot requiring many layers of unpredictable interactions to play out exactly according to plan.

Another Kim Novak James Stewart movie is Bell, Book and Candle.

You need to watch the "The Thin Man" series with Willian Powell and Myrna Loy

OK Shree, you wanted me to submit a Good Sci Fi. Well I recommend George Lucas ' first film. 'THX1138' dystopian future film.

Dear Shree, so glad you liked the movie!

She was startled by the nun so that she accidentally fell off the tower. Why is that so hard to understand? Also, Madge's prank was very cringe.

Yes

❤ Okay, Shree. That Mr. Hitchcock was as messed up, at times, as Stephen King. Hitch just doesn't go all Abby Normal the way Stephen does. How many people had problems in this movie? Dude who wanted his wife dead. Invisible office girl. Dude who couldn't see love in his office and could fall off his chair. Girl unaware cosplay can be dangerous. What is the follow-up story? Dude feels guilty for causing the death of his obsession and takes it out on office girl? Office girl gives up and chucks dude out the window? I don't know. Just one more masterpiece. Mel Brooks spoofs Hitch, HIGH ANXIETY.

Hitchcock had a thing for blondes.

Another psychological movie from Hitchcock; Marnie. But it's also quite sad.

"You shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn't have been that sentimental." Originally critically slammed when it first came out, there's been a critical reassessment of late. I, however, am not one of them. I hate this movie with a passion. I've watched this movie three times and each time I want to take a bat to my TV after watching. It's a bloated, directionless, and self-indulgent mess. Even Sir Alfred Hitchcock realized afterward that everyone was miscast and disowned the film. Fun Fact: In 1989, this movie was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Hot Take Fact: Sir Alfred Hitchcock reportedly spent a week filming a brief scene where Madeleine (Kim Novak) stares at a portrait in the Palace of the Legion of Honor just to get the lighting right. Location Location Fact: The Empire Hotel where James Stewart eventually finds Kim Novak is the Hotel Vertigo (formerly the York) located at 940 Sutter Street in lower Nob Hill in San Francisco. Novak's character lived in Room 501, which still retains many of its aspects captured in this movie. As of 2023, Hotel Vertigo is closed. The flower shop, Podesta Baldocchi, opened in San Francisco in 1871 and was the premier florist of the city for generations. It does an online only delivery service as of 2023.

He might have jumped. He was pretty abusive to Judy too, trying to mold her into another person. And he didn't know about the murder at that point.