Hitchcock-Truffaut Episode 21: 'The Wrong Man' & 'Vertigo' 

You can tell how heartbroken Hitchcock was over the failure of “Vertigo” at the time

Artists are not always the most perceptive receivers of their own work ... in the case of Vertigo, Kim Novak was perfection in that film.

Thank you so much! So happy to have come by these recordings. I have the original book, Hitchcock/Truffaut (MY choice for the title as Truffault’s contribution questions/are easily 1/3 of the books enjoyment) which I devoured in the late 1970’s. I never dreamed the recordings were available. So cool! Before finding this recording today I viewed Vertigo twice and the first viewing I too saw a “hole in the story” regarding the chance of the murder being revealed with Stewart reaching the bell tower top. Then on the second viewing it struck me that the murderer acted in complete cold blood, with mere money, power, and freedom as motives. Surely, he was prepared to push Stewart out of the tower as well, if need be, to keep his murder hidden. Stewart would at best be greatly disoriented on reaching the top and a man who can break his wife’s neck in some unknown manner would think himself able to overpower the thin, mentally weakened Stewart enough to simply push him out the small, unprotected balcony after his wife’s body. He’s no longer a detective so there would be little fear of Stewart carrying a gun. A man falling inadvertently as he tries to save his suicidal lover would be utterly believable. After all, he’d already almost fallen to death in his police work. But since it took me 2 viewings to come to this, yeah, it’s perhaps a hole for the purposes of a film’s success.

Vertigo is a masterpiece. As in Shadow of a Doubt, a gemstone becomes the central clue in the main character uncovering a web of deceit. The film was the ultimate tribute to San Francisco. Hitchcock's Catholicism played an important role in the film's second half. The nature of lust and what will come of it; not to mention the female character's treachery coming to haunt her in the end.

It is unfortunate that Vertigo was only considered a masterpiece in hindsight

Je vous vraiment remercie d'avoir coupé cette magnifique interview selon chaque film. Merci encore.

Truffaut misses so much that I really find that modern Hitchcock enthusiasts have left his views back in the dust.

Interesting that Truffaut didn’t like The Wrong Man. I think it’s great and underrated.

29:20

Intruiging "hole in the story" which bothered Hitch.

Even though Hitch definitely liked the attention from Truffaut, he still couldn't help himself from trolling him a little bit.

The Wrong Man definitely is one of his best. I don't agree with Hitch's not defending it. It's quite a remarkable film. Probably his most different except for Family Plot, which is mainly tonally different.

I’m conflicted because at the beginning of this interview about vertigo he says “Kim Novak was terrible” but then at the end he acknowledges in agreement with Truffaut that she was “good for the picture” …. Confused….

Could the police have used worse ways of having witnesses identify a potential criminal than this case. You always have to separate witnesses when they are identifying a suspect.

I saw The Wrong Man last night and have to say I disagree with both Hitchcock and Truffaut, I think it's a wonderful film and one of Hitchcock's best IMO