Vertigo

Vertigo is a psychological thriller that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1958. It stars James Stewart in his fourth and final Hitchcock film and Kim Novak. Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore appear in supporting roles. The film is set in San Francisco and many famous landmarks appear in the film. Initially, it was not a great success with either critics or the public but over time it has been recognised as one of the greatest films of all time, replacing Citizen Kane in 2012 on top of the Sight and Sounds critics’ poll of the greatest films of all time.

The film opens with two detectives pursuing a criminal over rooftops somewhere in San Francisco. While jumping over rooftops, one of them slips while landing on a rooftop and ends up clinging to the drain pipe. While looking down, he gets dizzy and suffers from Vertigo for the first time. The other officer gives up his pursuit and attempts to rescue him but falls to his death, leaving the other officer to hang on the drain pipe clinging for his life.

In the next scene, we find out the officer is John “Scottie” Ferguson (Stewart) and due to his Vertigo he has been forced to retire from the police force. He is in his friends, Marjorie “Midge” Wood’s (Geddes) apartment and is trying to overcome his Vertigo. Midge is in love with Scottie but Scottie doesn’t reciprocate her love. His fall also caused him to have to use a cane while walking. Scottie mentions he has received a phone call from his old College friend Gavin Elster (Helmore) who is a successful shipping tycoon and has asked Scottie to meet him at his work. While stepping up on a multi-tiered chair, to try and “lick” his Vertigo, he looks out the apartment window and suffers another case of Vertigo and falls into Midge’s arms.

Scottie arrives at Elster’s work and learns he wants him to follow his wife, Madeline, as he fears she has been possessed by someone dead. Madeline apparently goes into trances and wanders around San Francisco. After Elster states that he wants Scottie for the job as he trusts him greatly, Scottie agrees to retake his old role as a private detective once more. Elster arranges for him to see Madeline later that night.

At Ernie’s restaurant, Scottie is introduced to Madeline (Novak), a cool blonde, when Elster and she walk by Scottie who is sitting at the bar. The next day, Scottie follows her as she drives about San Francisco. After leaving her apartment in Nob Hill, she first stops at a flower shop to buy some flowers before heading to the Mission Dolores where she stops for a while to look at the gravestone of Carlotta Valdes who died in 1857. After she leaves, Scottie makes a note of the name on the gravestone.

Madeline then heads to the California Palace of the Legion of Honour where she sits, almost like she is hypnotised, at a painting of a portrait of Carlotta Valdes. Scottie notices her hair is done the exact same way as Carlotta’s is in the painting. Finally Madeline heads to the McKittrick hotel and heads up to her room and stands looking outside the window. Scottie heads inside and asks the landlady the name of the person who just came in. She says her name is Carlotta Valdes and then says she hasn’t been in today. Scottie gets the landlady to check the room and it is empty, and Madeline’s car has disappeared. He finds it parked in front of Madeline’s apartment.

Back at Midge’s, he asks her for someone who is an authority on San Francisco history for help with his research. She recommends the owner of the Argosy Book Shop. The owner tells Scottie about Carlotta Valdes: she had a child with a wealthy but abusive man and when he tired of her, he abandoned her and took the baby. She went crazy and committed suicide. After leaving, Midge, who accompanied him, demands to know what is going on. After Scottie refuses, she guesses that it has something to do with Gavin Elster and then goes further and guesses that Carlotta has taken control of his wife. She laughs at Scottie but understands why Scottie is investigating when he says Madeline is a pretty woman.

Scottie meets with Elster for a drink and Elster tells him the whole story about Carlotta. Madeline inherited several of her jewellery and just sits and looks at them in the mirror. Elster also worries that she may kill herself. He then reveals that Madeline knows nothing about Carlotta. Scottie takes another drink while saying he need this.

The next day while following Madeline, she ends up at Fort Point below the Golden Gate Bridge. Standing at the side of the water, she peels off petals of a flower slowly by the edge of the Bay. Suddenly she suddenly jumps in. Scottie jumps in, rescues her then takes her back to his apartment to dry off. She wakes up when the telephone goes off in Scotties Bedroom. Giving her his bathrobe, they talk for the first time. Madeline says that she can’t remember jumping into the Bay but thanks Scottie for saving her. When they are interrupted by Elster phoning, Madeline takes her clothes and leaves the apartment. When Scottie comes out to look, Midge drives away, jealous and thinking that something else happened between the two.

The next day, while following Madeline, Scottie ends up back at his own apartment as Madeline posts a note through the letterbox. Scottie asks and Madeline agrees to them spending time together. Together, they take a car ride to a local nature park. Madeline keeps disappearing between the trees and when Scottie catches her he presses her for information about what she is thinking.

The pair end up on a cliff side in the Monterey Bay. After revealing all she knows and becoming frightened, she runs to the water’s edge. Scottie holds her and they kiss and embrace each other. Scottie vows to protect her from whatever trouble she is experiencing as the waves crash against the rocks before the scene cuts to black.

Scottie is invited to Midge’s apartment and after asking where he’s been, she announces she has returned to her first love- painting. She then shows Scottie her painting which is Carlotta’s portrait with Midge’s face. Scottie is very unhappy at this and tells her that it isn’t funny before leaving. Midge breaks down crying at what she has done.

The next morning, Madeline appears at Scottie’s door upset as she has had recurring nightmares of her in a mission bell tower. Scottie realises she is talking about the San Juan Bautista’s Spanish Mission, south of San Francisco. Scottie takes her there and while wandering around she runs away from him into the bell tower. Scottie try’s to stop her but while climbing up the bell tower her suffers from Vertigo again and Madeline jumps from the top to her death.

The coroner holds a meeting about Madeline’s death and it is concluded that although Scottie was weak, it was a suicide. Elster apologises for what has happened and says he is finishing up in San Francisco and heading to Europe. After the hearing, Scottie is emotionally broken and after suffering from nightmares he is committed to a sanatorium. Midge visits and try’s to use music to cheer him up but Scottie is unresponsive. His doctor tells Midge it might take up to a year before Scottie is cured.

When Scottie is released, he wanders around San Francisco constantly mistaking women for his lost Madeline. One day, he spots a brunette lookalike of Madeline and follows her back to her hotel before asking to speak to her. The brunette reveals she is Judy Barton (Novak again) and after realising how broken Scottie is, agrees to a date out of pity with him. When he leaves, it is revealed in a voice over that Judy WAS Madeline. She was Gavin Elster’s mistress and agreed to impersonate his wife and to lure Scottie to the bell tower, where Gavin was waiting at the top with his already dead wife. They knew Scottie wouldn’t be able to make it up the bell tower due to his Vertigo and when ‘Madeline’ reached the top Gavin threw his dead wife off the tower while ‘Madeline’ screamed. However, Judy did genuinely fall in love with Scottie. But she is aware that Scottie is in love with Madeline, not Judy.

When they are at Ernie’s Restaurant, Scottie keeps getting distracted by a woman who looks similar to Madeline when they first met in the restaurant. After the date, Scottie asks if they can see each other again and after some persuasion agrees. The next day, Scottie presents Judy with some clothes that are exactly like the clothes Madeline wore. He obsessively tries to remake Judy over to be just like Madeline. Judy tries to win him over as herself but eventually agrees to wear the clothes because she loves him. She also agrees to dye her hair from being a brunette to a blonde. Scottie notices that she still doesn’t have her hair pinned back like Madeline had. She relents, goes into the bathroom and comes out as Madeline. Scottie and her kiss as he flashes back to the bell tower.

Later, Scottie and Madeline have a date planned and she is putting the finishing touches on her dress. As she asks Scottie to help her, he notices she is wearing the same piece of jewellery Madeline was. Scottie realises he has been tricked and instead of heading to the restaurant, takes Madeline back to the San Juan Bautista’s Spanish Mission. Madeline becomes panicked as Scottie drags her up the bell tower. By taking Judy up the bell tower he can save Madeline and cure his Vertigo.

When he gets to the top, he makes Madeline confess to her crimes. She says she only stayed behind in San Francisco because she truly loves Scottie but he says it is too late. He also notices that he made it to the top without suffering from Vertigo- he has been cured. As Madeline kisses Scottie, a nun comes out the darkness and frightens Madeline, causing her to fall out the bell tower to her death- again. In one of the greatest film ending of all time, Scottie steps out onto the ledge and looks down. He is cured of his Vertigo but his obsession with one woman and inability to accept anyone else has caused him to lose his love for real.

Rear Window

Rear Window is a mystery/thriller film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1954. It is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. It stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly, both making their 2^nd appearance in a Hitchcock film with Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr in supporting roles.

L.B. Jefferies (Stewart) is a professional photographer who has had his leg broken in an accident while taking pictures of a motor race at a racetrack. New York is currently experiencing a heatwave, which makes his life even more miserable. His cast is due to come off in one weeks’ time. His editor calls him up and offers him a job in Kashmir, mistakenly thinking Jefferies cast was due to come off this week. Jeff begs to get his editor to let him accept the offer as he is bored staring out into the courtyard of his apartment. He has spent the past six weeks spying on his neighbours. While looking out the window, he notices the travelling salesman (Burr) arguing with his wife in their apartment across the courtyard.

His nurse, Stella (Ritter), arrives and admonishes him for spying on his neighbours, warning him he could get six months in jail for being a peeping tom. In a foreshadowing of events to come, she warns him his voyeurism will get him into a lot of trouble. Discussion then turn towards Jeff’s girlfriend, Lisa (Kelly) and his reluctance to marry her, despite her clearly loving him. Jeff claims that Lisa is too perfect for him. While Stella is in the kitchen, Jeff notices a pair of newlyweds arriving in their apartment before shutting the blinds (they are the only ones to shut their apartment blinds in the whole film).

Later that night, while having a nap, Jeff is awakened by Lisa kissing him. She is a fashion model/journalist, and is wearing a $1000 dollar dress that was given to her for free through her work. She has also brought a lobster dinner that she cooked herself. While Lisa prepares the dinner, Jeff notices a lonely woman across the courtyard he has named Miss Lonelyhearts, pretending to act out a date before breaking down crying. Jeff then compares Lisa to another neighbour, Miss Torso who is entertaining three men in her apartment. They also notice another argument between the salesman and his wife. Lisa desperately try’s to distract Jeff from events outside and to get him to focus on just her. Eventually, Jeff makes one too many snide references about Lisa’s line of work which leads to Lisa leaving and saying she won’t be back until tomorrow night.

During the night while Jeff is sleeping next to the window, he hears a loud scream and a smash. Then during the thunderstorm, he sees the salesman leave the apartment with his suitcase multiple times. Then, after Jeff falls asleep again, we see the salesman leaving with an unidentified woman. The next day, Stella visits and she notices he hasn’t had much sleep. While discussing the missing wife, they notice a neighbour’s dog digging at a flowerbed in the courtyard before the salesman before it is shoed away. Before leaving, Jeff gets Stella to hand him his binoculars. Using it, he notices the salesman wrapping up a saw and large knife, while also packing items into his case. He also notices the bedridden wife is not there.

Later that day, while the temperature has risen to 82 degrees, Lisa and Jeff are passionately kissing, having made up after the previous night. However, yet again, Jeff begins to ignore Lisa and turns back to the courtyard. While telling Lisa about the salesman carrying a heavy rope into his wife’s bedroom, Lisa interrupts him and tells him off. She thinks he is wildly speculating and that there is nothing to see, while Jeff thinks there is. They then notice the salesman tie up a large crate with the rope while a rolled up mattress is on the floor of the bedroom. She begins to suspect Jeff may be correct and asks him to tell her everything, from the beginning. Later, Lisa runs around to the apartment and discovers his name is Lars Thorwald.

The next morning, Jeff phones his old buddy Thomas J. Doyle (Corey), who is a policeman, and asks him to come over and investigate. Doyle arrives and after some persuasion, agrees to look into the matter. Jeff then notices the dog digging at the flowerbed before Thorwald comes over and shoos it away. Later, Doyle reports back that the apartment superintendent saw Thorwald and his wife leave early in the morning before he put her on a train. Jeff demands further investigating, but Doyle is unconvinced. Doyle also states Thorwald received a postcard from his wife, from Meritsville, 80 miles north. Jeff is greatly disappointed by the news.

Later that night, yet again spying on all his neighbours, Jeff notices Thorwald packing a suitcase and talking on the phone while going through his wife’s handbag, playing with the jewellery. Worried he is preparing to leave, Jeff leaves a message for Doyle to come over as soon as possible. Lisa then arrives, and after being briefed by Jeff on the latest, says that she has been having difficulty concentrating at work due to the mystery over Thorwald’s missing wife. She questions why the wife would leave her favourite handbag at home while going on a trip and suggests that Thorwald has had an affair with a mystery female accomplice in his wife’s murder. Jeff is pleased at this suggestion and for the first time begins to become truly attached to her. Lisa then announces she plans to spend the night with him.

Doyle arrives and Lisa says that they think that Thorwald’s guilty. Noticing that Lisa is planning to stay the night, Doyle is about to say something before being warned by Jeff to be careful about what he says. Doyle then concludes that after checking the wife’s whereabouts, Thorwald has not killed and dismembered her. Doyle also says that they checked Thorwald’s trunk and it just contained his wife’s clothes that he was sending to her. Jeff and Lisa are visibly disappointed.

Jeff and Lisa wonder whether they are becoming too involved in their neighbour’s lives. Lisa then goes to change and then reappears with a preview of coming attractions, a silk nightgown. As the pair settle down and close the blinds, they are interrupted by a loud scream from the courtyard. Opening the blinds, they see a dead dog and its owner crying. Everyone in the courtyard comes to their window except Thorwald, who sits in the dark smoking a cigarette. Lisa thinks it was killed because it knew too much.

The next day, Jeff, Lisa and Stella watch Thorwald scrub the walls of his bathroom. Stella is convinced as well and states that she thinks that Thorwald cut his wife up and dumped her body all over New York. Jeff writes Thorwald a note saying he knows what he did and Lisa runs over and delivers it under the door, narrowly escaping Thorwald. Stella thinks she notices Miss Lonelyhearts preparing to commit suicide but they are distracted by Lisa returning, while Jeff is obviously falling deeper in love with her. To get time to dig up the flowers where the dog was digging, Jeff phones Thorwald and sets up a meeting in a nearby bar. This allows Lisa and Stella to head down and dig at the flowerbed. They find nothing but Lisa climbs up the fire escape and sneaks into Thorwald’s apartment.

Lisa’s aim is to find the wife’s wedding ring and prove she has been murdered. Jeff and Stella are distracted by Miss Lonelyhearts and prepare to phone the police, distracting them from Lisa. They miss Thorwald returning and fail to warn to Lisa, who seems to have found something. While Lisa hides, Jeff phones the police to report a man attacking a woman. Just as it seems that Thorwald is going to kill Lisa, the police arrive and stop him just in time. While looking through his binoculars, Jeff notices Lisa has the wife’s wedding ring on her hand and is pointing it out to him (it is a symbolic proposal from Lisa to Jeff). Thorwald notices this and looks directly at Jeff, who for the first time in the film is noticed.

Jeff phones Doyle  and after telling Doyle what has happened, Doyle promises to look into it further. The police take Lisa away and Stella heads to the police station to bail Lisa. Jeff is left alone and when the phone rings, he thinks it is Doyle and urgently tells him about what happened but no-one responds. While hearing footsteps outside his apartment, he takes flashbulbs and puts them into his camera, his only method of defence. Thorwald enters and asks why Jeff did it, but he has no answer. As Thorwald advance, Jeff blinds him with the flashbulbs but eventually Thorwald reached him and tries to throw him out the window. Just in time, Lisa, Doyle and the police arrive as Jeff falls and they help to break his fall. The police arrest Thorwald, who agrees to take them on a tour of the East River. It is also confirmed that Thorwald killed the dog because it threatened to dig up some of his wife’s body parts which were buried there.

A final sweep of the courtyard ends the film. Miss Lonelyhearts didn’t commit suicide and has found a man in the composer on the other side of the courtyard, Miss Torso’s husband arrives home and the newlyweds begin to argue. Jeff has broken both his legs and while he sleeps Lisa puts down her travelling book and picks up a fashion one.

Rope

Rope is a psychological crime thriller film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1948. It stars James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger. It would be the first time that Hitchcock worked with Jimmy Stewart, and they would go on to make three other successful films in the 1950s. Rope is based on the real life crime of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, a homosexual pair from Chicago who killed a fourteen year old boy just to prove their superiority and commit the perfect crime, although they would get arrested for the murder soon after. It is surprising that the film was allowed by the censors at the time, as the implications that the two murderers in the film are homosexuals is quite clear, for example there is only one bedroom in the apartment they both share, and homosexuality and any references to it was seriously frowned upon by censors at the time. The film was one of Hitchcock’s more experimental films, and the original idea was to film it in one take, although constraints prevented this. However, thanks to clever cuts, it appears to be one continuous take by zooming in and out of characters backs when a reel change was required. In total, there are ten cuts in the film.

The film opens with two students, Brandon Shaw (Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Granger) strangling their friend David Kentley to death. They did this to prove that they could commit the perfect murder and prove their superiority. They are to host a dinner party, and convinced David to turn up early so they could kill him. After killing him, they put his body in a large chest in the living room. Brandon then decides to move the cutlery from the dining room to on top of the chest, just for the thrill of it. Although Brandon is calm, Phillip is a nervous wreck, which will play up throughout the film. The idea for the murder came from conversations with their professor, Rupert (Stewart), who had discussed such theories as Nietzsche’s Übermensch with them at university. As the first guests arrive, Brandon says the fun is just beginning.

The guests at the party are the pair’s housekeeper, David’s father Mr Kentley and his aunt Mrs Atwater, his fiancée Janet Walker and her former lover and David’s former best friend Kenneth Lawrence. Rupert is also invited, as Brandon feels that he will appreciate what they have done. Throughout the party, Brandon keeps hinting at David’s absence, which leads to everyone worrying about him, little realising his dead body is in the chest in the room. Brandon gets Rupert to share his theory of murder being a privilege for the chosen few, which greatly upsets David’s father. Rupert realises that something is off with Phillip and questions him about David’s absence, although he denies all knowledge. He also notices strange behaviour between the two, such as Phillip denying he had ever strangled a chicken even though Rupert had previously seen him strangling several chickens before and Brandon stammering when talking, which Rupert knows he only does when he is excited.

Brandon increases the tension by trying to set up Janet and Kenneth which greatly annoys the pair of them. He also makes numerous mentions of death which further serves to increase the tension surrounding David’s disappearance. As the party dies down, the housekeeper begins to remove the cutlery and candles from the chest and prepares books to put back in the chest. Just as Rupert is offering to help her lift the books into the chest, Brandon rushes over and insists they not bother, which further raises Rupert’s suspicion. Eventually, David’s mother rings and says he hasn’t been home. This leads to everyone leaving, not before Brandon hands David’s father some books, tied with the same rope they used to kill his son. The pair think they have got away with the crime, but Rupert calls up and claims he left a cigarette case and asks to come back up. Nervously, the pair agree.

When he arrives and when the pair are not looking, he hides the case behind some books and the chest and then to talk to them about David’s disappearance. Although Brandon is excited and eggs him on, Phillip, by this time very drunk, snaps and says the famous line, “Cat and mouse, cat and mouse. But which is the cat and which is the mouse?” Suspicious of the chest, Rupert goes to open it although Brandon tells him he won’t like what he sees. He opens it and is shocked and horrified by what he sees, David’s dead body. Rupert realises he is a cause for the murder, and turns his back on his previous theories of murder being for the privileged few. Another famous quote from this scene is, “Did you think you were God Brandon?”

Noticing Phillip is preparing a gun in his pocket, a struggle ensures before Rupert seizes the gun. He fires a few shots out the window and as the police sirens draw nearer, Rupert pulls a seat and sits down waiting for the police to show up.