He realizes the truth and drives Judy back to the Mission. After she complies, he notices her wearing the necklace portrayed in Carlotta's painting. He asks Judy to change her clothes and dye her hair to resemble her. They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with "Madeleine". Judy considers confessing to Scottie but continues the charade because she loves him. Gavin took advantage of Scottie's fear of heights to substitute his wife's freshly-killed body in the apparent "suicide jump". She was impersonating Gavin's wife in an elaborate murder scheme. She identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.Ī flashback reveals that Judy was the person Scottie knew as "Madeleine Elster". One day, he notices a woman on the street who, although superficially very different, reminds him of Madeleine. Following his release, he frequents the places Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie becomes clinically depressed and is sent to a sanatorium, almost catatonic. Scottie, halted by his fear of heights, sees Madeleine plunge to her death.Īn inquest declares her death to be a suicide. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower. He drives her there and they express their love for each other. Scottie identifies its setting as Mission San Juan Bautista, the childhood home of Carlotta. The next day, Madeleine recounts a nightmare. They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where they embrace. The next day, Madeleine stops to deliver a letter of gratitude to Scottie, and they spend the day together. Scottie rescues her when she leaps into the bay at Fort Point. Carlotta (who Gavin fears is possessing Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine has no knowledge of this and does not remember the places she visited. Scottie follows Madeleine to the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the grave of Carlotta Valdes (1831–1857), and to the Legion of Honor art museum, where she gazes at the Portrait of Carlotta.Ī local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes committed suicide: she had been the mistress of a wealthy married man and borne his child the otherwise childless man kept the child and cast Carlotta aside. Gavin Elster, an acquaintance from college, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming that she has been behaving strangely. Midge, his ex-fiancée, says that another severe emotional shock may be the only cure. Original theatrical trailer for Vertigo (1958)Īfter a rooftop chase in which a fellow policeman falls to his death, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson retires out of fear of heights and vertigo. Plot Drive-in advertisement from 1958 "Madeleine" at Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, shortly before she jumps into the bay. Attracting significant scholarly attention, it replaced Citizen Kane (1941) as the greatest film ever made in The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012 poll, and came in 2nd in 2022. The film appears repeatedly in polls of the best films by the American Film Institute, including a 2007 ranking as the ninth-greatest American movie ever. In 1989, it was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Since its release, it has been considered Hitchcock's magnum opus, and one of the greatest films of all time. Vertigo originally received tepid reviews in 1958. In 1996, the film underwent a major restoration to create a new 70 mm print and DTS soundtrack. As a result of its use in this film, the effect is often referred to as "the Vertigo effect". It is the first film to use the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie's acrophobia. The film was shot on location in the city of San Francisco, California, as well as in Mission San Juan Bautista, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, and Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Scottie is hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, as a private investigator to follow Gavin's wife, Madeleine ( Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely. The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson, who has retired because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo, a false sense of rotational movement. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts ( From Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac. Vertigo is a 1958 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock.
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