Has the 66-Year Riddle to VERTIGO, Hitchcock’s Masterpiece, Finally Been Solved?
Hitchcock intentionally transformed the most basic scenes in cinema, into the arena of surrealism, as a constant reminder that we’re witnessing something highly unusual and perhaps even improbable. The hidden meaning of Vertigo will surprise you.
Hitchcock’s 1958 Vertigo has been elevated to the rank of the best movie ever made. It toppled Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane from that premier spot by Sight and Sound more than a decade ago. Kane held that number one title for 50 years.
EDITED & EXPANDED ON JULY 1, 2024
Vertigo Can Mistakenly be Assumed as Boring by Many
Vertigo, if you view it as you would top movies of today, is very boring. In fact, it’s deliberately slow paced, hazy, at times out of focus and dream like. There is no real action, no battles, car chases, gun fights, hand to hand combat, good vs bad guys, major conflicts, spies or any resemblance of a “MacGuffin.” Why is this film so captivating? This movie is near flawless, once you understand that it’s not in real time, or even about real events. I have come to a realization that nothing in Vertigo is as it seems, hence I have developed unique theories that I will share below as I dissect this movie section by section.
Why is Vertigo so Intentionally Twisted?
Hitchcock intentionally twisted, made surreal and manipulated some of the most basic scenes in all of cinema as a constant reminder that we’re witnessing dreams and hallucinations. An ordinary visit to a bookstore experiences sudden and very noticeable light changes. A simple walk to a cemetery is so hazy and thick that it forces us to question it. A routine police query between a hotel manager and a detective turns into a ghost story. A kiss creates hallucinations. An “innocent” visit by a “distressed” girl to a man’s apartment places her in total darkness for a few moments. A woman coming out of the bathroom in her own hotel room, becomes a hazy but powerful green lightshow. A woman exiting a restaurant suddenly glows like a torch. Why is Vertigo constantly forcing us to question its validity?
Vertigo — From Misunderstood to Cherished
Why is this methodical, fully choreographed but hyper mellow movie, suddenly the best film ever made? The more you learn about Vertigo and the deeper you dig, the more fascinating it becomes. I’ve done a lot of research on this movie. I’ve listened to all the available audio tapes of Truffaut’s famous interview with Hitchcock, in addition to reading or watching various analysis, discussions, university papers and reviews of Vertigo and lots of Hitchcock interviews.
Among My Top 5
When a film suddenly grabs the rank of the best of all time, it attracts a large amount of fresh analysis. However, my deep dissection of Vertigo is not related to its ranking. I loved this movie the first time I saw it, about 20 years ago, on Turner Classic Movies. And I have seen it many times since. The fact that it is so highly regarded now is not a surprise to me. This movie has been on my top 5 most favorite films for quite a while.
Personal Reasons
Other 2 movies on my top 5 are Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). Taxi Driver was the first movie that I became aware that there is a director at work. I was in my early teens and it had quite an impact on me. The other is Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows (1958) with a rare soundtrack by Miles Davis. I was listening to the soundtrack for 10 years before I finally got a chance to see the movie at the French Institute in Manhattan in the ’90s. It was wild to put the music, I was so familiar with, to the images after such a long time. Also, Patrick, the son (and the manager of the catalog) of the saxophonist on Miles’ group in that soundtrack, Barney Wilen, became my neighbor in lower Manhattan on John Street, so we used to discuss this movie at a neighborhood place we nicknamed the greasy spoon diner. The food was so bad we used to bring our own, but it had atmosphere.
Another Highly Underrated Film with a Secret Riddle
I also keep Hitchcock’s other very underrated masterpiece The Birds (1963) in high regard. My nickname for The Birds is “2 and a Half Women.” The Birds only introduces the bird attacks just to fill the theaters, but the film itself is about mother issues, sexual tensions and female powerplays, also to torture its female lead because she wasn’t playing “nice” with Hitch. I intent to write about The Birds in another article.
Vertigo — The Casting — Hitch Got Real Lucky
Vertigo would have been forgotten with any other actress besides Kim Novak. It would have become too cerebral for an American movie to grab anyone’s attention. In fact, it wasn’t a hit upon release. People didn’t understand why a famed director of exciting hits would make such a “boring” and “confusing” film with a real “downer” of an ending.
Vera Miles
Vera Miles was originally cast but lost the role due to pregnancy at the time and Hitch had to find another female lead. That’s a stroke of luck, but Hitchcock had a serious dilemma. He has said many times that he doesn’t care for actresses who “wear sex around their necks” (such as Marylin Monroe). He likes them demure in public, but fiery only in the bedroom (like Grace Kelly).
Grace Kelly
I think Grace Kelly could have potentially worked in Vertigo, even though she wouldn’t have been too convincing as a shop girl from Kansas, furthermore, she is a bit too cerebral. She famously had to quit acting after becoming a real-life Disney princess. However, before she can marry the prince, she had to pay him $2 million in dowry (equivalent to $20m today) and take fertility tests to prove that she could bear children.
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is obviously not a typical Hitchcock lead who keeps her sexuality under tight wraps until it’s time to reveal them to the right person, but this movie would have totally bombed without her. Vertigo without Kim Novak would not be special.
Hitchcock of course never got over that. He wanted his cool blonde but instead got a real livewire. I am not certain if he ever appreciated how Ms. Novak is wholly responsible for this movie’s magic.
Kim Novak is Playing 3 Characters in Vertigo — Masterfully
1. Judy Barton
She plays the character’s real persona, Judy Barton, a brunette shop girl from Kansas. She has a cute and chatty mannerism with a bit of a high voice. She is lighthearted and comes across as loving and feminine.
2. Judy Barton Performs Body Double for Mrs. Elster
Here she body doubles for Madeleine Elster, a cool blonde heiress and wife of an industrialist to facilitate her death. Her Mrs. Elster is very cool, collected, confident (when she is not under the “influence” of a ghost), articulate and smart who speaks with a low voice and doesn’t ramble on.
3. Judy Barton Puts on a Drag Show of a Dead Woman
She follows that by playing her character’s real persona put on a type of a drag show to recreate the dead person (the same Elster who is now deceased) that Jimmy Stewart was madly in love with, so he can finally be aroused. This third character is a smart mix of Judy and Elster.
Necrophilia
Hitch called the scene of Stewart making out with the staged dead girl’s persona as “necrophilia.” This third character is nothing like her body doubling for the heiress when she was alive. Now she only portrays her artificially, without the internal work. The third character is the Kansas working girl Judy, just putting on a dress up or costume for Stewart.
James Stewart — Simply Amazing
I can’t think of any other actor besides James Stewart who could have pulled off this movie. Cray Grant would not have been believable as a guy who gets dizzy on a step ladder. But Stewart made us believe that he would. Alfred Hitchcock blamed the lack of the real initial success of this movie to Stewart (although it did break even). He said at the time that Stewart has gotten too old to be believable as a love interest of a younger woman and never worked with him again. Time has proven Hitch wrong on his thoughts on both of the lead castings in Vertigo. This movie is near flawless, once your understand that it’s not in real time, or even about real events. It takes a great talent like James Stewart to headline such a complex story. Stewart and Novak are both so incredibly believable as they play off of and manipulate each other constantly. Vertigo wouldn’t be what it is without those two.
Ernie’s Restaurant
The important other characters are the city of San Francisco and a restaurant called Ernie’s. Although Hitch had access to this famous landmark for shooting, he decided to create an exact replica of Ernie’s in the studio. I am hoping the true beauty of Vertigo is becoming more clear.
Forget the Opening Scene
These 2 new paragraphs were added on May 6, 2024 and Expanded on July 1, 2024.
The opening scene of Vertigo isn’t realistic. Even for a movie script, taking all sorts of creative license, it makes no sense. Detectives and officers do not jump roof tops with 10-foot gaps, specially those who have been on the force a couple of decades. The opening scene is meant to be purely cinematic and to create a slight sense of excitement in an otherwise, seemingly, a dull movie. Think about it, a 50-year-old detective is dangling from a flimsy rain gutter by the tips of his fingers, six stories high. How can he ever survive this? He can’t. By the time the fire department tries to save him, some 10 to 15 mins later, he would have been long dead. This scene is meant as a diversion, which is a tactic all illusionists (stage magicians) use to divert your attention from what’s really happening on stage. Hitchcock is pulling your strings. This impossible, implausible and completely illogical scene never happened. It is here only to add merit to the point I am raising in this article that Vertigo is a nightmarish loop of imaginary events running continuously through the mind of a near-comatose patient.
Jacob’s Ladder?
Some have suggested that the opening scene is the only reality in Vertigo. Here, Scotty dies and the rest of the movie is the journey into the consciousness of a dead man, like the movie Jacob’s Ladder. I am adding this point, solely to document an alternative view. Jacob’s Ladder concept doesn’t explain why Scotty is such an expert on women’s hair, makeup, shoes and wardrobe, mine does. It also doesn’t address the sanitarium scenes, mine covers that. As you continue to read this unraveling of Vertigo, my key to this puzzle becomes more and more clear.
Intentional Plot Holes like Swiss Cheese
Hitchcock said, one thing about this movie that bothered him was the plot hole of how Gavin Elster knew for certain that Stewart wouldn’t be able to make it to the top of the church tower. I differ with Hitch on this. There is no 100% certainty in any act of planned murder. Elster thought it was a pretty good chance, because of Stewart’s publicized condition, and he took it. I actually think that this movie, like Swiss cheese, is wall to wall full of plot holes. Nothing in this film makes any sense. (That’s why I have developed unique theories that I will share below.) For example, Stewart was 50 when this movie came out. By any math he would have been a veteran of SFPD for 20 to 25 years. A 20 plus years detective in a major US metro area such as San Francisco (like Dirty Harry or Frank Bullitt), is neither naïve nor fragile.
It Is Impossible for Stewart to Be So Gullible
Early on in the film, after he accidentally causes the death of another officer, he seems quite jolly, like it didn’t bother him at all. Why is he all of a sudden shell shocked over a death of a girl he hardly knew? Also why is Stewart so seemingly sexually frustrated, even though, he has a cute, smart, highly talented and warm younger girlfriend. (They’re supposed to be the same age in the film, but we’re asked to ignore that.) Why he acts like such a creep and immediately hits on his old friend’s wife during their first “accidental” meet? And why does he become catatonic after her death to the point of being in coma-like state? A 50-year-old veteran SF detective is acting like a 15-year-old Romeo in Renaissance-era Italy, after knowing a woman for a couple of days? There is zero percent chance of any of this being real or true. Hitch is messing with us.
Long List of Intentional Manipulations
Hitch intentionally placed gauze in front of the lens in the cemetery scene to make it appear as surreal or dream like. And he’d wrap some other scenes in a haze of green fog; such as in the hotel room post Judy’s transformation, yet again, into Mrs. Elster. And Hitch would intentionally mess with the lighting of the bookstore scene by making it real dim, just to bring the light back up moments later (the bookstore owner turns the lights on after the couple leave). Or when Judy’s Mrs. Elster comes for a visit at Stewart’s pad, the spotlight on her goes totally dark for a few seconds, then it comes back up again. And famously, when he first sees her, she suddenly glows like a torch and dims again. In another scene to have Judy’s Mrs. Elster disappear from the Mckittrick Hotel room without a trace, in a completely unbelievable fashion (one could argue that the hotel manager was on the take, but I don’t think so). Strange and unreal things that Hitch intentionally placed in this film only happen in dreams. Hitch is messing with us.
The Sudden Superman with Back Trouble
Stewart has serious back problem in the movie. He talks about wearing a chest support or a corset. How is he even remotely able to lift up and carry a heavy woman, because she is fully clothed and is soaking wet (Novak is no waif either), up the stairs from the water in the Bay like Superman?
Why Remain in San Francisco, the Scene of the Crime
This next one is just plain silly, that a woman as attractive, charismatic, sharp and sexy as Kim Novak would stay in the city that she was an accessory to murder one, furthermore to remain single for months so Stewart can find her again? There’s no chance of that either. These are all dreams and yes, Hitch is messing with us.
The Famous San Francisco Car Chase Scene is Intentionally Boring
The movie Bullitt (1968) with Steve McQueen has one of the most exciting car chase scenes in cinema. The hills in the city of San Francisco have been featured in many thrillers and car chases, however, somehow the mellow car follow-up scenes in Vertigo have become iconic. In fact, one might put the Vertigo car scenes right up next to the Bullitt’s as cinema’s must watch. That maybe the case, but I don’t believe it as real events within the story. The term dream-like has been tagged to the Vertigo car scenes since the early days. That’s nothing new, however, what bothers me about them is that they just don’t make sense. I explain below.
The Worst Detective
Stewart, a supposed detective with 20-year experience, is really terrible in tailing a target. He is driving a distinctive white DeSoto coupe that pops. She is in a green 1957 Jaguar MK VIII. Stewart is following her way too close and for far too long — practically all day for a couple of days. In some of the scenes they are the only 2 cars in the area and he parks right behind her (in the alley and the foot of the bridge scenes). A 4-year-old could tell that they are being followed, let alone Mrs. Elster. Those scenes are so intentionally wrong that they must be hallucinations. The surreal and spiral car follow up scenes are just metaphors for Stewart falling deeper into the rabbit hole of a near comatose state.
The Secret Life of John Ferguson — If That’s Your Real Name
I argue that Vertigo is nothing more than a case of midlife crises mixed with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) all merging and brewing, in an endless loop, in the mind of a near comatose patient in a sanitarium for the wealthy. Walter Mitty is an escapist who daydreams himself into a world of fantasy many times a day. He lives with his overbearing mother and neither his fiancée and her mother nor his best friend respect him.
The only “real” scene in Vertigo is the plush sanitorium, minus the young Midge, everything else is a combination of dreams, nightmares and hallucinations. There is a reason why he keeps referring to his wealth in this film. How can a regular detective on pension be able to afford such an expensive private environment in seemingly a premium sanitarium (where they discuss the healing powers of Mozart)? He is not a detective; he is just fantasizing being one.
Midge — The Overbearing Mother
The real Midge is his overbearing mother. She says so in the film, “mother’s here.” The reason their relationship doesn’t appear as sexual and is seemingly so platonic is because the real Midge is his mother and she is there in the sanitarium with him, moreover, the real Midge is probably 75 years old. In Stewart’s fantasy she is replaced by a younger woman (a combo of Jocasta and Oedipus complexes). It is possible that Stewart’s real mother is an heiress who likes to paint. The real Stewart in this film is a spoiled, ultra-sensitive and fragile socialite who falls apart after the accidental death of his wife/girlfriend, someone not unlike Madeleine Elster, a refined beauty and also a socialite. That’s why, just like in his recurring fantasies or nightmares, the heroine is always played by the same woman Kim Novak and the mother is always there too, being annoying. Midge even complains of not receiving calls from him, just like a mother.
Socialite Playboy with a Penchant for Expensive Gifts
How can an ordinary SF detective know his way so well in the world of high fashion, beauty and makeup and high-end department stores? How can he be so comfortable spending potentially $15-$20,000 in a few days on Judy (in today’s dollars)? He sends her to probably the most expensive spa/salon in SF. Don’t you think in their case, a regular shop girl and an ordinary detective on pension, that they would be more comfortable in neighborhood surroundings and Italian restaurants, rather than ultra high-end everything with frequent visits to the most sought-after restaurant in SF? These are all red flags and indicators that the real Stewart in this film is a socialite playboy who is an expert on pampering and buying expense things for women.
The Midlife Crises of a Millionaire Playboy
The reason I mentioned midlife crises is also part of the equation is because Stewart has women fall all over him, just like James Bond. Although it doesn’t make sense for a veteran SF detective to be so gullible, naïve and fragile and get woozy over a girl after a couple of days, but it would make sense for a highly pampered middle aged man to show those characteristics after an accidental death of his wife or girlfriend that he may have been in love with. It is also probable that Stewart’s real character may have caused the accidental death and is guilt-ridden. Hence the trial, where he is not found guilty but he is dazed (as if asleep) and unable to speak through out the court scenes.
RECAP — Pure Cinematic Manipulation — A True Masterpiece
Hitchcock intentionally twisted, made surreal and manipulated some of the most basic scenes in all of cinema as a constant reminder that we’re witnessing dreams and hallucinations. An ordinary visit to a bookstore, experiences sudden and very noticeable light changes. A simple walk to a cemetery is so hazy and thick that it forces us to question it. A routine police query between a hotel manager and a detective turns into a ghost story. A kiss creates hallucinations. An “innocent” visit by a “distressed” girl to a man’s apartment places her in total darkness for a few moments. A woman coming out of the bathroom in her own hotel room, becomes a hazy but powerful green lightshow. A woman exiting a restaurant suddenly glows like a torch.
Inside the Mind of “Scottie”
The dullest car follow-up scene ever was called “like a dream sequence” since the early days of the release of this movie. Truffaut in his interview said to Hitchcock, Vertigo is like a dream. Hitch nodded yes, but didn’t want to give away its secrets. Vertigo is neither in real time nor about real events. It is an exploration of the mind of an institutionalized rich playboy who is suffering deep guilt and is in near comatose state.
Vertigo is pure cinematic manipulation and the true genius of Hitchcock may never be fully understood. He is indeed the Buddha of Cinema (looks like it too). The End.
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