Vertigo - Collector's Edition

Rating:
Summary: The Highpoint of Hitchcock's Career
Review: Whereas classics such as North By Northwest, Rear Window and Strangers on a Train established Hitchcock as an ingenious, masterful director, it was with the release of Vertigo that he truly pushed his talents to a new extreme both in storytelling and visceral, directorial impact. One of his longest movies, it manages to slowly unravel into a deliberately disturbing, creepy film whose ending never could have been guessed from the beginning. Various elements of unique directing are put to good use here, including the infamous track-out/zoom-in camera technique, and many scenes of wordless montague that create palpable suspense and intrigue.

Like every good Hitchcock movie, there is always a sense of the unknown in Vertigo, even as revelation upon eerie revelation is thrown at the viewer. There is scarcely a point where we think we have everything figured out, due in large part to the appropriately dizzying score by Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann, famous for his many stellar film scores, including Taxi Driver, and Cape Fear, and several of Hitchcock's other movies, manages to perfectly match the film's atmosphere of deception and whirling, gloomy and sinister mystery. It is a great gift that Herrmann has given this film by pronouncing its atmosphere with his artful score.

If I were to recommend one Hitchcock work to moviewatchers, Vertigo would be the one. Because of its expertly spun plot, filled with unsettling motifs and unusual themes, and its style of filming and directing that put to good use many signature Hitchcock techniques, there are few true movielovers who will not enjoy this film. Highly recommended, and a continuously absorbing creation, despite its age.


Rating:
Summary: Undoubtedly Great, But A Chilly Piece Of Work
Review: The plot is deceptively simple: A detective, Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart), who resigned from the San Francisco police force because of a fear of heights, is hired to watch over the wife, Madeleine Elster, of a wealthy businessman. He gradually and from a distance becomes obsessed by her. Then she falls to her death from a bell tower. Later, by chance, he sees another woman, Judy Barton (Kim Novak), who closely resembles Madeleine. He meets her, he becomes obsessed again, he makes her over into Madeleine. And they both become enmeshed in a murder plot that began with the original Madeleine. The story of Vertigo, in my view, is Scotty's story no matter what we may see or feel from Judy/Madeleine's perspective. I'd argue that the only characters who count in Vertigo are Scotty and his obsession.

The first time I saw the movie, I was bored with it. The second time, much later, I wondered to myself why I was ever bored with it. I thought it was pretty good. The third time I saw it, I went out and bought the DVD...but I've only watched it once or twice again.

At this time in Hitchcock's career, every movie he made was an event. The second and third times I saw the movie I was conscious of Hitchcock's hand in every scene, every camera angle, every pause, every cut. I'm not so sure that's good, and it's not Hitchcock's fault so much as it is people like me bringing that awareness to his films.

With all my appreciation of the Hitchcockian handling, I still find the movie emotionally removed, at least from my feelings for the characters. That may be me, but I think it's more Hitchcock. Stewart and Novak are playing puppets, in my view, with little emotional connection to the viewer. For me, that's partly the Hitchcock reserve, but it's also the two actors. Stewart to me just looks too old for the part and his particular style of anguish had been seen, at least by me, in too many of his movies. Novak, at this point in her career, just wasn't an actress. (But I'm one of those who think she developed into one as she grew older.) I have to assume Hitchcock chose her for that frozen-in-the-headlights look about her.

For me, one of the essential elements of a great movie is the emotional power to hit me in the heart and between the eyes. Howevermuch Vertigo doesn't do this for me, it's still a fascinating movie. My respect for the film grows with each viewing...but I still find it rather cold and unlikeable.

Rating:
Summary: So artistic that some of the frames look like oil paintings.
Review: Psychologically dissabled policeman is hired to watch an old friends wife, OR once again we explore Alfred Hitchcock's blonde in a grey suit fetish.

Rating:
Summary: Watch your step!
Review: 1953-1963 is, in my opinion, Hitchcock's most brilliant decade. In that period he directed, amongst other films, "I Confess" (1953), "Rear Window" (1954), "Vertigo" (1958), "Psycho" (1960) and "The Birds" (1963) any of them deserves to be ranked as "one of the best suspense movies" of all times.

"Vertigo" touches many different subjects and Mr. Hitchcock blends them with masterful hand: a detective's story, paranormal experiences, love affair and obsession.
From this mixture the Suspense Master extracts a film that keeps the viewer on the edge of the seat. The story involves a retired police detective that is hired by an old acquaintance to follow his wife, which he suspects is going mad. From this start onwards events start to get complicated, pointing out to such weird issues as possession and compulsion.

In a film with very few main characters, three of them give a hallmark performance: James Stewart as Det. Scottie Ferguson, Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster and Barbara Bel Geddes as Marjorie Wood.
Stewart's Detective is a strange character in his filmography; he depicts a man troubled first by a vertigo syndrome, then deeply depressed and finally obsessed by a dead person. Not quite the "good and straight fellow" he usually fleshes.
Kim Novak is fascinating in her troubled, mysterious and dubious double impersonation of Madeleine and Judy. She gave the character a definitely sexy and classy touch.
Barbara Bel Geddes as the "girl around the corner" in hopeless love with Scottie is just perfect.

This is a movie to be enjoyed by Hitchcock's fans and any detective or mystery film lover.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Rating:
Summary: Restored Vertigo an experience no-one should be deprived of
Review: Hitchcock is without a Shadow of a Doubt one of the most influental directors ever. Some might think he would have been The Wrong Man to direct a movie with such pregnant Psychology and I Confess that i might have been one of them, being Young and Innocent at the time. Vertigo is a sort of Family Plot where James Stewart is the unwilling alibi to a man murdering his wife. He is hired to follow her but becomes Spellbound by her. As she appearently falls out of a Rear window of a bell tower, he spirals Downhill into an abyss of mental darkness in despair. When The Lady Vanishes from his life he seems to have no reason for living, but the chance meeting of the spitting image of the woman acts as a Torn Curtain and pulls him out of his misery. Is soon clear that Stewart was a Man Who Knew Too Much to rest easily after her sudden death. He courts the woman and in a Frenzy he persuades her to transform into the dead woman. She agrees to this, but the concession is like walking a tight Rope. She is of course the same person, the woman he loves, and she is well aware of his Suspicion. As she pretends to be another person while withstanding his Notorious cravings for transformation, her whole life becomes a Stage. Fright is what she feels, there is no Easy Virtue, but at the same time her love for him is like The Birds and the bees. In the end he realises that he has only been a pawn in a chess game of Murder! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Can a Classic be Over-rated?
Review: I saw this movie when I was in my teens. Over the years its' reputation grew and grew until it started making a lot of top ten lists. Although I had enjoyed it, I couldn't figure what all of the accolades were all about. I've had a chance to see it again a time or two since then and I can see why its' a classic. However, I think that the top ten concept is a stretch. What this movie excels in is a study of obsession.

James Stewart plays the role of a detective who has a well-deserved fear of heights. He is hired as a private detective and falls in love with the woman he has to keep an eye on. His later efforts to reconstruct that same person becomes obviously obsessive to the viewers and it is done in a way that is meant to highlight the obsession. It is an excellent moral story on how we can focus on what we want and miss out on what we have. Hitchcock had something to say and he delivered his message in a most effective manner. I have nothing but praise for his achievement but I must be missing something considering how the "experts" have elevated this movie to beyond what it is. Perhaps they wanted it to be something more than it was. Talk about missing the message!

Rating:
Summary: Hitchcock's film is great; the restoration has big problems
Review: Vertigo is a tremendous film; if rating the film alone, I would give it the maximum rating. Vertigo deserves to have been carefully restored and preserved for posterity. The reason for my low rating for this DVD is that the restorers have seriously overstepped the bounds of conservation, actually changing the film for the worse. They have eliminated many original sound effects and created many new ones, to jarring effect. Evidently, their discovery of a stereo recording of the musical score so excited the restoration team that they felt they had to incorporate it into the restored print. As the original mono mix included effects with the score, this means that the restorers went into a Foley studio and cooked up replacement sounds--newpaper's rattling, footsteps, doors closing, cars driving past, etc. The result is VERY noticable: the modern, digitally recorded sounds have a sharply different quality from the analog originals, and the two are mixed together uneasily. The film was mixed, presumably under Hitchcock's careful supervision, with a mono soundtrack, which has survived in good condition. (Although the individual elements were scandalously destroyed in the 1970s as the result of a tussle over distribution rights to the film.) The soundtrack may have benefitted from some "cleaning up," but there was no good reason to create a new soundtrack. Please, Universal: include the original soundtrack as an option, at least, on future editions of this DVD. (The stereo recording of Herriman's musical score would make a nice DVD bonus track, too.) And please be more circumspect in future restoration projects. (There are problems with the color restoration, too, but at least there the restorers were addressing a real problem--the existing prints and film elements had seriously deteriorated. With the soundtrack, the restorers actively created problems where none existed.)

Rating:
Summary: MAD FOR MADELEINE
Review: In viewing VERTIGO, one must admit the supreme directorial abilities of Alfred Hitchcock. Here we have a typical Hitchcock movie, with its long silent following sequences, which were much imitated later by Brian de Palma in BODY DOUBLE and DRESSED TO KILL, particularly. Hitch, however, mastered this technique and let us feel the hopeless frustration of Scottie Ferguson and the unquestionable mysterious attraction to the perhaps mad Madeleine. Having seen this classic several times, one can see how gullible Scottie is, and how devious Madeliene has been, but even in multiple viewings, one can't help but wish the two could come together.
The performances of the three leads is impeccable. Remember, up until this time, we've seen James Stewart mostly as a heroic figure, a man of principles and high moral standards. This time, Jimmy plays a man who becomes totally obsessed with Madeleine, to the point of having an affair with his best friend's wife. His descent into this obsession and ultimately a nervous breakdown is very disturbing and his final scene in the church tower isn't like anything we've seen Jimmy do. It's a brilliant performance, and the highlight of his magnificent career. The beautiful Kim Novak is also in top form as the duplicitous Madeleine/Judy. It would be easy to toss her performance off as just a pretty face, but in looking at her performance, one can see how she goes from the smooth, silky Madeleine to the earthy, desperate Judy. Her realization that Scottie is trying to turn her into Madeleine shows her range in the desperation of not wanting to be Madeleine, but needing Scottie. And let's not overlook the wonders of Barbara Bel Geddes as the hopelessly in love with Scottie Midge. Miss Bel Geddes takes the sweet girl next door to its supreme limits, and when she realizes she will never have Scottie, her slow walk down the hospital corridor is heartbreaking. Trivia note: Miss Bel Geddes played Miss Ellie on DALLAS for years and when her health failed, the role was taken over by fellow Hitchcock femme fatale Eva Marie Saint.
VERTIGO is a spellbinding, hypnotic and disturbing film, filled with surreal images and an ending that still manages to chill. One of, if not, the best of Hitchcock's movies.

Rating:
Summary: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
Review: Vertigo is known to be Hitchcock's best work and probably is right. The movie focuses around a retired detecive named Scottie ( James Stewart ) who suffers from Vertigo ( afrid of heights ) due to an incident in his career. An old friend then hires Scottie to look after his wife Madaline ( played by Kim Novak ) because he thinks she might be possessed by an old spirit " Carlotta ." After a event leaves Madaline dead and Scottie Heartbroken, he then sees a women who resembles a Madaline, he then goes after her. Could this women be his dead love Madaline or could Scottie just be fooled by this women? Watch and find out for more.

I find this to be Hitchcock's best work. And the DVD just brings it out even more. The acting is top-notch, James Stewart is great as the dective who falls for the mysterious blonde who is played by Kim Novak. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good pyschology thiller.