Vertigo (1958) part 2

(click for Part 1)
Romantic Obsession with a Woman Who Never Existed

Vertigo was the most challenging role of Kim Novak’s career, coming when she was in her mid-twenties. The principal challenge was playing two decidedly different women, a classy, woman from the upper crust San Francisco aristocracy, blonde beauty Madeleine Elster, and the plain spoken to the point of crudity Kansan Judy Barton, a redhead who quickly reveals her street toughness and concedes that she had been “picked up before.”

Unlike the polished Madeleine Elster, Barton gives off with the manner of a woman living in the working class Empire Hotel situated next to the store where she is employed as a sales clerk, I. Magnin.

Stewart as Scotty Ferguson sees Judy Barton with a group of fellow sales clerks after they had finished their work days at I. Magnin. When he follows her to her small, plain but serviceable hotel room she initially tells Ferguson to leave, complaining “you’ve got a nerve” and at one point asking with a snarl, “Is this a pickup?”

When she later takes pity on Ferguson and his insistence that he only wants to talk to her because she reminds him of someone he knew, going from a sarcastic “I’ve heard that one before” to “You’ve got it bad” and ultimately to the conclusion of “She’s dead.”

Story Convergence and Psychological Jockeying

The ingenious two part story converges when Judy, showing compassion toward Ferguson, agrees to have dinner with him and asks for an hour to prepare. When she initially begins packing the tip-off has been made that the retired detective found the woman he had known earlier.

As the stories converge Judy finally puts away her suitcases and decides to go with the dinner plans. During the period when she planned to presumably leave the city and get far away from Ferguson and the plot and ultimate murder of the real Madeleine Elster, she was also shown writing a letter with a voice over indicating her admission that Ferguson had been duped by Elster but that the part of the plot that had been unplanned was that she would fall in love with him.

It is no surprise, given Ferguson’s past conduct, that he seeks to become involved with Judy and endeavors to make her over in the image of Madeleine Elster. Two solid reasons reveal why Judy Barton, who loves John “Scottie” Ferguson for himself, would resist the makeover:

1. Despite her insistent claim that she did not know that the sinister plot of her then lover Gavin Elster would result in the murder of his wife that was the ultimate result. Could she not be expected to resist becoming a constant reminder of a woman who never was, a role she played that resulted in Svengali Elster meticulously carrying out a murder plot resulting in the death of his wealthy wife, presumably moving to Europe with his ill-gained profits, while she was abandoned by him after serving her purpose, making her a victim as well as Ferguson?
2. As a woman who loved Scottie Ferguson without reservation, would Judy Barton want to play a role of someone who was being substituted for a woman who never lived except as a creation of Svengali Gavin Elster?

The resulting relationship between Ferguson and Barton is highlighted by psychological jockeying. When Ferguson takes her to the exclusive Rahnsohoff department store he has one object in mind, making Judy over as thoroughly as possible as the fantasy woman with whom he had fallen hopelessly in love, Madeleine Elster.

The story reaches its most heightened psychological dimension during the emotional tug of war between a Ferguson intent on reconstructing the past and a Barton equally determined to avoid it. Gradually Barton breaks down in the wake of Ferguson’s determination. She makes her last stand after an otherwise comprehensive remake by clasping some of her hair, explaining that it did not work out the way he suggested. Ferguson removes the clasp and his image of Madeleine Elster is fully restored.

Judy’s Ultimate Mistake

Scottie Ferguson’s psychological volatility stems from the earliest part of the film when we learn that he has developed vertigo to the point where he feels compelled to resign from the San Francisco Police Department. This weakness is used by a ruthless, while always gentlemanly on the surface, Gavin Elster. The evil Elster is convinced that Ferguson with his vertigo will not be able to catch up with Barton when she runs up the steps toward the bell tower.

In addition to being crushed over Madeleine Elster’s death, believing she was someone else, Ferguson is professionally brutalized by the local coroner at the inquest into the actual woman’s demise. Henry Jones, a top character performer frequently seen in comedy roles, makes a memorable one scene appearance as he directs sarcasm at Ferguson. Jones makes his belief plain that the former police detective should have saved Madeleine Elster. At one point he states bitingly that the law has little to say about “doing nothing.”

As for Ferguson, his account was that he blacked out after the body that he felt was that of the woman who is really Judy Barton but was actually Madeleine Elster toppled to the ground. He further stated that he recalled nothing after that until recalling being in his apartment one hour later.

The official ruling is accidental death and a thoroughly crushed Ferguson appears to be elsewhere as Gavin Elster meets him for the last time. Elster laments that the coroner “had no right to talk to you like that” and tells Scottie that he expects to be leaving San Francisco soon and for good, probably moving to Europe. Portraying the good fellow to the last, Elster tells Ferguson to contact him while he is still in town if there is anything he can do for him. In reality he has done enough for several lifetimes.

Gavin Elster looms as a chivalric gentleman for all seasons who in reality is a master plotter from hell. Yet we hear nothing from the hellish Elster and only momentarily see him place a hand over Judy Barton’s mouth as she screams while the body of the real Madeleine Elster topples to the ground.

As for Judy Barton, her ultimate mistake occurs when she unwittingly tips Scottie off as to her true identity. This occurs when she wears a necklace that had been part of the elaborate costume she used to synchronize with the dress and necklace of Carlotta Valdes during a fake trance as she sits transfixed before a painting of the woman who is supposed to then possess her body and soul.

Here was Scottie Ferguson, who was barely able to shake off catatonic cobwebs and had been confined to a sanitarium in a state of depression following the inquest subsequent to Madeleine Elster’s death. This is the Scottie Ferguson who, after meeting Judy Barton, feverishly sought to make her over in the image of the presumed dead woman he desperately loved.

Once that he sees the necklace Ferguson flies into an outrage that would equal a Mount Vesuvius eruption. He forces a badly rattled Barton into his car and drives back to the place where the death culminated. Step by step he drags her against her will up to the bell tower where Elster pushed his already dead wife. Buttressing Elster’s case was a Scottie Ferguson frustrated by heights and unable to make it up the steps to the bell tower.

This time Ferguson succeeds in reaching the bell tower as man defeats vertigo. In his first scene with old friend Midge, Ferguson explains that a sudden shock could eliminate his vertigo and restore him to a normal state. As they reach the top he obtains confirmation of the plot from Judy Barton, who begs him to try again, that they can succeed in building another romance.

The camera zeroes in for a close-up of a totally frustrated Ferguson. Barton is told that it is too late, that there is no going back. At one point he tells her how much he loves her, calling her “Madeleine” in the process. This looms as the ultimate tip-off regarding his confused status.

An image beckons from the darkening shadows. It is a nun there to ring the bell to beckon the arrival of evening. A badly jolted Judy Barton is so stunned that she falls from the bell tower to her death.

As Ferguson is pictured looking downward once more, this time at the body of Barton, one must ask if he is the final murder victim of the cunning Gavin Elster. His wife was killed by his own design, while Judy Barton dies as part of a shocking chain of events that are an outgrowth of his cunning trickery.

Then there is Scottie Ferguson, a picture of abject dejection, as devoid of life as when he sat in a catatonic state in the sanitarium, unaware of his visitor Midge.

Can Ferguson bounce back and renew his life?

Given the tragic prevailing circumstances it is difficult to envision such a result. It is far easier to see John “Scottie” Ferguson as the final victim of Gavin Elster, essentially murdered by the plotting of perhaps the most cunning of all film villains.



Standing the Test of Time

Despite its current status as one of the greatest films of all time by any measuring standard, Vertigo in its initial release was a box office disappointment. Perhaps Hitchcock was then suffering the same fate as numerous painters and writers, for whom time was an ally as it took a while for the public to catch up with and fully appreciate the true measure of their genius.

James Stewart, a consummate professional, received nothing but positive vibes from his work with the younger and less experienced Kim Novak. He credited Novak with superb mastery of a challenging and difficult double role while also tossing a bouquet Hitchcock’s way for his luminous direction.

The always alert showman, Columbia Studios boss Harry Cohn, knew a dynamic team when he saw it. Cohn re-teamed Stewart with his bright and shining new star Kim Novak in the 1959 release Bell Book and Candle, an adaptation of a hit Broadway play by John Van Druten. Unlike Vertigo, this film was a comedy in which the always bewitching Novak played a modern day witch with Stewart her romantic interest.

In conclusion, praise must be dispensed in the direction of the masterful composer Bernard Herrmann, who in Hitchcock’s 1956 hit The Man Who Knew Too Much was cast as himself as he played the conductor of the symphony orchestra that played at London’s Royal Albert Hall the evening that Doris Day saved a visiting prime minister’s wife. Stewart starred as well as Day’s wife.

The haunting Herrmann theme that became all the more dominating during the intense love scenes involving Stewart and Novak along with exquisite color photography and intelligent use of San Francisco as a scenic backdrop gave Vertigo the look and feel of a concert set in a resplendent art gallery complemented by superb acting.