ViewGuide

Created Dec 14, 2008 03:09PM PST • Edited May 31, 2016 07:40PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   Hitchcock’s classic thriller, dizzying as ever, still packs enough punch to make girls scream. While tame by the crude standards of the past thirty years, the movie doesn’t lack for intrigue, glamour and surprise.

   That said and though Vertigo is widely acclaimed as Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Rear Window remains my favorite of his movies.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Jimmy Stewart plods along perfectly as Scotty, the befuddled detective. Stewart starred for Hitchcock here and in Rear Window, both legendary roles.

   Kim Novak personifies Hitchcock’s icy blond ideal, legendary to this day for her performance as Madeleine Elster, the femme fatale who bewitches Jimmy Stewart’s detective character.

   Barbara Bel Geddes also rings a bell. Though I was never a Dallas fan, it was a treat to see “Miss Ellie” as a young woman.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    No director weaves a tangled web better than Hitch, or deceives as cleverly. This was reiterated to me recently when I had the good fortune of seeing Vertigo at Palo Alto’s Stanford Theater with an appreciative audience that included more than a few Vertigo virgins. Comes the penultimate moment, several girls down front let out involuntary screams, adding to the fun of the cinematic experience and proving that The Master of Suspense still got game.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    Two points to every viewer who spots Hitchcock’s cameo. Hint: he’s a pedestrian crossing a street.

12. Play Really Great 4.5

    The languid story drags a bit, especially by modern standards. The apartment scene where Barbara Bel Geddes’ Midge shows Scotty her satiric portrait livened up the middle reel, thankfully.

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    The movie is a postcard of 1950s San Francisco and the Bay Area.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.4

    Hitch don’t need much edge to shock an audience.

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Fierce 1.7

19. Rudeness Polite 1.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.4

    Much has been written about Vertigo in general and its liberties in particular, so I’ll just point out a few.

    • The mission at San Juan Bautista has no bell tower. Hitch used FX to superimpose one.
    • Scotty and Madeleine drive from San Francisco to San Juan Bautista at the drop of a hat, a multi-hour trip each way in the 1950s. Same with the drive to Big Basin State Park.
    • Even in the 1950s, could Madeleine have parked her car right at the front door of the Museum of the Legion of Honor? The only car there?
    • How did an unconscious Kim Novak get stripped of her wet clothes in Scotty’s apartment? Inquiring minds want to know.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.8

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Glib 1.4