ViewGuide

Created Sep 29, 2009 09:17AM PST • Edited Sep 29, 2009 09:17AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Mesmerising and thrilling to the last, ‘Vertigo’ stands tall amid the lofty heights of Hitchcock’s masterpieces, with Jimmy Stewart once again illustrating that this actor-director collaboration was (and continues to be) one of the very best in film history.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   James Stewart, as the confused and perplexed ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, is the standout performer, but Kim Novak’s outstanding turn(s) onscreen make this pairing electric – the sporadic support hardly needing to feature, so strong are the leads.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

   Jimmy Stewart did not often stray from the good guy roles in his career, but here he adds layers of complexity to ‘Scottie’ – a man haunted by the past, and easily manipulated to his own detriment. Having watched all of his collaborations with Hitchcock, it is quite easy to say that this is Stewart’s finest; developing and portraying a great range of emotion and depth through Ferguson’s shocking spiral out of control, this is one of the roles of his career.

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

   Kim Novak injects mystique and glamour with her portrayals in the film; suffice to say that it would be spoiling the plot by saying much more, the actress shows varying and juxtaposed traits throughout, manipulating the audience almost as much as ‘Scottie’. An outstanding performance, and one that complements Stewart’s to a tee.

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

   Barbera Bel Geddes, as ’Scottie’s’ friend Midge, features little (much like Helmore), but features in some of the more significant scenes towards the end of the film – and as such, she again rises to the challenge of having to do so much with so little time onscreen.

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

   Tony Helmore, as ’Scottie’s’ friend Gavin Elster, features greatly in the plot of the movie, and as such, the actor’s performance, though short in context, needs to be spot-on. Fortunately, Helmore does amazingly well with what time he has – as you will see in watching the film.

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    From the onscreen bursts of colour to denote fear through to the perplexing twists of plot, ‘Vertigo’ is quintessential, definitive Hitchcock – and like the director’s best films, it features a dark, grim edge that resurfaces throughout. This is always regarded as one of his masterpieces, and rightly so.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Hitchcock’s camera tricks and mastery in directing actors were at their peak here – you feel the vertigo as Stewart does, and shake with astonishment with revelation after revelation. Hitchcock was (and continues to be) a master of dramatic film-making, and melding all the aspects together works perfectly for him once again here.

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    Scottie’s decent into madness and obsession toward the latter part of the film is the part in which the dialogue transcends the average and becomes truly excellent – tense interplays between the leads add a sinister and dominative edge to the normally heroic Stewart, and for a film to achieve this is an indication of the script’s strength.

13. Music OK 2.5

    Bernard Hermann is regarded by many as a seminal figure in film composition, but I would dare to contest this – his repetitive motifs and swells were fine for Psycho, but in many other movies such as this, his personal touches felt out of place and jarred with the story. Nevertheless, at many points the sinister nature of the plot is reflected perfectly in the scoring.

14. Visuals OK 2.5

    As with many films of the period, the visual technology is obviously and distractingly dated or fake – and Hitchcock would, I’m sure, have been aghast at how much this point proves to show itself. Blue screen is called upon at any given point, even when it didn’t necessarily need to be used! What is truly tragic is that Hitchcock’s vision and many of the locales are so beautiful when viewed – the museum Novak’s Madeleine repeatedly visits one such example. You get the sense that at many points the visual power of the film could be lifted by the use of real locations and less blue screens – but I say this in context, and unfortunately the passage of time and boons in technology cannot be forgotten.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.4

    With a dark plot and an even darker descent in terms of one character’s mental state, ‘Vertigo’ is a profoundly grim movie, despite there not being any horror, gore or sex to give this impression.

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Polite 1.2

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.2

    When the entire plot unravels at the conclusion, there’s no evidence to suggest that such an event could not happen. It’s merely the combination of all the contrivances and coincidences that make it harder to imagine in the real world.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.2

23. Biological Surreal 2.2

24. Physical Surreal 2.2