They begin seeing each other, but Scottie remains obsessed with "Madeleine", and asks Judy to change her clothes and hair so that she resembles Madeleine. But Judy rips up the letter and continues the charade, because she loves Scottie. Judy drafts a letter to Scottie explaining her involvement: Gavin had deliberately taken advantage of Scottie's acrophobia to substitute his wife's freshly killed body in the apparent "suicide jump". Scottie follows her and she identifies herself as Judy Barton, from Salina, Kansas.Ī flashback reveals that Judy was the person Scottie knew as "Madeleine Elster" she was impersonating Gavin's wife as part of a murder plot. One day, he notices a woman who reminds him of Madeleine, despite her different appearance. After release, Scottie frequents the places that Madeleine visited, often imagining that he sees her. Gavin does not fault Scottie, but Scottie breaks down, becomes clinically depressed and is in a sanatorium, almost catatonic. Scottie, halted on the steps by his vertigo, sees Madeleine plunge to her death. Madeleine suddenly runs into the church and up the bell tower. He drives her there and they express their love for each other. Madeleine recounts a nightmare and Scottie identifies its setting as Mission San Juan Bautista. They travel to Muir Woods and Cypress Point on 17-Mile Drive, where Madeleine runs down towards the ocean. The next day Scottie follows Madeleine they meet and spend the day together.
Scottie tails Madeleine to Fort Point and, when she leaps into the bay, he rescues her. Gavin reveals that Carlotta (who he fears is possessing Madeleine) is Madeleine's great-grandmother, although Madeleine has no knowledge of this, and does not remember the places she has visited. He watches her enter the McKittrick Hotel, but on investigation she does not seem to be there.Ī local historian explains that Carlotta Valdes tragically committed suicide. Scottie reluctantly agrees, and follows Madeleine to a florist where she buys a bouquet of flowers, to the Mission San Francisco de Asís and the grave of Carlotta Valdes, and to an art museum where she gazes at the Portrait of Carlotta. Scottie tries to conquer his fear, but his friend and ex-fiancée Midge Wood says that another severe emotional shock may be the only cure.Īn acquaintance from college, Gavin Elster, asks Scottie to follow his wife, Madeleine, claiming she has been possessed. "Madeleine" at Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, shortly before she jumps into the bay.Īfter a rooftop chase, where his fear of heights and vertigo result in the death of a policeman, San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson retires. Plot File:Vertigo 1958 trailer Kim Novak at Golden Gate Bridge Fort Point.jpg
Vertigo cast movie#
It has appeared repeatedly in polls of the best films by the American Film Institute, including a 2007 ranking as the ninth-greatest American movie of all time. In 1996, the film underwent a major restoration to create a new 70mm print and DTS soundtrack.
Attracting significant scholarly criticism, it replaced Citizen Kane (1941) as the best film ever made in the 2012 British Film Institute's Sight & Sound critics' poll. Vertigo received mixed reviews upon initial release, but is now often cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of the defining works of his career. As a result of its use in this film, the effect is often referred to as "the Vertigo effect". It is the first film to utilize the dolly zoom, an in-camera effect that distorts perspective to create disorientation, to convey Scottie's acrophobia. The film was shot on location in San Francisco, California, and at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Scottie is hired by an acquaintance, Gavin Elster, as a private investigator to follow Gavin's wife Madeleine ( Kim Novak), who is behaving strangely. Scottie is forced into early retirement because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia (an extreme fear of heights) and vertigo (a false sense of rotational movement). The film stars James Stewart as former police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts ( From Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac. Vertigo is a 1958 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock.