Vertigo is a suspense film, and its plot is full of surprises. Like many later Hitchcock films, the less you know about the plot going in, the better. So if you haven’t seen Vertigo, I would strongly suggest watching the film before reading about the plot, whether here or somewhere else.

John “Scottie” Ferguson is a San Francisco detective forced into early retirement from his severe acrophobia – a fear of heights so severe that it induces a debilitating vertigo. With nothing but free time, he meets with an old acquaintance who has a favor to ask. His friend wants Scottie to follow his wife Madeleine. It seems she’s been acting rather odd lately, as if possessed by a malevolent spirit, and disappears for hours at a time without any memory to account for where she’s been. He’s worried she may be a danger to herself during these blackouts, perhaps even suicidal. Before he seeks medical attention, he wants to be sure there is due cause.

Scottie accepts the offer, and follows Madeleine for a day in one of the film’s best sequences, almost completely devoid of dialogue. Fascinated, he follows her through the labyrinthine streets of San Francisco, and the entire time the audience is fascinated too. Where will she go? Will Scottie get caught following her? 

He finds that, as if in a trance, M adeleine routinely visits a number of locations related to Carlotta Valdes, a woman that went mad and killed herself in the last century. She visits Carlotta’s grave, her old house, a portrait of Carlotta that hangs in a museum. Madeleine seems to be inhabited during these times, and mimics Carlotta’s dress and hairstyle. Is she haunted, or just mad? Or worse yet, possessed by the ghost of a mad woman?

I won’t say any more about the plot, as the film has many twists, right up to the final scene. I will divulge that Scottie and Madeleine do meet, and he falls in love with her. But it’s an obsessive love, and as the film progresses, we question just what he will do to be with her when the situation doesn’t allow the pair to be together.

There are many subtle elements at play here, most notably the Freudian psychological undertones. Scottie’s vertigo leaves him impotent to action, and when he meets Madeleine, he finds a fire inside himself that only she can fuel. It’s an exploration of passions, obsessions, and the dark side of romance, all in the fra mework of a suspenseful mystery. 

Vertigo was a critical and financial flop upon its release, and many people – including Hitchcock himself – blamed this on Jimmy Stewart, saying the actor was too old to play a romantic lead. But if anything, Stewart’s age only lends the film both a reality when we see him falling in love with the young and beautiful Madeleine, and a sinister edge when his love turns into a malignant obsession. Even more important than age, Jimmy Stewart gives one of the most complex and subtle performances of his career in Vertigo, and as only Jimmy Stewart could do, he keeps Scottie sympathetic even when the audience fears his actions may become villainous.

Hitchcock also regretted the casting of Kim Novak as Madeline, but modern audiences also disagree. Not only is she beautiful enough to become anyone’s obsession, Novak plays her scenes to perfection. When we find out more about Madeline as the film goes on, Novak’s performance only becomes more impressive yet. And long after the film is over, specific gestures and facial expressions of Novak’s remain in one’s memory. She does what is deceptively difficult to carry off: she plays a mysterious woman who retains some of her mystery even after the audience has learned all there is to know of her.

Hitchcock often agreed with fans and critics when they disliked his work, as Hitchcock spent his entire life feeling that his own work was subpar. But he had no need with Vertigo, and if Hitchcock had lived a decade or so more, he would see the film regarded as one of the best of all time by fans and critics both.

There are so many beautiful shots in Vertigo, but the one that gets the most attention uses an in-camera effect now commonly referred to as “The Vertigo Shot.” When Scottie looks down a flight of stairs, we see from his point-of-view as a ga p of space widens between him and the base of the stairwell, as if the ground is dropping away. (Images 10 & 11)

Hitchcock also uses a 360-revolve around Scottie and Madeleine as the background changes behind them from reality to Scottie’s fantasies. There’s also a shot where the camera backs out from the interior of a bell tower until the camera is hovering in space outside the tower.

Aside from these more dramatic moves, Hitchcock uses more subtle effects to suggest the inner life of his characters. At one point, the whole scene gets darker when a forbidden subject of the past is touched upon; and at another, when Scottie first sees Madeleine, the lights flare up for a moment with his excitement. Also, green light emanates otherworldly in scenes with Kim Novak, as if to suggest her haunting effect. At one point, her aura is so strong it blurs Novak herself, as if Scottie is blinded not by her image, but by the effect of her memory. (Image 15)

Bernard Herrmann gives the film an atmospheric, waiflike score inspired by the Wagner opera Tristan and Isolde, another doomed love affair. The score, combined with the unease of the script’s looming secrets, Hitchcock’s methodical pacing, and the detailed cinematography, lends Vertigo a distinctly Romantic feel that is best compared to his first American film, Rebecca, also about the psychological effects that a dead woman has on a couple.

The art direction of Vertigo is essential to its plot. Even the wardrobe is significant. It’s rare that such potentially trivial items like a bouquet of flowers or a grey dress become so memorable. And the use of the color green in the film – it fills one with the yearning for a reality that does not exist, the same yearning that Scottie feels.

The aforementioned “Vertigo Shot” has become a commonplace device, used in everything from Jaws to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Hithcock’s style did more than influence future films, he influenced the entire careers of contemporary and future directors. Everyone has been influenced by Hitchcock: from Dario Argento to Quentin Tarentino, from Martin Scorsese to M. Night Shyamalan. Vertigo itself has been the stylistic and thematic springboard of dozens of films about obsessive love, and the subject of numerous parodies.