Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock engulfs you in a whirlpool of terror and tension!
Vertigo (1958)
Production
Budget
$2 479 000
Revenue
$7 414 821
Director
Scenario
Pierre Boileau
Author
Composer
Producer
Actors
James Stewart
Det. John 'Scottie' Ferguson
Kim Novak
Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton
Barbara Bel Geddes
Marjorie 'Midge' Wood
Tom Helmore
Gavin Elster
Henry Jones
Coroner
Raymond Bailey
Scottie's Doctor
Ellen Corby
Manager of McKittrick Hotel
Konstantin Shayne
Pop Leibel
Short description
Vertigo centres on John "Scottie" Ferguson, a San Francisco police detective who leaves the force after a colleague falls to his death during a rooftop pursuit. The incident leaves him with a fear of heights that paralyzes him at critical moments. An old acquaintance, Gavin Elster, asks him to follow his wife, Madeleine, whose behaviour suggests she is absorbed by a troubled past. Scottie takes the job and becomes increasingly drawn to the woman he is watching.
Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor. It was the thirty-fourth of the forty-three features he directed, arriving between The Wrong Man in 1956 and North by Northwest in 1959. James Stewart plays Scottie, with Kim Novak as Madeleine and Judy Barton, Barbara Bel Geddes as Midge Wood, and Tom Helmore as Gavin Elster.
Made for about two million dollars, the film returned roughly seven million worldwide on its original release. It carries an 8.2 rating on IMDb from around 458,000 votes and an 8.1 on TMDB from a much smaller pool of about 6,500. A critics' score of 9.5 out of 10 from 98 reviews places it clearly above both audience measures.
What's left behind the scenes
- Hitchcock found the Mission San Juan Bautista tower insufficiently impressive, so a replica of the desired height was built on the studio lot. The scenes on the staircase were also filmed in a studio pavilion.
- The film is based on the novel “From the Dead” (D'entre les morts, 1954), co-written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.
- From the point of view of cinematography, the most difficult thing was to obtain the famous “dizzying” shot when Scotty looks down the stairs. Vertical shooting required the use of a lift, which cost an incredible amount of money. “Why not make a model of the stairs, lay it on its side, and shoot by moving away from it? You can do without any lift,” Hitchcock reasoned. The combination of optical zoom with camera tracking, first used in this scene, received the name the Vertigo effect in cinematography. The space at the same time simultaneously approaches and moves away, as if obeying the logic of a nightmare.
- Hitchcock's cameo – he walks down the street in a grey suit at the beginning of the film.
- Madeline's light grey suit was chosen with psychological discomfort in mind (blondes almost never wear this color).
- Filming took place from September 30, 1957, to December 19, 1957.
- To emphasize Judy's down-to-earth vulgarity, Kim Novak did not wear a bra during filming.
- The film was met with a cold reception from both critics and audiences. A devastated Hitchcock blamed the failure on the lead actor, James Stewart, saying that he had exhausted himself and his best years were behind him. Hitchcock never filmed Stewart in his films again, although he had previously considered him a favorite.
- Vertigo is the fourth and last collaboration between Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart.
- For the role of Madeleine, Hitchcock planned to cast Vera Miles, but she was forced to decline due to pregnancy.
- This is the first Hitchcock film to be included in the National Film Registry (and in its very first year of existence).
- A postscript to the film was also shot, banned by European censorship, but not included in the original American version. In it, we see John, more or less recovered, listening with Midge to a report about the capture of Gavin Elster in Europe.
- The screenplay for the film, initially titled Darkling I Listen, was commissioned from the renowned playwright Maxwell Anderson. Hitchcock was dissatisfied with the result and turned to professional screenwriter Alec Coppel for help. The version of the script he proposed also ended up in the trash. Samuel Taylor prepared the third draft, who was recommended to Hitchcock as an expert on the topography of San Francisco. Despite Taylor's objections, Coppel managed to prove that his work was retained in the final script. Both are credited as screenwriters in the credits.
- The rights to the film were bought back by the director himself and constituted his daughter's inheritance, so new generations of viewers only saw this film in 1985.
- During filming, Hitchcock and Kim Novak had a very strained relationship. Firstly, Hitchcock considered Vera Miles the ideal Madeleine, and Novak was imposed on him by the studio bosses. Secondly, Kim periodically gave Hitchcock advice, which the director disliked.
- The idea of Hitchcock revealing the circumstances of Madeleine’s death in an unsent letter (almost in the middle of the film) sparked long debates among the film’s creators. This was a significant departure from the book and script. The “Master of Suspense” was convinced that genuine tension arises only when the audience knows slightly more than the protagonist. At Hitchcock’s insistence, both versions of the film were presented to studio management for consideration, with the version containing the unsent letter receiving the “green light” at the very last moment.
- In 1983, after cleaning and restoration, the film was re-released for the first time in theaters on 35mm film with stereo sound. In 1996, “Vertigo” was re-released after a lengthy restoration that sparked much controversy. Under the direction of Robert Harris and James Katz, the color palette was adjusted and virtually the entire soundtrack was re-recorded in DTS. The key emerald-green hue for understanding the film was recreated based on an enamel sample from Madeleine’s car, obtained from the Ford Motor Company archives. Despite the meticulousness of the restoration, it had its detractors, who accused Katz and Harris of distorting the director’s vision.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
