Monday, April 19, 2010

Vertigo Is A Classic Psychological Thriller

By Isaac Perkins

Hitchcock's iconic movie Vertigo is a classic thriller and features lead characters James Stewart and Kim Novak. Vertigo is the kind of movie that you once you have seen you will always remember.

This psychological thriller made in 1958 is based on the original novel by Narcejac and was adapted and written as a screenplay by Tayler and Coppel.

Much of the setting for the movie takes place in northern California from San Francisco to San Juan Bautista and there are many iconic landmarks used in the shoot such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods and Coit Tower.

The film's plot is filled with many surprises and moments that will keep you guessing and it is well worth seeing. As a result it has been classed as one of the top hundred movies of all time.

The central protagonist of the movie, Scottie, is a detective who witnesses a traumatic death of his colleague. The image haunts him and this is when his vertigo begins which has symptoms of aversion to heights. He takes early retirement and ends his days as a detective until an old college chum, Gavin, pleads for his help in a private case.

This is the catalyst for the driving force of the movie. Gavin asks Scottie to investigate his wife Madeleine whom he fears is losing her mind. She is obsessed with a dead woman named Carlotta Valdes and reenacts the same journey each day as a kind of pilgrimage to Carlotta.

Scottie spends the day trailing Madeleine, Gavin's wife, and he witnesses her jump into the bay at Fort Point with the Golden Gate looming above her. After he rescues her there is a chemistry between them and Madeleine tells Scottie about her fears of death and a recurring dream with a bell tower in it.

Scottie knows that this is the mission in San Juan Bautista and thinks that she should face her fear. When they arrive Madeleine tears away from his side, runs up the steps to the roof and he is unable to follow because of his vertigo. He hears her scream and is powerless to act.

After her death, he finds it hard to recover. He searches the places they used to visit and one day he meets a Madeleine doppelganger, a young woman named Judy. He is so desperately in love and missing Madeleine that he asks Judy to dress like her. The similarity between them is uncanny.

A twist arises when Carlotta Valdes' necklace is spotted on Judy. Scottie figures out that they are the same and he decides to confront her with the truth.

He plans the showdown at the place where Madeleine faked her death. The mission at San Juan Bautista is the climactic end scene and Scottie uncovers that the whole thing was a plot to murder Gavin's first wife. Madeleine was hired to do this.

They battle it out and a nun steps forward. Judy screams. She falls off the bell tower to her death below. Scottie's vertigo is no more.

This movie is suspenseful and all lovers of thrillers and mysteries will enjoy the nail biting plot that will keep you guessing until the end.

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