Vertigo (a 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film)

Here's another one of those classics my husband thought I might enjoy. For once, I'm not sure.

Undeniably, it's well-done. As Nick says, there's an underlying note of tension throughout the movie, and I agree with him. The music and mystery set up the plot beautifully so that by the end you really have a feeling of dread.

James Stewart (of It's a Wonderful Life) and Kim Novak (I'm not familiar with her) star in Vertigo, a suspense/crime thriller about a retired detective recently diagnosed with acrophobia (a fear of heights he developed on his last case) who is hired to follow a friend's wife. The friend says he believes his wife becomes another person, is somehow inhabited by someone else, but he wants to make sure before he sends her to the loony bin. John Ferguson (James Stewart), against his better judgment, takes the case and is soon obsessed with the beautiful Madeleine (Kim Novak). She does, indeed, seem to have a fascination with a woman who's dead, sitting before her portrait in the museum, visiting her graveyard, seemingly unaware that she is doing so. When she tries to take her own life and John rescues her, he falls in love. But there's more to the story than John knows. He's being played, but it might be too late to recognize it.

Really, about half the movie is what I described above, and I can't tell you the other half without spoiling it, so I won't. Why am I not sure about this one? I thought the suspense was great. (And the movie's even in color!). I guess I just didn't like the pay-off. I expected something more, perhaps due to my husband's prodding that probably raised my expectations too high. Maybe I just like happy endings.

If you watch Vertigo, enjoy it for the suspense and the craft. Hitchcock truly is the master.

Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious

Here is my first review of a classic movie. Notorious is an Alfred Hitchcock film noir/suspense/romance starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It was made in 1946, just after the war, and tells the story of a woman of loose morals, Alicia (Bergman), daughter of a German Nazi, who is hired by American agents to infiltrate and spy on a group of her father's friends in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her assignment: get in close to a formerly infatuated wannabe lover of hers, keep her mouth shut and her eyes and ears open, and do whatever it takes to keep him close, even if it means marrying him. But Alicia has changed her ways and fallen in love with Devlin (Grant), the agent who is her contact. Their love is tried, and Devlin closes his heart to Alicia, unknowingly abandoning her to an ill fate.

This movie boasts the longest on-screen kiss of the times. Apparently there was a rule about how many seconds a kiss could last on-screen, and Hitchcock got around it by interrupting the kiss with dialog and walking. Compared to movies of our time, this is child's play. Yet the thematic material is anything but.

Hitchcock proves you can do suspense and romance without showing a thing, even in a format that is all about showing. Hitchcock does suspense with shadows and dialog and waiting. You need good actors for that, and Grant and Bergman were among the best of the time. They could even be compared to today's actors. Kate Winslet, for instance, reminds me of Ingrid Bergman.

As for romance, no abandonment cuts worse than Devlin's of Alicia, and we barely see their romance, let alone its blossoming, which so many romances today are all about. We see them meet, and then, bam, they are in the middle of hot and steamy without more than a few kisses and whispered words lip-to-lip. But you believe it. Goes to show that you don't need immorality to make a good movie, especially if a movie where immorality is a central plot point doesn't show any.

My husband made me watch this movie, but I wouldn't have caved unless it sounded remotely interesting. I was not surprised that it was good, being an Alfred Hitchcock film some claim his best. And I was so intrigued I barely noticed the black and white after awhile.

If you are going to watch classics, put this on the list! A big thanks goes to Nick's friend Brian for suggesting this to him.