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I rewatched Hitchcock's Vertigo, last night for the first time in what must be decades. I've always been a fan of Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak does a great job. I've really liked the movie in the past, but this time while I enjoyed the acting, the flow of the story went badly in my mind.
Hitchcock always has surprise twists so rewatching anything of his can be a bit iffy. Jimmy is still the good-old vulnerable Scotty, and Kim is as gorgeous as can be. Mostly the movie wasn't that bad, but a recurring cliché from movies and TV from the 1930s to at least the 1960s, just didn't work for me this time.
As a part of a convoluted plot to kill the wife of one of Scotty's old pals, Kim, pretending to be the wife Madeline, acts mysteriously while Scotty is asked by his pal to secretly follow and keep an eye on her. Scotty follows her for a few days and gets wrapped up in the mystery. Things come to a head when "Madeline" goes to the park at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. With Scotty a short distance away, she jumps into the water apparently to drown herself. Scotty dives in after her and saves her, at which point we have the disturbing cliché.
Scotty was recently a police detective. He ought to know automatically what to do. But does he call the police? Does he call an ambulance, knowing that's what the police would do anyway? No, He puts her sopping wet into her extremely expensive auto, not his own De Soto, and drives her not to the hospital but to his house. Of course, per the cliché once she's out of the water everything is off screen and the scene opens again in Scotty's place. She's "asleep" in his bed and her clothes are hanging to dry in the bathroom. Watching the first time, we presume it's all innocent enough, but if we know the story then we know "Madeline" is faking the whole thing.
Exactly what did Judy, Kim's real part in the movie, sign up for? How many women would just lie there and let a man she'd never met undress her? All she'd have to do is open her eyes when he'd barely started and say, "where am I?" and the plot could continue without a hitch and without him stripping her personally. What the heck was she thinking when he dried her off all over? I'd think she'd have to be ridiculously trusting when he picked her up and put her naked into his bed.
In movies where the two are off in the hinterland, far from any help and the hero is actually saving the damsel, and she actually passes out, the cliché of waking up naked in bed (his or her own) with him nearby isn't quite as stupid.
Hitchcock always has surprise twists so rewatching anything of his can be a bit iffy. Jimmy is still the good-old vulnerable Scotty, and Kim is as gorgeous as can be. Mostly the movie wasn't that bad, but a recurring cliché from movies and TV from the 1930s to at least the 1960s, just didn't work for me this time.
As a part of a convoluted plot to kill the wife of one of Scotty's old pals, Kim, pretending to be the wife Madeline, acts mysteriously while Scotty is asked by his pal to secretly follow and keep an eye on her. Scotty follows her for a few days and gets wrapped up in the mystery. Things come to a head when "Madeline" goes to the park at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. With Scotty a short distance away, she jumps into the water apparently to drown herself. Scotty dives in after her and saves her, at which point we have the disturbing cliché.
Scotty was recently a police detective. He ought to know automatically what to do. But does he call the police? Does he call an ambulance, knowing that's what the police would do anyway? No, He puts her sopping wet into her extremely expensive auto, not his own De Soto, and drives her not to the hospital but to his house. Of course, per the cliché once she's out of the water everything is off screen and the scene opens again in Scotty's place. She's "asleep" in his bed and her clothes are hanging to dry in the bathroom. Watching the first time, we presume it's all innocent enough, but if we know the story then we know "Madeline" is faking the whole thing.
Exactly what did Judy, Kim's real part in the movie, sign up for? How many women would just lie there and let a man she'd never met undress her? All she'd have to do is open her eyes when he'd barely started and say, "where am I?" and the plot could continue without a hitch and without him stripping her personally. What the heck was she thinking when he dried her off all over? I'd think she'd have to be ridiculously trusting when he picked her up and put her naked into his bed.
In movies where the two are off in the hinterland, far from any help and the hero is actually saving the damsel, and she actually passes out, the cliché of waking up naked in bed (his or her own) with him nearby isn't quite as stupid.