We had so much fun trying to figure out what was going on here! Looking forward to your comments below. ✌ My Mom and I watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: ua-cam.com/video/eAkkRS7DtGs/v-deo.html My Dad and I watching Smokey and the Bandit: ua-cam.com/video/-s7nQh2FszA/v-deo.html All links and info: kaiielle.com
You guys must remember, a man and wife got a baby sitter to go to a movie and dinner once a month maybe, they LOVED LONG MOVIES.........LOL, there was no internet, small towns had a couple theatres and that was it.
KL have you ever been to San Francisco? I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, grew up here....a lot of the places in the movie are still there. Unfortunately not Ernie's restaurant, it closed when I was in HS (graduated 1996). I think it's an art gallery now. lol. The Legion of Honor (an art museum) and Palace of Fine Arts (an area with Greek columns and arches, built in early 1900s for the Pan Am Exposition) are beautiful 🙂 The Bay Area is famously liberal (as am I), politically aligned with the EU (and Canada). 🙂 The population density in SF itself is actually greater than London! Although obviously more people total live in London. 🙂 Mission San Juan Bautista very much exists, but it's 96 miles (154 km) south of SF. 🙂 Maybe you and your mom should start watching Bond movies too, starting with Dr. No. 🙂
Your mother was right, the woman at the hotel desk was Ellen Corby who played Grandma Walton. You may remember her from "It's a Wonderful Life" in the bank run scene as the woman who asked for just $17.50 and earned an unscripted kiss from Jimmy Stewart.
Vertigo is the most polarizing of Hitchcock's films, but now is his most critically acclaimed film. In 2011 or so a survey of film critics named Vertigo the greatest film of all time, knocking Citizen Kane off the perch it had sat on since probably 1940 or so. Its my #3 behind North by Northwest and Rear Window.
For me, it’s North by Northwest, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, The Birds, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Lifeboat, Foreign Correspondent. He made many masterpieces.
So many b&w Jimmy Stewart movies you haven't seen: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; The Philadelphia Story; Destry Rides Again; The Shop Around the Corner to name a few.
@@mrcapra Also, “Anatomy of a Murder,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “Harvey,” “Winchester ‘73,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Naked Spur,” and many more.
Ladies thank you so much for watching this!! Absolute classic masterpiece. I was born in 1970 so I am old enough to remember the Waltons and Dallas too. Watching this with your mom made this reaction is very special to me I used to watch this and other great movies with my mom all the time (though I am a gentleman and not a lady). My mom died at age 90 earlier this year. All the locations in this movie are real and with the exception of two are still standing. Ernie’s closed in the 80s and my mom went there with her first husband for most of her nice meals. The McKittrick hotel was torn down in the 90s and may not have been in use for years before. The Redwood Forest they went to with the slice from the really old tree is Big Basin about 40 miles SW of San Jose CA. Sadly much of it completely burned just a few years ago, but it’s reopen to the public now. I really hope you do watch Rear Window. It was my first Hitchcock movie and my mom’s favorite. I think you’ll both enjoy it. I know Scotty gets a lot of flack for trying to made Judy in the image of Madeline and rightly so, but consider things from his perspective too. You are madly in love with a haunted person who dies because of your inability to act. This drives you so crazy you spend time in a facility and when you get out you do nothing but see her face wherever you go. Finally you see some that doesn’t look like her (which is easy) but talks, sounds and acts EXACTLY like her because she IS her. Is it that hard to understand why such a poor crazy guy would try to see if she could look like her to? Still not right, but perhaps a bit more understandable.
Anatomy of a Murder is my favorite Jimmy Stewart film, my favorite B&W, and my favorite film from the 50s. It is also IMHO the greatest and most accurate courtroom cinema film. And it does have Hitchcock-esque twists. But what really makes it special for me is that it's a comedic drama, and the comedy is perfect for the story and the context. It's one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema. The only reason it's so underrated is because it's a murder mystery and not a Hitchcock.
@@billolsen4360 She's clearly a class act, and died too young at 55 of kidney cancer that didn't respond well to treatment. Anatomy was only her fourth film out of 58 + one miniseries. Beside Anatomy, as far as I can remember i've only seen her in Omen, and i don't even remember that very well. I feel like i have seen The Detective (1968), but can't remember a thing about it.
Scottie attended college in Berkeley under the GI bill after he served in WWII, since that was the top criminology school at the time. Midge was a 19-year-old student there and fell for him. Tossed out of the script later.
Such a unique movie. 'Rope' and 'The Man Who Knew too Much' are excellent movies. Also check out 'North by Northwest', a real classic. So many good Hitchcock movies. Enjoyed your reaction.
To me it's a masterpiece.Gavin was an old friend not a close friend, As for falling for Kim so fast, well she was gorgeous and his initial fascination became love then obsession. Judy couldn't tell him the truth as she was an accomplice to murder. That's probably why she had to die for her crime. Great film. The wild plot, the fantastic acting, Bernard Herrmann's score, Edith Head's costumes, Robert Burks stunning photography, and of course Hitchcock's brilliant direction. All Stewart's work with Hitchcock is terrific. He's good with Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much ... Mom will enjoy it too. .
Great reacton KL! I love this movie. A lot of reactors don't recognize Kim Novak as Judy and gets surprised when it is revelead it's the same actress. I believe Hitchcock invented that vertigo camera shot. I just saw a great Jimmy Stewart movie the other day. 'You can't take it with you' from 1938 (best picture Oscar winner). I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Nice reaction, ladies. This is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film, because it is the most personal for the director. Whether he was aware of it or not, he was essentially making a movie about himself and what he did to movie stars. The Hitchcock "cool blonde" an iconic element of his films as you will see continuing your journey through his work. He took and transformed these women like like Scotty transformed Judy, and they let themselves be transformed. This reached an uncomfortable point once it got to one of his later "blondes", which I won't go into here.
That was a fun reaction. My friend Dorothy's father wrote the music for this film. Vertigo is definitely a more than once watch because the imagery and framing all follow the thematic elements of obsession and the meaning of the title is less a physical state of being, but an emotional one because Scottie throughout has an emotional imbalance and the visuals hint at that too. Did you see more of that when you edited ir? For the next reaction with Mom definitely Hitchcock's brilliant NOTORIOUS (1946).
When you watch Hitchcock films, always look for his cameo. In several of his films he appeared just for a couple of moments. I watched this a couple of times before I found it. It's like playing, "Where's Waldo?"
Thanks for this reaction. This is an absolute classic with many wonderful features, including Herrmann’s great, pseudo-Wagnerian score. Nevertheless, when the 2012 Sight & Sound poll named this the greatest film of all time, actor Alan Arkin opined that this is not the greatest film ever, not one of the 500 greatest films, not Hitchcock’s greatest film, etc. One UA-camr called it the most perverse film ever to come out of Hollywood. Personal connection: In about 1980, I saw Henry Jones (coroner) at the Tower Records in Westwood, CA.
This is one of the rare movies from this time where the villain gets away with it. Elster has already left the country, his wife's death has been declared a suicide, and even if Scotty goes to the authorities to tell them what really happened, there's no proof that Elster killed his wife. All the police would have is Scotty's word, and he just got out of a mental hospital. According to Wikipedia there was an alternate ending shot where Scotty and Midge listened on the radio to reports that Elster was being chased across Europe for his wife's murder and was about to be caught. But Hitchcock fought off the studio's insistence for this and it was not used. But movies in these days always had the villain being caught - the idea that someone could murder someone and get away with it was unheard of.
@@billolsen4360 Yes, now that it's happened twice, they will probably lock that door. This has probably not been an issue before the events of this film.
Such a fun reaction! I wish I could live in this time period when everything was more simple. I also love detective work when private investigator's approach they're work differently.
Great reaction/review! The discussion afterwards was fun. By the way there have been magazines about movie stars since the silent movies. Fans would tear out full page pictures of the stars and pin them to the wall. The studios would distribute glossies of their stars. The bathing suit poster of Betty Grable made in 1943 made her the most famous pin-up girl of the WW II era. In "Singin' in the Rain" Debbie Reynolds' character talks about the movie star magazines.
He recognized the necklace in the mirror and that's when he realized he'd been played. And also the part where Carlotta was at the window was part of Scotty's nightmare. Remember when they showed him lying in bed asleep & then they show him waking up in bed and sitting up in terror? The shots in between with all the weird visuals is him having a dream/nightmare. And the reason they show so much of him following her is she's slowly leading him down into the abyss. So he's falling and not even realizing it. And Jimmy Stewart was never a poster on any young girl's wall. He was very popular but not in a sex symbol way. He was the ordinary guy that everybody could relate to. Also, Vertigo WAS voted the best movie ever made by Sight & Sound Magazine (every 10 years they do a poll of leading movie critics & I believe Vertigo has won the last two polls). And finally, The Man Who Knew Too Much & Rope are good movies but they are not considered to be in the same league as Vertigo & Rear Window so you've seen the two best Hitchcock/Jimmy Stewart collaborations. Anyway, enjoyed your reaction!
I choose to believe Scotty subconsciously knew that he had been conned, which is why he was obsessed with turning Judy into Madeleine. There is even a hint of that during the his nightmare after the inquest, when he sees Elster standing in the window with Carlotta.
The famous red-themed restaurant was located at 847 Montgomery Street, Ernie's Restaurant was a popular landmark in San Francisco for over 60 years and eventually closed in 1995.
I’m enjoying watching the birth of the KL Movie Classics channel. Seriously, I’m a big James Stewart fan and I swear, this is his most unsettling performance. Even if it’s explained, his character is so obsessed, it’s creepy. Given Hitchcock’s own obsessions, it’s at least disquieting. Hitchcock stuff I’d recommend is Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief. If you want more James Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story and Harvey are musts. Whatever is next, enjoy it.
What a great movie. I love that it sneaks in thematic stuff about obsession and control in the guise of a mystery. I think there's some symbolic stuff with the colours red and green but I can't quite work it out!
@@kaiielle Oh, I thought you’d expressed some questions about her motivation during the reaction, like maybe she was trying to play him. But, yes, it’s heartbreaking to see the lengths she was going to just to be loved by him again-even completely giving up on being loved for herself rather than as a stand-in for Madeleine.
@@kaiielle It is gross, but Judy still loves Scottie and wants to be with him, and this is the only way she can get him to do this. And for Scotty, he's still in love with Madeline and can't get over her. He's obsessed with her. If it wasn't Judy he would eventually find some other woman who looked like her and tried to change her to look exactly like Madeline.
@@jhornacek What most people forget when there ill at ease with the makeover is that Judy was a willing accessory to Madeline's murder, but she still gets all this sympathy.
@@billolsen4360 Does Judy always know that the husband planned to kill his wife? I got the impression that she didn't know he was going to kill her until she got to the top of the tower and he threw the wife out the window. That's why she screams - because she didn't know this was going to happen. We see in the flashbacks that the husband grabs here and hold her so she can't react or do anything - she didn't know this was going to happen.
It's funny watching you two watch the first half of the movie where you say that Scotty isn't doing a good job of following Madeline and that she's going to realize she's being followed. On a rewatch you realize that she *does* know she's been followed. We never see the real Madeline until the flashback of Elster throwing her off the tower - every time we see Scotty following Madeline he's actually following Judy, who knows that Scotty is following her. She likely has a list of places to go - written by Elster - and instructions to make sure she doesn't lose Scotty so he'll be at each place to see her as she goes through this act of pretending to be Madeline.
Hi KL, I`m sure you & your Mom would enjoy (The Thin Man) Series of Comedy/Mystery films from the `30`s & `40`s. They star William Powell, Myrna Loy & Asta the dog. I`m glad you both enjoyed this thriller classic.
Myrna: "Olay, but I think it's a rotten trick to bring me to New York just to make a widow out of me." Bill: "You won't be a widow for long." Myrna: "You're darn tootin' I won't'" Bill: "Not with YOUR money."
Always funny seeing people saying the ex cop with a mental break shouldn't be creepy to a murderer. You are the rare reactor that didn't fuss about Elster's wife being 26. Most find that creepy too.
I'm going to echo other comments and recommend The Shop Around the Corner and The Philadelphia Story! He has so many classics, but those two are adorable romantic comedies, and Shop Around the Corner is my favorite Christmas movie!
Hitchcock likes to manipulate his audience, just as Elster manipulated Judy/Madeline and then Jimmy Stewart manipulated Judy. In the first part of the film, Stewart is the victim and innocent and being manipulated - but in the second part of the film, it changes and now he is the one manipulating Judy. The film is also about obsessions. Stewart becomes obsessed by Madeline (he calls it love) and even after her death, he tries to bring her back to life by transforming Judy. The ending of the film shows that Stewart overcame his vertigo, altho he is probably a sadder but wiser person. The music is by Hitchcock’s frequent composer - Bernard Herrmann - who is well-known for the iconic music in Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” The swirl in Madeline’s hairstyle is a repeating motif, even the drive which she makes to Scottie’s apartment that seems confusing has been analyzed to show the drive is a swirl shape. Ernie’s was a real restaurant that was one of Hitchcock’s favorites and he and some of the cast did go there while filming. Note the frequent use of the colors red and green throughout the film. Red is associated with Scottie and green with Madeline until Scottie becomes obsessed and begins to have some associations with green.
Very nice reaction to a great movie. Looking forward to your next James Stewart / Alfred Hitchcock reaction. I have to warn you though - Hitchcock did "The Man Who Knew Too Much" twice. The first version was with Peter Lorre as the star. That was in 1934. The James Stewart version was from 1956, and is widely regarded to be the best version. Even Hitchcock himself said of the two, "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." So, please be sure your are careful in choosing the one you react to. Some other excellent James Stewart films, without Hitchcock, are "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (with John Wayne and Lee Marvin), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (another Frank Capra directed film), and "Harvey" (which might be good for Easter - can't say anything more without spoiling it).
There isn't such a thing as one best film of all time. However you probably missed some things such as the use of colour (red and green) which likely has symbolism through the film. The film frequently uses upward angles to emphasise towering height. The darkening scene when they hear about Carlotta's life. That both hero and villain make up Judy as the same person. Having an apparent death halfway through of the main character. Both hero and villain dress Judy up as Madelaine, as a film director would. Jimmy Stewart has one of his most complex roles in this film about tragic obsession. This was considered one of Hitchcock's most personal films. He took it out of circulation up to his death, as he did with Rope too (also well worth seeing). Another big film is Shadow of a Doubt which has been claimed as Hitchcock's favourite film. Rear Window very largely revolves around the main character, but Shadow, Vertigo and Rope are more about relationships.
Him falling in love with her was a snail's pace compared to the usual Hollywood "courting" phase. Typically it was "I love you, I love you, I can't live without you! And oh, by the way, what is your name?" Hollywood pushed the idea of instant and life-long true love for everyone, or at least the focus of a movie. As a result, this gave a lot of people the false impression that it was okay to rush into marriage, which in the era of few financial careers offered to women, kept them stuck in ghastly marriages. (A divorced woman, too, was a pariah because married women worried she would be too much of a temptation to pull her husband away. Including because a formerly married woman "had done it," was no longer a "good girl" - i.e. virgin.) Lots of good things about the past but an awful lot of bad things too, which get overlooked when looking through rose-colored glasses.
The revealing flashback when she wrote the letter was anticlimactic. Hitchcock avoided it for his next and best psychological movie: "Psycho" (1960). But in the middle, he made another hit with James Stewart: "North By Northwest" (1959).
@@hgus No, it explains to the audience what actually happened in the first half of the movie. We think the wife was possessed and killed herself, but this flashback tells us that didn't actually happen. Then the second half of the movie is all about "Will Scottie figure it out? Will Judy get away with it? Will Scottie's obsession result in actual love?" Once Scottie figures it out there is a lot of tension for the rest of the movie. What is he going to do? Is he going to confront her with the truth? Is he going to kill her? Will he keep quiet so he can continue his relationship with her? And once they get to the tower it's very stressful - you don't know if he plans to throw her off the tower when they get to the top or not. It's not like he can go to the cops - he has no proof and they would think he was crazy, just trying to absolve himself of his own guilt in Mrs. Elster's death. Him dragging Judy to the roof could only result in vigilante justice, not an arrest. Their final conversation is very tense because they have both told each other the truth and we don't know what happens next - do they stay together? Do they leave and never see each other again? Does he kill her? Like I said, he has no proof so arresting her is not part of his plan here.
I agree that the mid-movie reveal of Judy as Madeline was anticlimactic, and I actually read a review that opined just that. Hitchcock made a mistake by revealing too much too soon. Funny how Hitchcock fans get angry when I make that assertion. Hitchcock believed in keeping the audience informed and describes it in several interviews. He talks about it being essential in suspense and gives the example of "the bomb under the table". I get that. Hitchcock is right. However, I think it is improperly and unwisely applied in Vertigo. It would have been far more suspenseful to allow the "is she actually Madeline" question to continue. My creative writing teacher used to constantly say "don't reveal too much". Let the denoument unravel naturally. Now let the angry Hitchcock fans get all up in my face for daring to question his method 😂. I'm a big Hitchcock fan, but nobody's perfect.
Gavin (his "friend") also knew Scottie had a "thing" for blondes, because of Midge. My theory is Midge broke off their engagement after 3 weeks, as she knew she wasn't fulfilling his unrealistic fantasy. I love you said he was making up a doll for himself with Judy. 100%! I think that was Hitch's point!
Well if Midge would cultivate "that" side of herself. I.e. take off her glasses, put on some glamorous clothes, makeup, etc. Then Scottie might have seen her, and related to her, in a different light. Otherwise, she would never have gotten out of his "friend zone". She even painted herself in that Carlotta painting with glasses on! Remember the idea that the perfect wife is Julia Child in the kitchen, June Cleaver in the living room, and a whore in the bedroom. It is not unrealistic to see things this way. It's nature. It's unrealistic to see it as unrealistic.
Woman in the hotel/house where Carlotta lives was the woman in It's A Wonderful Life who asks Jimmy Stewart for only $17.50 and he reaches over and kisses the side of her face in the bank run scene.
I don't think that posters were produced for sale until the 70s... Watch Boogie Nights! Watch Jimmy Stewart with mom In "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" - Timely! (PS.... DO NOT watch Boogie Nights with MOM!)
“Vertigo” did not do as well at the Box Office as Hitchcock’s other thrillers, and Hitch blamed Jimmy Stewart, whom he believed was too old for the part. In truth, “Vertigo” was probably too personal of a film and too tragic of a story to gain easy public acceptance. Arguably, James Stewart gave the best performance of his career (aside from his performances in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “Anatomy of a Murder,” which were both flawless, IMO). Stewart lost the lead in “North by Northwest” because Hitchcock blamed him, unfairly, for “Vertigo.” Of course, Cary Grant was the perfect choice for “North by Northwest.”
Stewart played a career out of playing good and heroic characters (except for an early movie where he turns out to be the murderer, won't name it here to give it away) so him taking on this role was a stretch for him. For the first half of the film he's the typical heroic Stewart character - likeable, trying to help people, a strong romantic lead, etc. Then in the second half he becomes obsessed with Madeline - so much so that he meets a woman and forces her to change her entire appearance just so she'll look like the woman he's obsessed with. He becomes a very unlikable character - it's lucky for the viewer that the woman he meets is an accomplice to Madeline's murder so we don't feel as bad as we would if Judy was just some stranger with no connection to Madeline.
Yeah, you two really need to watch this again. And to all movie reactors, please stop trying to predict the story, you're almost always wrong and get very confused because of it. You're expectation aren't met and you get lost & miss so much. Just back off and let the mystery evolve; absorb it.
Trying to figure out what's going on, especially in a psychological thriller, is how we stay engaged with the film. We already barely talked during this movie, so if we weren't doing what we were doing, this comment would instead be complaining about how bored you were of our reaction because we didn't talk. 😁
@@kaiielle I wish I could have watched with you to help you out when you thought it possible that Scotty was in hospital the whole 1st half of movie, when Judy was reminiscing that it wasn't Scotty reminiscing, and when Scotty recognized the necklace in Judy's mirror that everything changed with Scotty right then. And yes, up to that moment, Scotty was still very dark and broken from his breakdown. This is a brilliant film but its a tricky watch. You had a lot of misplaced scenes & interpretations, I hope you do watch it again.
Jeez... you should probably stop watching movie reactions if someone misunderstanding a story during their first time watching it is going to get under your skin this much. 😂 When I edited this video, I had so much fun re-experiencing our thought processes and guesses about this story knowing how wrong we were in the end, because everything was already so much more clear on a second watch through (as most movies are, of course). This is a great memory I have with my mom and you're out here wishing you could have "helped" me. 🫠 So lame.
One thing that I don't like about this movie is how the woman, despite strong objections, gives into the guy in order to keep him. More a sign of the times than anything but still painful to watch. She can't admit the truth to him because in reality she was an accomplice to murder.
One reactor for the movie, forget who, suggested a theory I hadn't considered. That she is going with it out of guilt. That she is in a way punishing herself, or desiring his approval, for being an accomplice to murder. (And maybe also for damaging his fragile mental health) So "if I do this will you love me" can maybe be "If I do this will I have atoned" or something.
@@ThomasReeves-s7u Excellent point. The first time I watched this, years ago, I wanted this to be a happy ending and was crushed with what happens. But considering the Hays Code censorship at the time, she as a bad person, HAD to be punished somehow. (There is also a deleted scene with Johnny and Midge seen together and they hear on the radio that the husband had been arrested, but it clearly would have been anticlimactic and would have hurt the shock of the ending.
@@johnnehrich9601 Yeah. The husband not getting arrested was unusual at the time. Nowadays we're used to stories where the murderer gets away with it, but then it was seen as kind of immoral to end a story that way. (I feel like we're almost getting back to that as I've seen critics be mad when the movie ends with the "bad person", not necessarily a criminal even but say a bigot or narcissist, not getting a comeuppance.)
@@ThomasReeves-s7u Not quite, it was NOT ALLOWED under the strict rules of the Hays Code, in effect from the early '30's to 1969, when the current letter-rating system went into effect. Hitchcock did come up with a lot of ways to bypass these rules. For instance, the first scene ever showing a toilet being flushed was in his 1960 Psycho and Hitchcock got away with it by making it part of the plot. Scenes could not be too gory - again. Psycho stunned audiences then but has nothing on slasher films today with blood spraying everywhere. Even married couples could not be seen sleeping in the same bed, twin beds only. A classic like the 1939 Stagecoach leaves many modern day viewers puzzled because of the strange treatment each of the two women get. Audiences at the time would have immediately picked up that one was a prostitute and the other in the late stage of pregnancy (even a "baby bump" could not be shown and certainly not the word pregnant). Now Judy could have complied with the Code by being arrested but Hitchcock had to do something against her.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed you and your mothers' reaction to Vertigo. I am lukewarm to most of the rest of Hitchcocks' work, with the exceptions of North by Northwest, Psycho, and pre-war The 39 Steps. For more Jimmy Stewart I would sugest The Philadelphia Story and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
Scotty’s tragedy is that he needs to fall in love; he needs fantasy and illusion, he can’t love a normal woman like Midge, even though, leaving aside her dowdy clothes and glasses, she is a beautiful, accomplished woman. At the same time, I believe he unconsciously knows that “Madeleine” isn’t real, he knows he’s been conned, but is obsessed with recreating the fantasy woman that he fell in love with.
Your reaction was okay but interrupting the story just to predict how this will unfold will ruin a first time viewing. But i'm glad to hear you will watch it again. Judy would not tell Scottie as she was an accessory to the murder of the real Madeleine Elster. People give Scottie such a hard time because of his obsession when he try to change Judy into Madeleine. While nobody ever think of how she was responsible for changing him, as she triggered his obsession of his loss of “Madeleine”. She destoyed Scotties life, hence his nervous breakdown for almost a year. Judy was damaged goods. Too bad Gavin got away though.
I'm a big Jimmy Stewart fan, and a big fan of this movie, but his character in this one is not the nicest. If you want a palate cleanser, a fantastic movie that has a more Jimmy Stewart-y Jimmy Stewart is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It is an amazingly, and depressingly, topical film even though it was made in the 1930s. Edited to add: the word vertigo serves a dual purpose here, referring literally to vertigo as a health condition, but also as a metaphor for the vertiginous (vocab word), disorienting nature of the story.
You can watch a reaction with my Dad on the channel. I think I look like both of my parents, but more so my mom. You might be the first person in history to think I don't look like my mom!
Lol, much of the audience for the last 60 years didn't recognize that Judy was actually Madeline either. Until Hitchcock unwisely decided that he should very early on clue the audience in with the letter and flashback scene.
While this is a well shot, well acted and well directed movie the plot of the baddie to off his wife is insanely convoluted and requires a zillion things, things that cannot be controlled or predicted, go perfectly according to plan. That's almost enough for me to slap a "bad movie" label on this by itself. What pushes it over the top is that Barbara Bel Geddes is significantly more beautiful than Kim Novak, not that there's anything wrong with Kim Novak, but Geddes not being snapped up by Stewart's character is just suspension of disbelief breaking. Bad movie is bad, but pleasant to look at.
Your "pushing over the top" reason is confusing me a little bit, I might need clarification from you! John DID snap her up at one point, they were engaged for three weeks (and we don't know how long they were together before that). Midge broke off the engagement for reasons unknown to us. So it's completely understandable that John isn't interested in Midge anymore. And Midge's remorse about it is so clear in this movie, at least to me... perhaps because I have regretted ending a relationship with someone after the fact. I think that guilt can show on a face really well and Barbara Bel Geddes did a phenomenal job acting that regret that Midge has. EDIT: She's also jealous that John is interested in another woman, and I wouldn't be surprised if Midge feels like Madeleine is more beautiful than herself. Beauty is subjective at the end of the day, which impacts things. You might think Midge is more attractive than Madeleine, but that doesn't mean the character of John will think that too.
Elster's plan is not insanely convoluted. He wants to kill his wife without having her be murdered, so he finds someone to pretend to be his wife, and then finds an old friend to fool into thinking that Madeline really commits suicide. The Madeline that Scotty follows around is Judy, so all the time she's making sure that Scotty follows her to all of the pre-planned locations to convince him that Madeline is suicidal. I don't know much about Barbara Bel Geddes, but Novak is a beautiful woman, much more beautiful than a lot of other actresses at the time. Also, I just Googled "Barbara Bel Geddes" and saying she's more beautiful than Novak is crazy. "Bad movie is bad" 🤣
@@billolsen4360 Not really. He knows if he tells the authorities that his wife was delusional and thought she was being possessed without anyone to collaborate it, it would just be his word. He needed an impartial witness so he figured out how to get Scottie to find this out on his own - now Scottie will be able to confirm Elster's version of events. It's really clever to find a double for her so that Scottie never actually follows or meets the wife. If he ever did accidentally meet the wife she would be like "Who are you? I don't think I'm being possessed, what are you talking about?"
It's a polarizing movie and not for everyone. I think it's great, though. Definitely for me. And interestingly, lots of professional critics, who in 2011 voted Vertigo the greatest film of all time.
We had so much fun trying to figure out what was going on here! Looking forward to your comments below. ✌
My Mom and I watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: ua-cam.com/video/eAkkRS7DtGs/v-deo.html
My Dad and I watching Smokey and the Bandit: ua-cam.com/video/-s7nQh2FszA/v-deo.html
All links and info: kaiielle.com
I am happy your mom has returned as a guest to your UA-cam channel. She is a great person just like you.
You guys must remember, a man and wife got a baby sitter to go to a movie and dinner once a month maybe, they LOVED LONG MOVIES.........LOL, there was no internet, small towns had a couple theatres and that was it.
KL have you ever been to San Francisco? I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, grew up here....a lot of the places in the movie are still there. Unfortunately not Ernie's restaurant, it closed when I was in HS (graduated 1996). I think it's an art gallery now. lol. The Legion of Honor (an art museum) and Palace of Fine Arts (an area with Greek columns and arches, built in early 1900s for the Pan Am Exposition) are beautiful 🙂 The Bay Area is famously liberal (as am I), politically aligned with the EU (and Canada). 🙂 The population density in SF itself is actually greater than London! Although obviously more people total live in London. 🙂
Mission San Juan Bautista very much exists, but it's 96 miles (154 km) south of SF. 🙂
Maybe you and your mom should start watching Bond movies too, starting with Dr. No. 🙂
Your mother was right, the woman at the hotel desk was Ellen Corby who played Grandma Walton. You may remember her from "It's a Wonderful Life" in the bank run scene as the woman who asked for just $17.50 and earned an unscripted kiss from Jimmy Stewart.
This is a great psychological thriller that messes with your mind until the very last minute!
TOTALLY!! So good.
Vertigo is the most polarizing of Hitchcock's films, but now is his most critically acclaimed film. In 2011 or so a survey of film critics named Vertigo the greatest film of all time, knocking Citizen Kane off the perch it had sat on since probably 1940 or so. Its my #3 behind North by Northwest and Rear Window.
For me, it’s North by Northwest, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, The Birds, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Lifeboat, Foreign Correspondent. He made many masterpieces.
Arguably Hitchcock's finest.
An absolute classic
Incredible soundtrack. Bernard Herrmann. 😃
he is the best
I have a limited edition 'Mysterious Island' Blu-Ray I ordered years ago... love that Bernard Herrmann soundtrack.
That was a delightful and dizzying experience, thank you Mom L and KL...
So many b&w Jimmy Stewart movies you haven't seen: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; The Philadelphia Story; Destry Rides Again; The Shop Around the Corner to name a few.
And also How The West Was Won.
@@mrcapra Also, “Anatomy of a Murder,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “Harvey,” “Winchester ‘73,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Naked Spur,” and many more.
Ladies thank you so much for watching this!! Absolute classic masterpiece. I was born in 1970 so I am old enough to remember the Waltons and Dallas too.
Watching this with your mom made this reaction is very special to me I used to watch this and other great movies with my mom all the time (though I am a gentleman and not a lady). My mom died at age 90 earlier this year.
All the locations in this movie are real and with the exception of two are still standing.
Ernie’s closed in the 80s and my mom went there with her first husband for most of her nice meals. The McKittrick hotel was torn down in the 90s and may not have been in use for years before. The Redwood Forest they went to with the slice from the really old tree is Big Basin about 40 miles SW of San Jose CA. Sadly much of it completely burned just a few years ago, but it’s reopen to the public now.
I really hope you do watch Rear Window. It was my first Hitchcock movie and my mom’s favorite. I think you’ll both enjoy it.
I know Scotty gets a lot of flack for trying to made Judy in the image of Madeline and rightly so, but consider things from his perspective too. You are madly in love with a haunted person who dies because of your inability to act. This drives you so crazy you spend time in a facility and when you get out you do nothing but see her face wherever you go. Finally you see some that doesn’t look like her (which is easy) but talks, sounds and acts EXACTLY like her because she IS her. Is it that hard to understand why such a poor crazy guy would try to see if she could look like her to? Still not right, but perhaps a bit more understandable.
Thank you! Rear Window is already on my channel reacted to by me. I told my Mom she should watch it though!
Anatomy of a Murder is my favorite Jimmy Stewart film, my favorite B&W, and my favorite film from the 50s. It is also IMHO the greatest and most accurate courtroom cinema film. And it does have Hitchcock-esque twists.
But what really makes it special for me is that it's a comedic drama, and the comedy is perfect for the story and the context. It's one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema. The only reason it's so underrated is because it's a murder mystery and not a Hitchcock.
Agree completely -- plus it has a tremendous cast, from top to bottom, and great music (by Duke Ellington, who even has a cameo).
@@anthonyleecollins9319 Yes on both counts!
Anatomy had Lee Remick, that's what made it for me!
@@billolsen4360 She's clearly a class act, and died too young at 55 of kidney cancer that didn't respond well to treatment. Anatomy was only her fourth film out of 58 + one miniseries. Beside Anatomy, as far as I can remember i've only seen her in Omen, and i don't even remember that very well. I feel like i have seen The Detective (1968), but can't remember a thing about it.
Scottie attended college in Berkeley under the GI bill after he served in WWII, since that was the top criminology school at the time. Midge was a 19-year-old student there and fell for him. Tossed out of the script later.
Such a unique movie. 'Rope' and 'The Man Who Knew too Much' are excellent movies. Also check out 'North by Northwest', a real classic. So many good Hitchcock movies. Enjoyed your reaction.
Dorris Day... Que Sera, Sera... That scene haunts me from childhood!
Should do the original version with Peter Lorre first.
MARNIE 1964
@@lukebarton5075 Peter Lorre, the Mexican General.
To me it's a masterpiece.Gavin was an old friend not a close friend, As for falling for Kim so fast, well she was gorgeous and his initial fascination became love then obsession. Judy couldn't tell him the truth as she was an accomplice to murder. That's probably why she had to die for her crime. Great film. The wild plot, the fantastic acting, Bernard Herrmann's score, Edith Head's costumes, Robert Burks stunning photography, and of course Hitchcock's brilliant direction. All Stewart's work with Hitchcock is terrific. He's good with Doris Day in The Man Who Knew Too Much ... Mom will enjoy it too.
.
San Francisco was so beautiful.
Was.
@@JT-rx1eo it's full of homeless and looters now.
Yeah, bring her back for more classics.
Great reacton KL! I love this movie. A lot of reactors don't recognize Kim Novak as Judy and gets surprised when it is revelead it's the same actress. I believe Hitchcock invented that vertigo camera shot.
I just saw a great Jimmy Stewart movie the other day. 'You can't take it with you' from 1938 (best picture Oscar winner). I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Doing a Hitchcock run with your mom, to culminate in Mel Brooks' High Anxiety (which spoofs a ton of Hitchcock) would be pretty great 👍
I'll have to see if she's seen that one or not!
If you like James Stewart, please consider watching The shop around the corner. He's quite young and it's a delightful comedy.
Mom, " I grew up on that damn chair." 😂😂😂😂
The manager of the hotel - Esther "Grandma" Walton
Nice reaction, ladies. This is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film, because it is the most personal for the director. Whether he was aware of it or not, he was essentially making a movie about himself and what he did to movie stars. The Hitchcock "cool blonde" an iconic element of his films as you will see continuing your journey through his work. He took and transformed these women like like Scotty transformed Judy, and they let themselves be transformed. This reached an uncomfortable point once it got to one of his later "blondes", which I won't go into here.
That was a fun reaction. My friend Dorothy's father wrote the music for this film. Vertigo is definitely a more than once watch because the imagery and framing all follow the thematic elements of obsession and the meaning of the title is less a physical state of being, but an emotional one because Scottie throughout has an emotional imbalance and the visuals hint at that too. Did you see more of that when you edited ir?
For the next reaction with Mom definitely Hitchcock's brilliant NOTORIOUS (1946).
Stop it! Her dad was Bernard Hermann? I'm SUCH a huge fan! Genius!
When you watch Hitchcock films, always look for his cameo. In several of his films he appeared just for a couple of moments. I watched this a couple of times before I found it. It's like playing, "Where's Waldo?"
He told her about the painting after they went to the historical expert. She wanted him back. She wanted to be as much an obsession as Madeleine was.
Loved this reaction; loved the mother/daughter takes/outtakes.
Thanks for this reaction. This is an absolute classic with many wonderful features, including Herrmann’s great, pseudo-Wagnerian score. Nevertheless, when the 2012 Sight & Sound poll named this the greatest film of all time, actor Alan Arkin opined that this is not the greatest film ever, not one of the 500 greatest films, not Hitchcock’s greatest film, etc. One UA-camr called it the most perverse film ever to come out of Hollywood. Personal connection: In about 1980, I saw Henry Jones (coroner) at the Tower Records in Westwood, CA.
Great reaction, Ladies!!! Jimmy Stewart starred in a really good comedy film with Maureen O'Hara, Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962).
This is one of the rare movies from this time where the villain gets away with it. Elster has already left the country, his wife's death has been declared a suicide, and even if Scotty goes to the authorities to tell them what really happened, there's no proof that Elster killed his wife. All the police would have is Scotty's word, and he just got out of a mental hospital.
According to Wikipedia there was an alternate ending shot where Scotty and Midge listened on the radio to reports that Elster was being chased across Europe for his wife's murder and was about to be caught. But Hitchcock fought off the studio's insistence for this and it was not used. But movies in these days always had the villain being caught - the idea that someone could murder someone and get away with it was unheard of.
I still think the nuns should block off public access to that tower. That's 2 women now!
@@billolsen4360 Yes, now that it's happened twice, they will probably lock that door. This has probably not been an issue before the events of this film.
Such a fun reaction!
I wish I could live in this time period when everything was more simple.
I also love detective work when private investigator's approach they're work differently.
Great reaction/review! The discussion afterwards was fun. By the way there have been magazines about movie stars since the silent movies. Fans would tear out full page pictures of the stars and pin them to the wall. The studios would distribute glossies of their stars. The bathing suit poster of Betty Grable made in 1943 made her the most famous pin-up girl of the WW II era. In "Singin' in the Rain" Debbie Reynolds' character talks about the movie star magazines.
Hitchcock said this is a story of obsession.
He recognized the necklace in the mirror and that's when he realized he'd been played. And also the part where Carlotta was at the window was part of Scotty's nightmare. Remember when they showed him lying in bed asleep & then they show him waking up in bed and sitting up in terror? The shots in between with all the weird visuals is him having a dream/nightmare. And the reason they show so much of him following her is she's slowly leading him down into the abyss. So he's falling and not even realizing it. And Jimmy Stewart was never a poster on any young girl's wall. He was very popular but not in a sex symbol way. He was the ordinary guy that everybody could relate to. Also, Vertigo WAS voted the best movie ever made by Sight & Sound Magazine (every 10 years they do a poll of leading movie critics & I believe Vertigo has won the last two polls). And finally, The Man Who Knew Too Much & Rope are good movies but they are not considered to be in the same league as Vertigo & Rear Window so you've seen the two best Hitchcock/Jimmy Stewart collaborations. Anyway, enjoyed your reaction!
I choose to believe Scotty subconsciously knew that he had been conned, which is why he was obsessed with turning Judy into Madeleine.
There is even a hint of that during the his nightmare after the inquest, when he sees Elster standing in the window with Carlotta.
Probably my favourite Hitchcock. Marnie is another great psychological thriller you might enjoy.
The famous red-themed restaurant was located at 847 Montgomery Street, Ernie's Restaurant was a popular landmark in San Francisco for over 60 years and eventually closed in 1995.
Thanks KL and KL's mom!
Vertigo is actually dizzyness on steroids, it's like being stuck in a giant washing machine, have it myself :(
I’m enjoying watching the birth of the KL Movie Classics channel. Seriously, I’m a big James Stewart fan and I swear, this is his most unsettling performance. Even if it’s explained, his character is so obsessed, it’s creepy. Given Hitchcock’s own obsessions, it’s at least disquieting.
Hitchcock stuff I’d recommend is Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief. If you want more James Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story and Harvey are musts.
Whatever is next, enjoy it.
What a great movie. I love that it sneaks in thematic stuff about obsession and control in the guise of a mystery. I think there's some symbolic stuff with the colours red and green but I can't quite work it out!
Judy went along with the Madeleine makeover because she truly loved Johnny and was willing to do what he asked just to be with him.
We get that. Still gross. 😂
@@kaiielle Oh, I thought you’d expressed some questions about her motivation during the reaction, like maybe she was trying to play him. But, yes, it’s heartbreaking to see the lengths she was going to just to be loved by him again-even completely giving up on being loved for herself rather than as a stand-in for Madeleine.
@@kaiielle It is gross, but Judy still loves Scottie and wants to be with him, and this is the only way she can get him to do this.
And for Scotty, he's still in love with Madeline and can't get over her. He's obsessed with her. If it wasn't Judy he would eventually find some other woman who looked like her and tried to change her to look exactly like Madeline.
@@jhornacek What most people forget when there ill at ease with the makeover is that Judy was a willing accessory to Madeline's murder, but she still gets all this sympathy.
@@billolsen4360 Does Judy always know that the husband planned to kill his wife? I got the impression that she didn't know he was going to kill her until she got to the top of the tower and he threw the wife out the window. That's why she screams - because she didn't know this was going to happen. We see in the flashbacks that the husband grabs here and hold her so she can't react or do anything - she didn't know this was going to happen.
That weird scene was his NIGHTMARE. Fantastic and weird imagery, seeing Carlotta with Elster, all of it a dream.
Watching now on TCM on Demand. I like the cinematography and mood music. Captures San Francisco back in the day
No, Vertigo is the best movie ever made.
It's funny watching you two watch the first half of the movie where you say that Scotty isn't doing a good job of following Madeline and that she's going to realize she's being followed. On a rewatch you realize that she *does* know she's been followed.
We never see the real Madeline until the flashback of Elster throwing her off the tower - every time we see Scotty following Madeline he's actually following Judy, who knows that Scotty is following her. She likely has a list of places to go - written by Elster - and instructions to make sure she doesn't lose Scotty so he'll be at each place to see her as she goes through this act of pretending to be Madeline.
His character is named John Furgeson, but some of his close friends call him 'Scottie".
Hi KL, I`m sure you & your Mom would enjoy (The Thin Man) Series of Comedy/Mystery films from the `30`s & `40`s. They star William Powell, Myrna Loy & Asta the dog. I`m glad you both enjoyed this thriller classic.
Myrna: "Olay, but I think it's a rotten trick to bring me to New York just to make a widow out of me."
Bill: "You won't be a widow for long."
Myrna: "You're darn tootin' I won't'"
Bill: "Not with YOUR money."
Check out "Rope" and "the man that knew too much". Both star Jimmy Stewart.
More you and Mom. First Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, one of my favorite movies and then this gem with the naughty Letterbox. Had me in 🤣
Always funny seeing people saying the ex cop with a mental break shouldn't be creepy to a murderer. You are the rare reactor that didn't fuss about Elster's wife being 26. Most find that creepy too.
You need to watch Harvey, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I'm going to echo other comments and recommend The Shop Around the Corner and The Philadelphia Story! He has so many classics, but those two are adorable romantic comedies, and Shop Around the Corner is my favorite Christmas movie!
Cool movie - also first use of CGI in cinema. Seriously - those weird patterns in the opening credits were generated by a computer.
If you love Jimmy Stewart, you should watch Harvey. He always said that it was his favorite role.
Shout out to Barbara Bel Geddes!
Hitchcock likes to manipulate his audience, just as Elster manipulated Judy/Madeline and then Jimmy Stewart manipulated Judy. In the first part of the film, Stewart is the victim and innocent and being manipulated - but in the second part of the film, it changes and now he is the one manipulating Judy.
The film is also about obsessions. Stewart becomes obsessed by Madeline (he calls it love) and even after her death, he tries to bring her back to life by transforming Judy.
The ending of the film shows that Stewart overcame his vertigo, altho he is probably a sadder but wiser person.
The music is by Hitchcock’s frequent composer - Bernard Herrmann - who is well-known for the iconic music in Hitchcock’s “Psycho.”
The swirl in Madeline’s hairstyle is a repeating motif, even the drive which she makes to Scottie’s apartment that seems confusing has been analyzed to show the drive is a swirl shape.
Ernie’s was a real restaurant that was one of Hitchcock’s favorites and he and some of the cast did go there while filming.
Note the frequent use of the colors red and green throughout the film. Red is associated with Scottie and green with Madeline until Scottie becomes obsessed and begins to have some associations with green.
Gotta see Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, Jimmy Stewart's other famous works, and Wait Until Dark!
Very nice reaction to a great movie. Looking forward to your next James Stewart / Alfred Hitchcock reaction. I have to warn you though - Hitchcock did "The Man Who Knew Too Much" twice. The first version was with Peter Lorre as the star. That was in 1934. The James Stewart version was from 1956, and is widely regarded to be the best version. Even Hitchcock himself said of the two, "Let's say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional." So, please be sure your are careful in choosing the one you react to.
Some other excellent James Stewart films, without Hitchcock, are "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (with John Wayne and Lee Marvin), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (another Frank Capra directed film), and "Harvey" (which might be good for Easter - can't say anything more without spoiling it).
Posters were definitely a thing back then! Look up the term "pin-up girl"
There isn't such a thing as one best film of all time. However you probably missed some things such as the use of colour (red and green) which likely has symbolism through the film. The film frequently uses upward angles to emphasise towering height. The darkening scene when they hear about Carlotta's life. That both hero and villain make up Judy as the same person. Having an apparent death halfway through of the main character. Both hero and villain dress Judy up as Madelaine, as a film director would.
Jimmy Stewart has one of his most complex roles in this film about tragic obsession. This was considered one of Hitchcock's most personal films. He took it out of circulation up to his death, as he did with Rope too (also well worth seeing).
Another big film is Shadow of a Doubt which has been claimed as Hitchcock's favourite film. Rear Window very largely revolves around the main character, but Shadow, Vertigo and Rope are more about relationships.
More Mom is a good thing.
Him falling in love with her was a snail's pace compared to the usual Hollywood "courting" phase. Typically it was "I love you, I love you, I can't live without you! And oh, by the way, what is your name?" Hollywood pushed the idea of instant and life-long true love for everyone, or at least the focus of a movie. As a result, this gave a lot of people the false impression that it was okay to rush into marriage, which in the era of few financial careers offered to women, kept them stuck in ghastly marriages. (A divorced woman, too, was a pariah because married women worried she would be too much of a temptation to pull her husband away. Including because a formerly married woman "had done it," was no longer a "good girl" - i.e. virgin.)
Lots of good things about the past but an awful lot of bad things too, which get overlooked when looking through rose-colored glasses.
Another film that people think is a Hitchcock film is CHARADE, with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. You should definately watch it. It's excellent.
ah, well now you can watch Basic Instinct. and maybe Twin Peaks :P
Basic Instinct is very influenced by this film . It even has the 180 city pan!
The revealing flashback when she wrote the letter was anticlimactic. Hitchcock avoided it for his next and best psychological movie: "Psycho" (1960). But in the middle, he made another hit with James Stewart: "North By Northwest" (1959).
How was it anticlimatic? It explained to the audience what actually happened in the first half of the movie.
No, North By Northwest starred Cary Grant, not Stewart.
@@jhornacek Exactly. And that kills the surprise for the last scene.
@@hgus No, it explains to the audience what actually happened in the first half of the movie. We think the wife was possessed and killed herself, but this flashback tells us that didn't actually happen. Then the second half of the movie is all about "Will Scottie figure it out? Will Judy get away with it? Will Scottie's obsession result in actual love?"
Once Scottie figures it out there is a lot of tension for the rest of the movie. What is he going to do? Is he going to confront her with the truth? Is he going to kill her? Will he keep quiet so he can continue his relationship with her? And once they get to the tower it's very stressful - you don't know if he plans to throw her off the tower when they get to the top or not. It's not like he can go to the cops - he has no proof and they would think he was crazy, just trying to absolve himself of his own guilt in Mrs. Elster's death. Him dragging Judy to the roof could only result in vigilante justice, not an arrest.
Their final conversation is very tense because they have both told each other the truth and we don't know what happens next - do they stay together? Do they leave and never see each other again? Does he kill her? Like I said, he has no proof so arresting her is not part of his plan here.
I agree that the mid-movie reveal of Judy as Madeline was anticlimactic, and I actually read a review that opined just that. Hitchcock made a mistake by revealing too much too soon. Funny how Hitchcock fans get angry when I make that assertion. Hitchcock believed in keeping the audience informed and describes it in several interviews. He talks about it being essential in suspense and gives the example of "the bomb under the table". I get that. Hitchcock is right. However, I think it is improperly and unwisely applied in Vertigo. It would have been far more suspenseful to allow the "is she actually Madeline" question to continue. My creative writing teacher used to constantly say "don't reveal too much". Let the denoument unravel naturally. Now let the angry Hitchcock fans get all up in my face for daring to question his method 😂. I'm a big Hitchcock fan, but nobody's perfect.
Now you need to watch Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety"...
How did Scotty get off the roof? Some people believe he didn’t.
Gavin (his "friend") also knew Scottie had a "thing" for blondes, because of Midge. My theory is Midge broke off their engagement after 3 weeks, as she knew she wasn't fulfilling his unrealistic fantasy. I love you said he was making up a doll for himself with Judy. 100%! I think that was Hitch's point!
Well if Midge would cultivate "that" side of herself. I.e. take off her glasses, put on some glamorous clothes, makeup, etc. Then Scottie might have seen her, and related to her, in a different light. Otherwise, she would never have gotten out of his "friend zone". She even painted herself in that Carlotta painting with glasses on! Remember the idea that the perfect wife is Julia Child in the kitchen, June Cleaver in the living room, and a whore in the bedroom. It is not unrealistic to see things this way. It's nature. It's unrealistic to see it as unrealistic.
Woman in the hotel/house where Carlotta lives was the woman in It's A Wonderful Life who asks Jimmy Stewart for only $17.50 and he reaches over and kisses the side of her face in the bank run scene.
I don't think that posters were produced for sale until the 70s... Watch Boogie Nights! Watch Jimmy Stewart with mom In "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" - Timely! (PS.... DO NOT watch Boogie Nights with MOM!)
“Vertigo” did not do as well at the Box Office as Hitchcock’s other thrillers, and Hitch blamed Jimmy Stewart, whom he believed was too old for the part.
In truth, “Vertigo” was probably too personal of a film and too tragic of a story to gain easy public acceptance.
Arguably, James Stewart gave the best performance of his career (aside from his performances in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and “Anatomy of a Murder,” which were both flawless, IMO).
Stewart lost the lead in “North by Northwest” because Hitchcock blamed him, unfairly, for “Vertigo.” Of course, Cary Grant was the perfect choice for “North by Northwest.”
SO many non-Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart movies. :Mr Smith Goes to Washington is his 2nd most iconic film.
Jimmy Stewart always worked well with Capra directing.
Stewart played a career out of playing good and heroic characters (except for an early movie where he turns out to be the murderer, won't name it here to give it away) so him taking on this role was a stretch for him. For the first half of the film he's the typical heroic Stewart character - likeable, trying to help people, a strong romantic lead, etc. Then in the second half he becomes obsessed with Madeline - so much so that he meets a woman and forces her to change her entire appearance just so she'll look like the woman he's obsessed with. He becomes a very unlikable character - it's lucky for the viewer that the woman he meets is an accomplice to Madeline's murder so we don't feel as bad as we would if Judy was just some stranger with no connection to Madeline.
Scottie is short for John.
Each woman calls him by a different name. To reflect the characters
Yeah, you two really need to watch this again. And to all movie reactors, please stop trying to predict the story, you're almost always wrong and get very confused because of it. You're expectation aren't met and you get lost & miss so much. Just back off and let the mystery evolve; absorb it.
Trying to figure out what's going on, especially in a psychological thriller, is how we stay engaged with the film. We already barely talked during this movie, so if we weren't doing what we were doing, this comment would instead be complaining about how bored you were of our reaction because we didn't talk. 😁
@@kaiielle I wish I could have watched with you to help you out when you thought it possible that Scotty was in hospital the whole 1st half of movie, when Judy was reminiscing that it wasn't Scotty reminiscing, and when Scotty recognized the necklace in Judy's mirror that everything changed with Scotty right then. And yes, up to that moment, Scotty was still very dark and broken from his breakdown. This is a brilliant film but its a tricky watch. You had a lot of misplaced scenes & interpretations, I hope you do watch it again.
Jeez... you should probably stop watching movie reactions if someone misunderstanding a story during their first time watching it is going to get under your skin this much. 😂 When I edited this video, I had so much fun re-experiencing our thought processes and guesses about this story knowing how wrong we were in the end, because everything was already so much more clear on a second watch through (as most movies are, of course). This is a great memory I have with my mom and you're out here wishing you could have "helped" me. 🫠 So lame.
The girl who plays Midge is SO much more beautiful. He should have stayed with her.
Midge ended their engagement, though. How many of us would run back to someone who ended our planned marriage?
Nobody told me kaiielle's mom is smokin hot 😍
One thing that I don't like about this movie is how the woman, despite strong objections, gives into the guy in order to keep him. More a sign of the times than anything but still painful to watch.
She can't admit the truth to him because in reality she was an accomplice to murder.
One reactor for the movie, forget who, suggested a theory I hadn't considered. That she is going with it out of guilt. That she is in a way punishing herself, or desiring his approval, for being an accomplice to murder. (And maybe also for damaging his fragile mental health) So "if I do this will you love me" can maybe be "If I do this will I have atoned" or something.
@@ThomasReeves-s7u Excellent point. The first time I watched this, years ago, I wanted this to be a happy ending and was crushed with what happens. But considering the Hays Code censorship at the time, she as a bad person, HAD to be punished somehow. (There is also a deleted scene with Johnny and Midge seen together and they hear on the radio that the husband had been arrested, but it clearly would have been anticlimactic and would have hurt the shock of the ending.
@@johnnehrich9601 Yeah. The husband not getting arrested was unusual at the time. Nowadays we're used to stories where the murderer gets away with it, but then it was seen as kind of immoral to end a story that way. (I feel like we're almost getting back to that as I've seen critics be mad when the movie ends with the "bad person", not necessarily a criminal even but say a bigot or narcissist, not getting a comeuppance.)
@@ThomasReeves-s7u Not quite, it was NOT ALLOWED under the strict rules of the Hays Code, in effect from the early '30's to 1969, when the current letter-rating system went into effect. Hitchcock did come up with a lot of ways to bypass these rules. For instance, the first scene ever showing a toilet being flushed was in his 1960 Psycho and Hitchcock got away with it by making it part of the plot. Scenes could not be too gory - again. Psycho stunned audiences then but has nothing on slasher films today with blood spraying everywhere. Even married couples could not be seen sleeping in the same bed, twin beds only. A classic like the 1939 Stagecoach leaves many modern day viewers puzzled because of the strange treatment each of the two women get. Audiences at the time would have immediately picked up that one was a prostitute and the other in the late stage of pregnancy (even a "baby bump" could not be shown and certainly not the word pregnant).
Now Judy could have complied with the Code by being arrested but Hitchcock had to do something against her.
@@johnnehrich9601 "The current letter rating," of course, was a device that Hollywood used to allow itself to produce porn.
Check out Robocop 2.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed you and your mothers' reaction to Vertigo. I am lukewarm to most of the rest of Hitchcocks' work, with the exceptions of North by Northwest, Psycho, and pre-war The 39 Steps. For more Jimmy Stewart I would sugest The Philadelphia Story and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.
Scotty’s tragedy is that he needs to fall in love; he needs fantasy and illusion, he can’t love a normal woman like Midge, even though, leaving aside her dowdy clothes and glasses, she is a beautiful, accomplished woman.
At the same time, I believe he unconsciously knows that “Madeleine” isn’t real, he knows he’s been conned, but is obsessed with recreating the fantasy woman that he fell in love with.
Your reaction was okay but interrupting the story just to predict how this will unfold will ruin a first time viewing. But i'm glad to hear you will watch it again. Judy would not tell Scottie as she was an accessory to the murder of the real Madeleine Elster. People give Scottie such a hard time because of his obsession when he try to change Judy into Madeleine. While nobody ever think of how she was responsible for changing him, as she triggered his obsession of his loss of “Madeleine”. She destoyed Scotties life, hence his nervous breakdown for almost a year. Judy was damaged goods. Too bad Gavin got away though.
Apologies - thinking about where the story may go is how I engage with stories. Even when I'm reading. And especially with mysteries!
I'm a big Jimmy Stewart fan, and a big fan of this movie, but his character in this one is not the nicest. If you want a palate cleanser, a fantastic movie that has a more Jimmy Stewart-y Jimmy Stewart is Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It is an amazingly, and depressingly, topical film even though it was made in the 1930s.
Edited to add: the word vertigo serves a dual purpose here, referring literally to vertigo as a health condition, but also as a metaphor for the vertiginous (vocab word), disorienting nature of the story.
girl, are you adopted or you look like your dad?
You can watch a reaction with my Dad on the channel. I think I look like both of my parents, but more so my mom. You might be the first person in history to think I don't look like my mom!
how can your mom have gray hair and still be young🤔 you watched this you should watch the parody movie high anxiety by mel brooks
What do you mean? There are many people in the world who start turning gray in their 30s. My mom was one of them.
Your mom's do is very attractive.
He didn't recognize that Judy is Madeline! So ridiculous and ruined the whole film for me! I love Hitch's movies but this one one big hot-mess!
No, it's not.
Lol, much of the audience for the last 60 years didn't recognize that Judy was actually Madeline either. Until Hitchcock unwisely decided that he should very early on clue the audience in with the letter and flashback scene.
While this is a well shot, well acted and well directed movie the plot of the baddie to off his wife is insanely convoluted and requires a zillion things, things that cannot be controlled or predicted, go perfectly according to plan. That's almost enough for me to slap a "bad movie" label on this by itself. What pushes it over the top is that Barbara Bel Geddes is significantly more beautiful than Kim Novak, not that there's anything wrong with Kim Novak, but Geddes not being snapped up by Stewart's character is just suspension of disbelief breaking. Bad movie is bad, but pleasant to look at.
Your "pushing over the top" reason is confusing me a little bit, I might need clarification from you! John DID snap her up at one point, they were engaged for three weeks (and we don't know how long they were together before that). Midge broke off the engagement for reasons unknown to us. So it's completely understandable that John isn't interested in Midge anymore. And Midge's remorse about it is so clear in this movie, at least to me... perhaps because I have regretted ending a relationship with someone after the fact. I think that guilt can show on a face really well and Barbara Bel Geddes did a phenomenal job acting that regret that Midge has. EDIT: She's also jealous that John is interested in another woman, and I wouldn't be surprised if Midge feels like Madeleine is more beautiful than herself. Beauty is subjective at the end of the day, which impacts things. You might think Midge is more attractive than Madeleine, but that doesn't mean the character of John will think that too.
Elster's plan is not insanely convoluted. He wants to kill his wife without having her be murdered, so he finds someone to pretend to be his wife, and then finds an old friend to fool into thinking that Madeline really commits suicide. The Madeline that Scotty follows around is Judy, so all the time she's making sure that Scotty follows her to all of the pre-planned locations to convince him that Madeline is suicidal.
I don't know much about Barbara Bel Geddes, but Novak is a beautiful woman, much more beautiful than a lot of other actresses at the time. Also, I just Googled "Barbara Bel Geddes" and saying she's more beautiful than Novak is crazy.
"Bad movie is bad" 🤣
@@jhornacek Okay, then, Elster's plan is DAMN convoluted.
@@billolsen4360 Not really. He knows if he tells the authorities that his wife was delusional and thought she was being possessed without anyone to collaborate it, it would just be his word. He needed an impartial witness so he figured out how to get Scottie to find this out on his own - now Scottie will be able to confirm Elster's version of events.
It's really clever to find a double for her so that Scottie never actually follows or meets the wife. If he ever did accidentally meet the wife she would be like "Who are you? I don't think I'm being possessed, what are you talking about?"
I love me a slow burn, but Vertigo is on a whole 'nother level. Tried watching it once and I had to bail halfway through. 🫠
Huh?
It's a polarizing movie and not for everyone. I think it's great, though. Definitely for me. And interestingly, lots of professional critics, who in 2011 voted Vertigo the greatest film of all time.