WORDS Evans Bailey
No biggie. All you have to do is work up the intestinal fortitude to lift up that rock you’ve been living under and get your vitamin D-deficient ass to the Capri Theatre on July 18 at 7:30. Bring some cash because you are going to need a beer or two (or five) to calm your nerves during the nail-biter that is Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Jimmy Stewart (against type and, in 1958, 19 years removed from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) plays a talented policeman forced into early retirement after a rooftop chase unearths his debilitating vertigo and acrophobia. He doesn’t stay retired for long. Upon the advice of his ex-fiancée Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes), he decides to get some stimulation in his life and takes a private eye job helping his old college pal, Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore). Gavin wants Stewart’s former cop skills to help him figure out what on earth is going on with his wife (Kim Novak). She’s disappearing for long periods of time and unusually immersed in her family’s tragic history. Is the supernatural at play, as Gavin suggests, or is it simply madness?
There’s really only four characters in the film (or is it five?), and the big mystery gets revealed about halfway through. But it’s where Hitchcock takes Stewart’s character and the audience from there that’s led many far more established, experienced, talented, and better-paid critics to laud this picture as his magnum opus. Hitchcock weaves a ghost story, a love triangle (or rectangle?), drowning, falling, and intense psychological suspense with vivid scenes of 1950’s San Francisco to create a truly unforgettable film.
You like good things (you are reading MADE aren’t you). Gather all the change under your rock and go see Vertigo when it comes to the Capri.
I’m not kidding about needing the beer.