Films/DVD Asylum

Hitchcock on HDNET and Vertigo

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This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

I think HDNET comes standard on a minimum subscription to the cable service of your choice. I've had it for more than a decade with two different cable services...(first Dish, now FIOS)

Anyway, I noticed that there were several Hitchcock movies being broadcast on HDNET. HDNET showings are uninterrupted movies. There are no commercial breaks within a movie. So I check this station often for my dvr recording schedules. I recorded several of these Hitchcock showings. All HD presentations. Nicely restored movies. And I just left these recordings on the DVR to be viewed at a later date when the urge to view presented itself.

Among the showings were; Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Topaz...and a few others that may have escaped my memory. (not hard to escape that)

Last night I played by my recording of Vertigo. I haven't sat through this movie in decades. But boy does this one glue you to your seat and keep you focused. I enjoyed it very much. Kim Novak, Jimmie Stewart. Electrical.

I think the real magnetism here is coming from Kim Novak. What was it about this actress? She's not a particularly great actress. Not the most beautiful, but certainly does command the screen...and the camera does like her. Here, in this movie,she's perfect.

Plot elements:
Protagonist Stewart, retired police detective John "Scottie" Fergusen, is susceptible to certain mental illnesses such as acrophobia and vertigo. As the movie progresses we also see that he's susceptible toward complete social withdrawal and hallucinations.

Long time (old college buddy) friend asks him to keep an eye on his wife 'Madeleine' whom he suspects is suffering from strange hallucinations and may attempt suicide. The friend wants further evidence to determine if she should be committed to an asylum or not. After some initial refusals, Steward ultimately agrees to observe and report on the wife's comings and goings.

I will attempt not to deliver any spoilers, but beware I may reveal a bit too much.

After several observations Ferguson comes to understand Madelein's condition; She seems to come under the influence of the spirit of her long deceased great grandmother; one Carlotta Valdes who died prematurely in the 1850s San Francisco area. Or at least, she seems to have spells when she believes that she is Carlotta. It is during these times that the husband fears she will commit suicide as Carlotta had over a century before.

From here the going gets strange. What seems to have been really wasn't. Ferguson's Vertigo is a prominent factor in the events of what happens next. There is death. There are legal proceedings and judgments which absolve Ferguson of any guilt, while commenting negatively against his inability to prevent the death. There is a period of psychosis. Then a recovery. There are revelations that indicate something more. What was was an accident may have been murder. And it goes on from there.

A true spellbinder if ever there were.

Recommended.

-Steve

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