Vertigo on PAL Laserdisc

• Cat.no: PLFEB 37111
• Cert: PG
• Running time: 124 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1958
• Pressing: 1998
• Chapters: 35 (16/19)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 1.85:1 (VistaVision)
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : None
  

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  Director:

  Alfred Hitchcock

Cast:

James Stewart
Kim Novak

Ifyou’ve seen this film as many times as I must have done, it seems strange torecount such a familiar plot, but for those who’ve never seen Vertigobefore, here goes. San Francisco detective Scottie Ferguson (Stewart)discovers he suffers from vertigo when the rooftop pursuit of a criminal leaveshim dangling from some high up guttering and causes a cop colleague to fall tohis death.

Scottie retires from the force but is hired by an old school friend to tail thelatter’s wife Madeleine (Novak) who intermittently suffers from thedelusion that she is her great grandmother, a tragic figure whose life ended insuicide. Scottie becomes obsessed with her but fails to prevent her death whenshe throws herself off a tower. Grief-stricken, he sees the image of the deadwoman everywhere he saw her when alive – her blonde hair pinned up, her greycoat – then he runs into Judy (Novak again) who would be a dead ringer but forher different clothes, hair colour, make-up and speech. So he starts to mouldJudy’s likeness into that of the dead woman.

Considered by many Hitch’s masterpiece, this is a flawlessly constructed film.Actually, it does contain one terrible cliche where Stewart and Novak kiss aswaves crash behind them on the shore – but perhaps that’s deliberate.(Incidentally, the end of this scene is the perfect place for a sidebreak -and that’s where Pioneer, bless ’em, have put it.) Then, there are some terriblematte paintings of a Spanish mission tower – although by the time you reachthem, you’re so emotionally wound up they scarcely matter.

Something that matters a great deal on this disc, however, is its one majordrawback – the opening rooftop chase set up sequence, in which Stewart discoversat the worst imaginable moment that he suffers from vertigo, is rather dark anddifficult to see here (it was fine in the cinema). The very last scene too islikewise beset by similar (if ultimately less damaging) problems. Occasionaldark tones aside, the remainder looks fine – and sounds fantastic, having beennot only restored but simultaneously remixed in state-of-the-art Dolby Digital.The proceedings are further helped to no small extent by the original widescreenaspect ratio presentation.

Over a decade and a half before that shot in Jaws where the beach seems toelongate as Roy Scheider thinks he sees a shark, Hitchcock created the devicehere first to express Stewart’s vertigo by the elongation of a stairwell; theeffect being achieved by simultaneously forward zooming the lens and reversetracking the camera. Like technical film making prowess is evident throughout, from masterly composition and editing through extraordinary alternatingred/green (stop/go) lighting and the up and down slopes of the hilly SanFrancisco locations to an incredible dream sequence. If you look closely, thefilm’s logic is in fact that of the dream: check out Chapter 8’s conundrumwhere Scottie follows Madeleine into the McKittrick Hotel only to discover that she wasn’t there at all!

Then there are the performances – Stewart’s inexorable transformation fromAmerican nice guy to ruthless pervert, Novak’s extraordinary wraithlikeMadeleine played off against (and ultimately melded into) her down-to-earth,ordinary everyday Judy, plus countless wonderful bit parts from others. Stewartand Novak give the performances of their careers.

Ultimately, Hitchcock’s most personal film is an extraordinary revelation ofsexual psychosis clad in doom-laden romanticism, a unique and special work to begreatly cherished. Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Jason & The Argonauts, Cape Fear)contributes a fantastic score too, infinitely improved by its Dolby Surroundremix. On top of this, the sound effects are clearer than ever – most notablyin the satisfying thud when Madeleine’s body flies out of a tower window andhits the ground.

Were it not for the difficult to view opening scene (a real shame, that), thiswould be an unquestionably great disc. But Vertigo is such an emotional powderkeg that such disc flaws can ultimately do little to dent the piece’s overallemotional impact, even after the viewer has long since lost count of the numberof times s/he’s seen the film.

Film: 5/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 5/5