Vertigo (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock engulfs you in a whirlpool of terror and tension!
director	Alfred Hitchcock
producers	Herbert Coleman Alfred Hitchcock
writers	Alec Coppel & Samuel Taylor
starring	James Stewart Kim Novak Barbara Bel Geddes Tom Helmore
original music	Bernard Herrmann
cinematographer	Robert Burks
editor	George Tomasini
running time	128 minutes
colour	colour (Technicolor)
sound mix	mono (Westrex)
aspect ratio	1.85:1 VistaVision
studio	Paramount Pictures
availability	DVD & Blu-ray
film-10292 (add your rating)

Synopsis

San Francisco police detective Scottie Fergusson develops a fear of heights and is forced to retire when a colleague falls to his death during a chase. An old college friend (Gavin Elster) hires Scottie to watch his wife Madeleine who has reportedly become possessed by her ancestor's spirit named Carlotta. Scottie follows her around San Francisco and is drawn to Madeleine and her obsession with death. He unwittingly becomes a figure in a complex plot, and is determined to discover the truth behind it all. (© IMDB)

Production

The success of director Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 film Les Diaboliques introduced Hitchcock to the French crime fiction writing team of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who wrote the source novel "Celle Qui N'Était Plus" that the film was based on.

From Among the Dead

Keen to potentially acquire the film rights to any future Boileau-Narcejac stories, Paramount sourced their 1954 novel D'Entre les Morts before it had been translated into English and, after reading the studio's outline, Hitchcock instructed Paramount to purchase the rights. After negotiations, the film rights were secured for $25,275 in April 1955.

The synopsis of the novel is essentially the same as the final film:

A prosperous shipbuilder hires a former detective who suffers from vertigo to tail his wife Madeleine who is acting strangely. The detective falls in love with the shipbuilder's wife but is unable to stop her committing suicide by jumping from a tower. Haunted by her death, he sees a woman who bears a strong resemblance to the dead woman, however, his attempts to get closer to this doppelgänger ultimately result in tragedy.

Pre-Production

Screenplay

Despite objections from producer Herbert Coleman, Hitchcock initially approached playwright Maxwell Anderson in June 1956 to create a first-draft screenplay from the novel. Anderson submitted his screenplay — titled Darkling, I Listen — in September, by which point he had been paid $35,000. However, according to Coleman, Hitchcock was so disappointed with Anderson's work that he told the producer to "burn it".

Hitchcock next turned to his old friend, Angus MacPhail, who had recently collaborated with the director on the aborted Flamingo Feather film. Despite his initial enthusiasm, MacPhail was battling chronic alcohol addiction and felt unable to fully tackle such a large project. In correspondence with Herbert Coleman, he wrote, "It is a fascinating story of course [...] but it needs a real big imaginative contribution — which I simply couldn't provide just now." This would be the last screenplay MacPhail worked on before his death in 1962.

Vertigo publicity still of Hitch and Alma

The third screenwriter to work on From Among the Dead was Australian born Alec Coppel. According to Dan Auiler's book about Vertigo, it is unclear exactly why Coppel was chosen, but some sources state that he had briefly worked with Hitchcock providing uncredited contributions to To Catch a Thief. Coppel was hired in late September on a salary of $1,500 per week.

Hitchcock and Coppel worked for the remainder of the year and Coppel's completed draft was submitted at the end of November. Amongst the contributions made towards the final film were:

• An opening rooftop chase that ends with a uniformed officer falling to his death, which causes the hero's acrophobia — initially he is named "Kilrain" and then later, when James Stewart became attached to the project, "Jimmy".
• Use of the Palace of the Legion of Honor as a key location.
• Madeleine and Jimmy's first kiss staged on a windswept shoreline.
• Madeleine's fall from the tower at Mission San Juan Bautista followed by Jimmy leaving the Mission without aiding the recovery of the body.
• Jimmy's nightmare which results in his nervous breakdown.
• Jimmy's makeover of Renée (Judy in the final film) and the memorable 360 degree kiss.

production drawing by [[Henry Bumstead]]

Despite the earlier screenplay issues, Hitchcock then approached Maxwell Anderson and summarised Coppel's latest draft, asking for his input. According to Dan Auiler, Anderson was unwilling to contribute further and negotiated with Herbert Coleman to end his involvement with the project. After arguing with Anderson's agent, Irving Lazar, Coleman eventually paid a final $15,000 to the writer.

During December 1956, Hitchcock, Coleman and James Stewart carefully studied Coppel's screenplay but found it lacking — in particular, certain elements were too fantastical and unreal. By the end of the year, a fourth and final writer was approached — Samuel Taylor had been recommended to Hitchcock by agent Kay Brown due to Taylor's knowledge of San Francisco. Taylor was given a copy of Coppel's draft and story notes.

Taylor began working on the screenplay in January 1957, although script meetings with Hitchcock were disrupted by a series of illnesses that saw the director hospitalised and then confined to bed for periods between January and April.

Taylor's knowledge of San Francisco helped to add authenticity to the developing screenplay and, by the end of May, all of the locations were finalised. By July, Hitchcock was dividing his time between final script meetings with Coppel and initial ones with Ernest Lehman at MGM where the director was planning to film The Wreck of the Mary Deare. Taylor's final shooting script was dated 17 September 1957 — just two weeks before filming began in San Francisco.

Given the organic nature of the screenplay's development with multiple writers, the Writers Guild was required to adjudicate on the screen credit after Coppel pushed to have sole credit and Coppel then objected. The decision of the Guild was that the credit should read "screenplay by Alec Coppel & Samuel Taylor".

Locations

Mission San Juan Bautista (c) Helen Carruthers

With San Francisco decided as the location early on in the screenplay development, producer Herbert Coleman travelled to the city to scout locations during the summer of 1956. Hitchcock's second home in Scotts Valley was close enough to the city that he and Alma regularly dined at Ernie's, Jack's and Ondine, and he provided Coleman with a list of locations, including Muir Woods, Ernie's and the Spanish Mission in Carmel. Fittingly, Coleman then hired a retired San Francisco detective, Morrie Reardon, to act as a location guide and advisor.

Both Muir Woods and the Mission in Carmel proved problematic as locations — the woods were too dense to accommodate filming equipment and the Mission in too busy an area — and Coleman selected Big Basin Redwoods and the Mission San Juan Bautista as replacements.

By September 1956, Hitchcock had joined Coleman on a tour of the potential locations and initial decisions were made as to which interiors could be used for filming and which would need to be recreated on the Paramount soundstages.

Casting

Vera Miles' costume test

Both Vera Miles, who had starred in Hitchcock's previous film The Wrong Man, and James Stewart were attached to the project at an early stage and Stewart became a financial partner, sharing in any profits the film made. However, Stewart wasn't the first name linked to the film and initial press reports in October 1955 stated that Hitchcock was keen for Cary Grant to play the lead role.

Although commonly reported that Miles' pregnancy was the sole reason she was dropped from the film, author Dan Auiler has claimed that both Hitchcock and Stewart had reservations about her ability to make an impact in the role and were considering alternative actresses as early as November 1956, whilst Miles was undergoing makeup, hair and costume tests for the role of Madeleine. Ultimately, the delays to the start of filming date meant that Miles' pregnancy would be too obvious and, as soon as she pulled out in March 1957, Kim Novak was announced as her replacement and no other actresses were considered for the role.

Kim Novak's film career had risen quickly during the mid 1950s after she signed to Columbia and her casting was seen was regarded as a major box office draw. After negotiations with Harry Cohn at Columbia, it was agreed that Novak would star in the Paramount film for $250,000 if Stewart would then make a film for Columbia with Novak — this latter film would be Bell, Book and Candle (1958), directed by Richard Quine.

For the character of Midge, created by Samuel Taylor, the writer had envisaged his friend Barbara Bel Geddes in the role and Hitchcock had been agreeable. English actor Tom Helmore, who had minor roles in two of Hitchcock's British films and who had become a regular actor in American TV dramas, was cast as Gavin Elster.

Principal Photography

Delays

[[Peggy Robertson]] and Novak

According to producer Herbert Coleman's biography, the original start date for filming had been mid-October 1956, but this was pushed back to January the following year due to a combination of script delays and a request from James Stewart to be allowed to take a holiday before starting a new film.

Production was then pushed back to March when Hitchcock was rushed to hospital with colitis and a navel hernia, and Samuel Taylor was hired to revise the screenplay. Shortly before production was due to begin in March 1957, Hitchcock was rushed into hospital again, this time to remove obstructing gallstones — with a new start day of June, the pregnant Vera Miles was replaced by Kim Novak. Next, Novak insisted on taking a six-week summer holiday that was allowed under her Columbia contract and, when she returned, she held out for a higher salary from the studio.

Second Unit Filming

Whilst the formal production date slipped due to the delays, a second unit team, headed by assistant director Daniel McCauley, began filming backgrounds (for use in rear projection scenes in the studio), establishing shots of the city and various street scenes, along with test footage of the main filming locations. McCauley returned to San Francisco in August 1957 to film the remaining second unit footage and the backgrounds for use in the film's many driving scenes.

Location Filming

Hitchcock and Novak

Delayed by nearly 12 months, principal photography on Vertigo finally began on 30 September 1957 at the Mission Dolores Church and Cemetery. The location filming, detailed extensively in Dan Auiler's Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic, proceeded relatively smoothly and was completed on 15 October.

• for further details, see filming locations

Sound Stage Filming

Without taking a break from the location filming, studio-based filming began on 16 October and was completed by 19 December, in time for the Christmas holidays.

Although some interiors were filmed on location — including the Podesta Baldocchi florist shop, Carlotta's portrait at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the McKittrick Hotel — the majority of the interiors were studio sets designed by Henry Bumstead.

One of the last scenes to be filmed was Hitchcock's cameo appearance, with the Paramount lot's paint shop standing in for the exterior of Gavin Elster's shipyard.

According to Dan Auiler, within 48 hours of filming being completed, the Hitchcocks, along with Lew Wasserman and his wife, were on their way to Jamaica for a month's long vacation.

Post Production

During the Christmas period, editor George Tomasini assembled a rough cut of the film which was screened in New York for Hitchcock, Wasserman, Tomasini and Peggy Robertson. As well as noting parts of the film which required further work, the director made extensive dubbing notes.

Early on in the post production process, Hitchcock dropped the tacked on ending which had been filmed to placate the Production Code Administration. Included on DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film, the ended shows Scottie in Midge's apartment, listening a radio broadcast reporting on Gavin Elster's imminent arrest in Europe.

Throughout the remainder of January 1958, Hitchcock worked with Tomasini to tighten the editing of the film and building up the soundtrack whilst composer Bernard Herrmann commenced work on the score.

Hitchcock and Herrmann

The Score

According to Dan Auiler, composer Bernard Herrmann visited Hitchcock during studio filming. When Herrmann fell asleep, associate producer Herbert Coleman quickly arranged a photograph before the composer woke up.

Hitchcock had wanted Herrmann to study Norman O'Neill's score for J.M. Barrie's 1920 play Mary Rose and Paramount staff went to great lengths to track down the only remaining vinyl recording in England. However, it remains uncertain how much, if it all, Herrmann listened to the recording but a definite influence on the score was the "Liebestod" from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

Speaking later, Herrmann felt that Hitchcock had used the wrong city for the film:

They should never have made it in San Francisco [...] It should have been left in New Orleans, or in a hot sultry climate. When I wrote the picture, I thought of that.

Herrmann's Predule for Vertigo

Herrmann's contract began on 6 January 1958 and he progressed quickly, completing the memorable score by 19 February. He fee was paid $17,500.

Although Herrmann had intended to conduct the recording of the score, an unexpected musician's strike and the need to release the film on time necessitated an overseas recording in London, conducted by Muir Mathieson. Part way through the recording session in early March, the London Symphony Orchestra walked out in support of the American strike, forcing Herbert Coleman to hastily arrange for the remainder of the score to be recorded in Vienna.

The Single

Envisaged as promotional tool for the film, singer Billy Eckstine recorded a Jay Livingston and Ray Evans composition entitled "Vertigo" with Hal Mooney and His Orchestra. According to Dan Auiler, Hitchcock decided not to use the song.

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Further Reading

• Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (1998) by Dan Auiler11548
• Vertigo (2012) by Charles Barr26487
• Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco (2002) by Jeff Kraft & Aaron Leventhal11294

See Also...

For further relevant information about this film, see also...

• 1000 Frames of Vertigo (1958)
• articles about Vertigo (1958)
• awards and nominations
• blog posts
• books about Vertigo (1958)
• cameo appearance by Hitchcock
• complete cast and crew
• documentaries
• film scripts
• filming locations
• quotations relating to the film
• radio adaptations
• soundtrack albums
• titles, captions, etc
• trailers
• trivia
• web links to information, articles, reviews, etc

Releases

Blu-ray

Vertigo (1958) - Universal (Blu-ray, 2012) as part of the box set: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection - Universal (Blu-ray, 2012)

DVD

	Vertigo (1958) - Universal (UK, 2008) PAL
	Vertigo (1958) - Universal (USA, 2008) NTSC
	Vertigo (1958) - Universal (UK, 2007) PAL

...view older DVD releases

Image Gallery

Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...

Film Frames

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Themes

• birds - "Elster" is German for "mockingbird" and Kim Novak wears a pin shaped like a bird on the first trip to San Juan Bautista
• mother - Midge says to Scottie "You're not lost, mother is here."
• multiple personalities - Madeleine/Judy/Carlotta
• the colour green - Madeleine and Judy are first seen wearing green, Madeleine's green car, Scottie's jumper, and the green light from which the transformed Judy appears
• the colour red - Ernie's restaurant, and the dressing gown Madeleine wears
• the cultured baddie - Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore)
• stairs - the stairs in the bell tower, included in the "vertigo" shot
• the double - Madeleine and Judy
• the icy blonde - Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak)
• the mirror reflecting the image of both Madeleine and Judy
• the Hitchcock cameo - walking past the shipyard entrance, carrying a bugle case (more details)
  

Cast and Crew

Directed by:

• Alfred Hitchcock
• Daniel McCauley - assistant director

Starring:

• James Stewart - Detective John "Scottie" Ferguson
• Kim Novak - Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton
• Barbara Bel Geddes - Midge Wood
• Tom Helmore - Gavin Elster
• Henry Jones - Coroner
• Raymond Bailey - Scottie's Doctor
• Ellen Corby - Manager of McKittrick Hotel
• Konstantin Shayne - Pop Leibel
• Lee Patrick - Car owner mistaken for Madeleine

Produced by:

• Alfred Hitchcock
• Herbert Coleman - associate producer

Written by:

• Pierre Boileau - original novel ("D'Entre les Morts")
• Thomas Narcejac - original novel ("D'Entre les Morts")
• Samuel A. Taylor
• Alec Coppel

Photographed by:

• Robert Burks

Edited by:

• George Tomasini

Music by:

• Bernard Herrmann

Costume Design by:

• Edith Head

Production Design by:

• Henry Bumstead - art director
• Hal Pereira - art director