Vertigo

#vertigomovie

Detective Scottie watches a patrolman fall to his death trying to rescue him but hangs on and survives. (0:04)

Scottie tells his clothing designer friend Midge, "It's because of this fear of heights I have, this acrophobia."
"I have acrophobia which gives me vertigo, and I get dizzy."
"What about my acrophobia?"
"Bingo. My acrophobia's back." (0:06)

Midge asks Scottie, "That's skid row isn't it?" (0:08)

Scottie asks Midge, "What did you mean there's no losing it?"
"The acrophobia."
"I think if I can get used to heights just a little bit at a time... progressively."
He gradually steps higher on a stool, alternately looking up and down, but when he looks down several stories through the window he collapses in Midge's arms. (0:09)

Scottie tells his old friend Gavin, "I can't... go to high places." (0:12)

Scottie tells Gavin, referring to Gavin's wife's aberrant behavior, "Well I'd say take her to the nearest psychiatrist or psychologist..."
Gavin describes his wife's apparent dissociation: "She's somewhere else... doesn't even hear me." (0:13)

Scottie follows Gavin's wife Madeleine into a church cemetery. (0:23)

Madeleine has checked into a hotel as Carlotta Valdes. (0:30)

Scottie asks bookstore owner Pop Leibel about Carlotta: "She died."
"How?"
Pop: "By her own hand." (0:36)

Scottie tells Gavin, "Anyone could become obsessed with the past with a background like that."
Gavin tells Scottie, "Her grandmother went insane, took her own life." (0:39)

Scottie saves Madeleine from drowning after she throws herself into the bay at the Presidio. (0:42)

Scottie observes to Madeleine, about rescuing her, "You don't remember." (0:46)

Gavin tells Scottie, "Carlotta Valdes committed suicide when she was 26." (0:52)

Madeleine tells Scottie, "If I'm mad, that would explain it..."
"I'm not mad. I'm not mad." (1:04)

Climbing the church tower stairs in pursuit of Madeleine Scottie again experiences fear and vertigo. He sees  Madeleine plunge past a window to her death and stumbles down in shock. (1:16)

Coroner at inquest: "It is a pity that knowing her suicidal tendencies he did not make a greater effort the second time... strange behavior after he saw the body fall... He claims he suffered a mental blackout..." (1:20)

Coroner reads the verdict: "The jury finds that Madeleine Elster committed suicide while of unsound mind." (1:22)

Scottie visits Madeleine 's grave. (1:23)

In the psychiatric hospital Midge tells Scottie, "They have music for dipsomaniacs, and music for melancholiacs, and music for hypochondriacs."
Scottie does not respond.
The hospital psychiatrist tells Midge, "He's suffering from acute melancholia." (1:25)

Judy writes a letter to Scottie, referring to Gavin: "He chose you to be the witness to a suicide." (1:40)

acrophobia | Dissociative Amnesia | dissociation | insane | psychiatric hospital | melancholia | response prevention | skid row | suicide

James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes 1958

Read the novel: