Where to watch Vertigo (1958)
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A retired San Francisco detective with a fear of heights is hired to follow an old acquaintance’s mysterious wife. As he becomes drawn into her unsettling behavior and an increasingly personal investigation, his fascination begins to take a dangerous turn.
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Jones, Raymond Bailey, Ellen Corby, Konstantin Shayne, Lee Patrick, Bess Flowers, Alfred Hitchcock, David Ahdar
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Trivia & production notes
- Vertigo adapts a 1954 French novel called D'entre les morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, which Paramount commissioned a synopsis for before the book had even been translated into English.
- Hitchcock changed the structure of the source material by revealing Judy's involvement in Madeleine's death two-thirds through the film instead of at the ending, so audiences would understand her internal conflict earlier.
- A dispute over the letter-writing scene resulted in Paramount head Barney Balaban ordering Hitchcock to restore it after the director had removed it, overriding Hitchcock's creative decision.
- Vera Miles was originally cast as Madeleine but became pregnant and had to withdraw, leading Hitchcock to cast Kim Novak as her replacement without postponing production.
- The Mission San Juan Bautista's bell tower had been demolished before filming, so Hitchcock created a much larger replacement tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the studio.
- The dolly zoom technique, later nicknamed the Vertigo effect, was popularized by Hitchcock in this film to emphasize the tower's height and the protagonist's disorientation.
- The rotating patterns in the title sequence were created by animator John Whitney using a Kerrison Predictor, a World War II-era mechanical computer originally designed to aim anti-aircraft cannons.
- Three screenwriters worked on the script: Maxwell Anderson was rejected, Alec Coppel's version also dissatisfied Hitchcock, and Samuel A. Taylor wrote the final script but had to share credit with Coppel after the Screen Writers Guild intervened.
- The tree where Scottie and Madeleine kiss in an outdoor scene was a prop specially brought to the actual filming location of Sunset Point Overlook.
- The hotel where Judy's room scenes were filmed, originally called the York Hotel, was later renamed Hotel Vertigo from 2009 to 2024 due to its connection with the film, though its restaurant was permanently renamed Carlotta's.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article Vertigo (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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