RogerBW's Blog

1958 psychological drama, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Kim Novak: IMDb / allmovie. Obsession is not good for you.

Well, this was my first Hitchcock; and it's not a terrible one, though it's much more of its age than many older films, particularly in its portrayal even of relatively "normal" relationships bewteen the sexes. There's a long, lingering shot of Madeleine in her first scene in which we are clearly meant to share in Scottie's sudden obsession with her, and that's apparently enough to excuse everything he then does. (I mean, he's been employed – as far as he knows – to follow his friend's wife and work out what psychological strangeness she's indulging, so one would feel that professionalism alone would be a good reason to try not to fall for her and try to start an affair, but I never got the feeling that he was even making the attempt.)

I never found myself warming to Scottie, even in the early part of the film when I think I was supposed to; his ghastly treatment of Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes, daughter of Norman) just made me think "leave the bastard, lady, you deserve someone who wants you rather than just an arm accessory". (A planned epilogue showing Scottie back with Midge was cut, so at least I can head-canon that she did have the sense to stay away from him after she was dumped.)

My goodness it's an over-complicated murder plot, though. Did Elster pick his wife's double to be part of the scheme first, then start sleeping with her, or did he just happen to have a mistress who looked a lot like his wife? What was his exit plan, given that even in the 1950s saying "I was part of a murder plot, here is lots of evidence that'll let you catch the guy who did the killing" would get one pretty lenient treament? That is not the point at which you dump your conspirator; that's the point at which you say "at last darling we can be together", and arrange a terrible boating accident.

The ending I thought the film might be building to felt more honest than the one we got: at the tower the second time, obsessed Scottie could say "this is where Madeleine died, and this is where you're going to die", and try to throw her off himself.

(And talking of terrible accidents, what a bathetic ending! I got the feeling that the writer's mainspring had run down, each principal had said their piece, and he couldn't see how to end the scene or the film. So off Judy has to go, Frightened By Nun like a Gashlycrumb Tiny.

I talk about this film further on Ribbon of Memes.