Ross v Ross

His movies are so good, he has an adjective named after him. But which of these Alfred Hitchcock classics leaves you on edge? Read the arguments and decide.

Ross McG: Vertigo

I have to go back into the past once more

When it was released in 1958, Vertigo was dismissed by most as a big pile of confusing crap. Viewers and critics moaned that James Stewart was too nice – and too old – to play the role of John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, a man with a rather unhealthily obsessive attitude to women. Others said the film just didn’t hold together or make any sense. Director Alfred Hitchcock may have taken the criticism to heart – he never worked with Stewart again. He also reportedly felt that his female lead Kim Novak was wrong for her part – she hadn’t been his original choice. Vertigo was filed under ‘curio’ and forgotten.

But time does strange things. Movies don’t suddenly die as soon as they’re released (except Transformers 2, of course) and Vertigo went on to live a long and fulfilling life after its initial stumble into the world. How anyone could fault it is, frankly, amazing. Vertigo is a stunning film – beguiling, bizarre and frightening, it is quite comfortably Hitchcock’s best, something he himself admitted later with the benefit of hindsight.

Vertigo is pure Hitchcock – mood and mystery is put above everything else, as seen in the statement of intent that is the opening credits. There are none of the cheap thrills and therapy babble that let Pyscho down slightly. And there is no need for big action scenes to divert the audience’s attention as in the still splendid North By Northwest (has there been a better run in movie history than these three pictures coming in consecutive years between 1958 and 1960?). Vertigo is Hitchcock at his most focused, fashioning a compelling story while retaining the power to chill.

No, it's not a Megadeth album cover, it's the Polish poster for Vertigo

It is clearly a better film than Rear Window. Vertigo is about those things that drive every human being: obsession, love and despair. Rear Window is merely a technical exercise. That’s not to say it isn’t a great film – it is an entertaining watch and has real star power in Stewart and Grace Kelly – but it ultimately leaves me cold. It’s Hitchcock’s Panic Room, a film designed to show what can be done with a camera. While Vertigo may have its own visual beats (most famously, the dolly zoom shot), it is the human drama at its heart that makes it ripe for repeat viewing. Rear Window is an example of style over substance, its technical aspects supersede the story, which in itself is pretty flat.

Stewart plays likeable old Jimmy Stewart, who isn’t sure if he wants to keep seeing beautiful Grace Kelly (Ha! Has there ever been a less believable subplot?). While holed up in his apartment with a broken leg, he thinks he sees a murder. It turns out he was right. That’s pretty much it. The set is amazing and Hitchcock practically puts you in the chair of Stewart’s character, but there is none of the torment and heart-shattering drama of Vertigo. This is a film that keeps you guessing.

Hitchcock takes the relatively familiar setting of San Francisco and makes it otherworldly, like something from a dream that could go wrong at any second. Vertigo also has the added bonus of Stewart’s best performance. George Bailey and Mr Smith were American heroes, guys it was easy for audiences to root for. Scottie, on the other hand, is an oddball, an obsessive with a mad streak. Which, of course, is why Stewart was so perfect for the part – the audience has to be unsettled by the strange glint in his eye but also feel sympathy for his plight. There is no other actor who could have pulled this off.

They really don’t make films like Vertigo any more. Mainly because they can’t. And even when they could, its brilliance still went unnoticed. 

Ross McD: Rear Window

That feminine intuition stuff sells magazines, but in real life it’s still a fairy tale

From the start, you might be forgiven for thinking Jimmy Stewart is playing the same character in these two films. They both open with a crippled bachelor being fawned over by an adoring woman, who are subsequently ignored. But while one progresses into a suspenseful masterclass in direction, the other tangents off into a wandering tailspin of randomness.

With Rear Window, director Alfred Hitchcock is almost showing off – he demonstrates why terms such as master and genius are never far away from his name in sentences. The entire film is shot on a single set, with just a handful of locations all in the one apartment block. Hitchcock manages to convey Stewart’s boredom and frustration at being trapped in a plastercast and his apartment, but doesn’t let the audience feel the same despite spending two hours looking at the same room. While Vertigo is beautifully shot in San Francisco, I could beautifully shoot San Francisco on my mobile phone. It is no challenge to the director: just one of the reasons Rear Window is a tighter film.

Of course, the set up in Rear Window is a little contrived – why Stewart is upset at being stuck at home is beyond me. Besides a smoking hot Grace Kelly willing to *ahem* bend to his every whim, he’s got a lifetime’s worth of entertainment right outside his rear window. Stewart’s apartment block is a Big Brother aficionado’s wet dream – newlyweds shagging all the time, a scantily clad exercise fan, a tortured composer, a suicidal old maid, a mad couple who sleep on their balcony and run dog lift service, and of course a guy who may or may not have killed his wife.

Simpsons did it

But speaking of contrived and wife killing, Rear Window’s set-up is nothing compared to Vertigo’s Gavin Elster and his zany plot. Not since the Annual Bond Villain Convention has someone gone through so much effort to complete their dastardly plan on screen. His plot is so over-elaborate it completely kills any plausibility the film has up to its reveal – and it has more holes than a Bates Motel shower curtain. What if Stewart’s Scottie had, in the circumstances, continued on up the tower? How did Elster know he was going to leave immediately afterward, and not just sit moping in the stairwell? How did he know the police wouldn’t get there in time? What if Scottie’s fear hadn’t been of heights? Would he have found someone with a fear of church bells? Or a fear of darkness, and turn out all the lights halfway up the tower and just hope they didn’t bring a flashlight? Or a fear of clowns, and have one ready to jump out and scare Jimmy Stewart back down the stairs?

Another aspect to the grand plan that annoys me is Kim Novak’s character deciding to just hang around San Francisco after she’s supposed to be dead. ‘Oh I’ll just dye my hair a bit darker, I’ll probably not run into Jimmy Stewart again’. Though if I’m perfectly honest, I didn’t actually recognise her. But then again, I’m not in love with her. I’m in love with Grace Kelly.

The big difference between the two films is pace. Rear Window is metered perfectly, progressing fast enough to keep you on the edge of your seat, but slow enough that you can savour it and take everything in. Pace-wise, Vertigo is all over the shop. Some of the crucial scenes feel rushed, like the stupid cop falling to his death right at the start (seriously, what did he think he was going to achieve holding out his hand like that? He wants to pull Jimmy Stewart up, and he can’t even stand up himself. He fully deserved his speedy pavement introduction) causing the eponymous acrophobia, or the bizarre finale when the nun jumps out and shouts Boo! à la Homer Simpson with his new-chainsaw-and-hockey-mask, and then doesn’t seem to give a sh*t that she just killed somebody. Whereas in the middle, when we are following Novak and her mad wanderings, and listening to her whine on and on about the dreams she’s having, we are just bored, and even Stewart can’t convey interest – he looks like he isn’t even listening to what she says and just wants to get into her pants. Which I suppose is how any other man would react.

Hitchcock himself even seems to realise halfway through the film that the pacing is all wrong, and that he isn’t going to be able to draw out the big reveal and keep the audience in suspense. So he just cops out and has Novak explain everything Scooby Doo-style in a voice-overed letter halfway through, killing any suspense and making the last act a by-the-numbers wrap-up with little pay-off for the audience.

Vertigo does however have one thing over Rear Window – sexist lols. That scene where all the ladies in the store are dragging Novak in and out of countless outfits just because Jimmy Stewart ‘knows what he wants’. It’s just a pity he didn’t make one of them get him a beer while he stuck on the football, just to complete the scene.