History Film / Vertigo

** And if you want to get ''really'' technical, there's also that nameless fugitive who only appears during the scene at the beginning and is never seen or mentioned again. It's another justified example, since he's meant to be a SmallRoleBigImpace character, partially responsible kick-starting Scottie's acrophobia.

* FakeOutFadeOut: Not blatant, but the fade-to-black after the OrbitalKiss late in the film feels like it ''could'' be the end of the film, coming near the two-hour mark and after a seeming climax in the story. Hitchcock even holds it in black a couple seconds longer than you'd expect for a typical transition. But wait a minute: Scottie never [[spoiler:found out that Judy was Madeleine]]? Then the next scene starts and the ''real'' climax begins.

* FlawExploitation: Scottie's [[PrimalFear fear of heights]] is taken advantage of by Elster and Madeleine when they switch Elster's wife for Madeleine on top of the bell tower while Scottie couldn't follow up.

* HandGagging: Happens during TheReveal. [[spoiler:Kim Novak has just seen her doppelganger (the real Madeleine) fall to her death and we see Gavin muffling her scream]].

* IdiotBall: The plot comes apart because Judy kept the necklace Ellster gave her in order to pose as Madeleine. If she'd disposed of it, Scottie might never have realised the plot.

* InternalReveal: The audience finds out that Judy and Madeleine are one and the same shortly after Judy's introduction. Scottie only figures it out when he sees Judy wearing Madeleine's necklace.

* CreatorCameo: Hitchcock appears walking past the entrance of Gavin Elster's shipyard.

* BilingualBonus: Intersecting with MeaningfulName. "Elster" is the German word for magpie. The way that bird symbolizes trickery and deception is a major part of the ThievingMagpie stereotype.

* DigitalDestruction: The version included in the Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection DVD box set boasts a colorized version of the opening shot, a woman's face. Fortunately, the Blu-Ray features this scene in its original black and white.
** On a more infamous note (no pun intended), when Robert A. Harris and James Catz restored the movie for the 1996 re-release, Universal had the soundtrack remixed into six-channel DTS by mixing new (and jarringly modern) sound effects with the original music and dialogue. However, by the time Universal decided to restore the movie again, for its 2012 re-release and Blu-Ray debut, technology had evolved to a point where they could remix the soundtrack while keeping the original sound effects.

* EmpathicEnvironment: As Pop Liebel tells the story of Carlotta at the Argosy Book Shop, it gets noticeably darker both inside and outside the store.

* HaveAGayOldTime: Try to listen to Midge's comments about "the gay old bohemian days of gay old San Francisco" without chuckling now.

* BilingualBonus: Intersecting with MeaningfulName. "Elster" is the German word for magpie, a bird that symbolizes trickery, deception and [[ThievingMagpie thievery]].

* BilingualBonus: Intersecting with MeaningfulName. "Elster" is the German word for magpie, a bird that symbolizes trickery, deception and thievery.

* BilingualBonus: "Elster" is the German word for magpie, a bird that symbolizes trickery, deception and thievery.

* ColorMotif: Green recurs over and over as a signifcant color.
* ComplexityAddiction: It's easy to overlook admidst all of Scottie's psychodrama, but [[spoiler:Elster's plot to murder his wife]] has to be one of the most implausibly convoluted in film history.

* DreamingTheTruth: There's a moment in the dream where Scottie flashes back to the moment after the inquest when Elster is talking to him except in the dream Elster is embracing Carlotta, hinting that Elster is a villain and Carlotta (or rather her story) is his accomplice. Scottie's conscious mind doesn't accept this however, until much later when he spots Carlotta's necklace in the mirror in third act.

** When Scottie and Madeleine kiss for the first time on a beach, a huge wave hits the shore at the exactly same moment underlining the culmination of their feelings.

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The driving plot thread of first half of the film is the mystery behind Carlotta Valdes and whether or not Madeleine is possessed by her. The second half of the film (after Madeleine's "death") is centered around Scottie's obsession with Madeleine and the lengths he'll go to in order to be with her again.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Gavin gets to go scott-free with his crimes, while his partner-in-crime and lover, Judy/Madeleine, tries to repent and pays for it.]] This notably led to the Hays Code demanding an alternate ending, which was shot, but never released.

* MeaningfulName: Many critics have noted the connection between Salina, Kansas (Judy's hometown) and Salinas, the city close by the San Juan Bautista mission, but this has been {{Jossed}} by screenwriter Samuel A. Taylor, who chose Salina simply because a friend of his was from there, and for RuleOfFunny, since it's one letter away from "saliva".

* RoofHopping: The intro - Scottie and a policeman pursue a suspect through the rooftops. The policeman makes it, but Scottie almost falls off the ledge - the cop comes to his aid, only for the roof to shift and throw him to his death, giving him his acrophobia.
* SceneryPorn: Lots of shots of beautiful Northern California countryside.
** The film's visual treatment of 1950s San Francisco should qualify as "urban scenery porn" if there is such a category.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Midge disappears around the two-thirds point (she's present in the alternate deleted ending though). One of the rare cases with important characters when it's probably [[JustifiedTrope justified]]: Midge's disappearance symbolizes that there's no more room for her in Scottie's obsessed mind, nor for the common sense and cold reason she personifies - in the film itself (it's hardly a coincidence that the last we see of Midge is her literally exiting).

Scottie suffers a mental breakdown after his love's death, to the point of being institutionalized with a near-catatonic depression and "nursed" by his friend and former fiancée Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes). Even after returning to some semblance of a normal life, he's haunted by grief for Madeleine, constantly seeing her in women he meets. It turns out that there is one woman who really does look a lot like Madeleine - a sharp-tongued brunette named Judy Barton (Novak again). Still haunted by the memory of his dead love, Scottie pursues a relationship with Judy. But the ghosts of the past never die, and their consequences prove to be what no one expected...

The movie was re-released to cinemas in 1983 and on home video in 1984. This time it was a commercial hit and reviews were overwhelmingly positive. By the end of the 1980s, ''Vertigo'' [[VindicatedByHistory was considered among the best films of Hitchcock and highly significant for film history]].

Creator/JimmyStewart plays John "Scottie" Ferguson, a San Francisco detective who, because of a rooftop chase which leads to the death of one of his fellow officers, develops a fear of heights.

Scottie goes on leave for a while, but is persuaded to go back on the job by Gavin Elster (Tom Helmore), a college buddy of his, who wants him to trail his wife Madeleine who has been behaving oddly. As he observes the beautiful, mysterious Madeleine (Creator/KimNovak), he begins developing feelings for her - feelings that are reciprocated by her. However, Madeleine appears to be possessed by the spirit of her dead ancestor Carlotta Valdes who is trying to get her to commit suicide. Scottie tries to help her out of this apparent madness, but in vain as he finds himself watching helplessly as Madeleine plunges to her death from the roof of a bell tower, unable to reach her in time due to his vertigo.

->''"Vertigo - a feeling of dizziness...a swimming in the head...figuratively a state in which all things seem to be engulfed in a whirlpool of terror."''

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vertigo_poster_5562.jpg]]

A classic 1958 PsychologicalThriller directed by Creator/AlfredHitchcock, adapted from French novel ''D'entre les morts''.

** You'll notice that Scottie gets all the information about Madeleine from Elster. There is a turn-of-the-century painting of San Francisco that Elster hangs in the office because he associates the image with total "freedom", [[spoiler:his probable motive for killing his wife]]. As pointed out in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgnNakO6JZw this video]], half of Elster's office even is on an elevated level which Elster steps into as he talks about Madeleine's supernatural possession, while Scottie sits in the lower half of the room, as if he is [[spoiler:watching a performance on stage]].

** You'll notice that Scottie gets all the information about Madeleine from her husband.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: It's easy to forget that the sweet, vulnerable Judy was [[spoiler:part of Elster's conspiracy to murder the ''real'' Madeleine Elster and make Scotty the scapegoat.]]