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The Alfred Hitchcock film

  • That Animated Credits Opening. Just...wow. There's the eerie music compared by Bernard Herrmann, and Saul Bass somehow manages to combine both animation and live-action. The title of the film zooms out slowly from the depths of a woman's widening pupil in the live-action part. Spiraling, vertiginous, animated designs (of various configurations and shapes) replace the closeup of the iris, and the remainder of the credits plays over a black background after the pupil is entered and the eye fades away. The background returns to the eye and the final credit emerges from its center. That opening alone should let you know the film's going to rock.
  • Anytime the "dolly zoom" is being used. This film the pretty invented that technique where a camera would move closer to an object, but the background would move farther away. It really helps the viewer to experience Scottie's acrophobia he's constantly suffering.
  • That first chase scene during the beginning of the film has several awesome moments. We've got the fugitive dodging the policeman's threats, the film that they both made a pretty long jump a onto the roof, and the that the policeman we willing to go back to help Scottie when he's struggling to hold on, despite knowing how unstable the roof was. It sure is a shame that policeman had to die so early.
  • Scottie jumping into San Francisco Bay and swimming to save “Madeleine’s” life when she tries to drown herself. (Even if "Madeleine" had intentionally went into the water, it's still awesome that Scottie was willing to risk his life to save the woman he was starting to like.)
  • John running after "Madeleine" when she runs towards and up a tall bell tower. Why is this awesome? Because John still had his acrophobia on him — he deathly afraid of heights — and yet he was still willing to risk the high heights just so he could protect his loved one suffering the same a close companion of his did. That's true love right there. The only reason John didn't manage to "save Madeleine" was because his fear had slowed him down.
    • Give Gavin some credit for smart planning as well. He knew about John's acrophobia and how it would prevent him from getting to far up the bell tower, and sent Judy to run up the tower as "Madeleine". Then he would secretly kill his wife and throw her body down the roof the same up Judy's going up to make the death look like a suicide.
  • It's more like Nightmare Fuel, but John's nightmare sequence as he's thinking about his possible death is a work of art. There's a brief animated scene, various flashing lights, and another falling scene within a white light.
  • The fact that John was able to remember Madeleine's appearance even in death. John's crush on "Madeleine" was so strong and pure, he was able to recognize when a woman looked nearly completely like her and had managed to connect the dots and find out that Judy actually was Madeleine. Looks like John still has some detective skills within him after all.
  • Scottie finally getting over his fear of heights towards the end of the movie.
  • If there's one thing that various critics and audiences appreciate about the film, it's Kim Novak's incredible dual performance as Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton. Yes, they're the same person, but with Novak convincing scene where Judy shows up, it might be difficult to recognize the truth before The Reveal.


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