This is going to be a hard movie to explain the story, because it's completely divided into two distinct parts. In fact, I don't think I can talk about the second part of the movie at all. So I won't!
We start off with John 'Scottie' Ferguson in a foot chase after a thief. The chase has lead to the roofs and he nearly falls and suffers his first bout of acrophobia, a fear of heights. This causes him to retire from the police force, but he remains a detective while he takes some time off. An old friend contacts him and asks him to follow his wife. He says she's having missing time and can't remember where she's been. The husband has a startling theory that she's being possessed by a ghost! It sounds impossible, but could it be true?!
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John's acrophobia makes him nearly fall to his death while on a police chase |
While the story had me confused and interested and I could never tell where it was going, I can't really say that I enjoyed the movie. I had a really hard time buying the acting of the characters even though it was much more dramatic and passionate in the love story than that of the characters of yesterday's Forbidden Planet. But even so, it just didn't work for me. I never really bought their relationship because it just seemed to hokey. It didn't help that for the most time Kim Novak is the utter definition of a damsel in distress. She's just always out of it and scared, oh but thank goodness John is there to kiss her and make her feel better. *sigh* the 50s.
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She's just so scared! You best kiss her because she's such a scared, frail woman... riiight. |
The movie is titled "Vertigo" and yet it seems like John's acrophobia only becomes significant once or twice in the whole movie. The special camera effect used in this movie is the technique of pulling the camera back while simultaneously zooming in. This is what gives the effect of a hallway or corridor that seems to stretch out and get longer. Or in this case, a great height becoming even higher. It at least plays a decent sized role in the end of the movie. Still, I found the title to be a little misleading as I was expecting more.
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Whoa! What was in those brownies? OH, ghosts? Damn... |
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