TRIVIA AND FUN FACTS on VERTIGO (1958)

For his traditional director cameo, in Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock can be seen at roughly eleven minutes into the film, walking past Gavin Elster's shipyard wearing a grey suit and carrying a small horn case.

Perhaps as a visual clue to the audience that color design was to play an important role in the movie, Vertigo begins in black-and-white. The Paramount logo and mountain and the VistaVision logo appear first in black-and-white, then a woman's face can be seen in monochrome in Saul Bass' titles up until the fourth credit line. Color first appears with the title of the movie as the woman's face becomes awash in red and the spiral effect appears in her eye.

Some of the most identifying images of Vertigo are the spinning spirals which are prominently featured in the advertising, titles, and actual film. While today's computer technology renders such effects passé, they were a new sight to 1950s mainstream movie audiences. They were the work of an avant-garde animator/filmmaker/musician named John Whitney, who had set about creating 16mm films that combined abstract animated visuals and music. With his brother James he created a revolving animation stand using war surplus turrets built for airplane machine guns. With these he could animate exposed light directly onto film in a variety of geometric patterns. Saul Bass spotted his work and saw that the spiral images perfectly mirrored the spiral visual motifs in Hitchcock's film.

The overall production design, and particularly the color design, is some of the most intricately detailed and executed in motion pictures. The red, gold, and green color palette is boldly manipulated throughout to visually cue the characters' thoughts, motivations, and fixations. The specialty designs of the credits, special effects, and dream sequences are all brilliantly conceived and add to the richness of the film. Some of the effects and visuals were completely new to pictures and would be adapted by other filmmakers for years.

San Juan Bautista, the Spanish mission that features so prominently in the film, never had a bell tower. At one time it had a small steeple, but this was demolished due to dry rot some time before filming. The bell tower exterior as seen in the film was created by models and matte paintings.

The vivid and unforgettable nightmare sequence in Vertigo was actually developed quite early in the production process. It is described in detail as early as Alec Coppel's draft of the script. Hitchcock enlisted Modern artist John Ferren to storyboard the sequence, which was followed faithfully in filming. Ferren's credit in the film is an ambiguous "Special Sequence By."

Movie posters for Vertigo primarily featured the striking graphics by Saul Bass. The spiral design seen in the film's opening titles and dream sequence is repeated here, and we also see the abstracted figures of a man and woman, seemingly in freefall as the man reaches out toward the female. One poster tagline reads, "Alfred Hitchcock engulfs you in a whirlpool of terror and tension!" Most posters had a simpler tagline, hyperbolic at the time, which has since proven to be prophetic: "Alfred Hitchcock's Masterpiece!"

Vertigo was one of five films that reverted to Hitchcock's ownership in 1973. He had them pulled from circulation and they were set aside as assets for his estate (i.e. his daughter Pat) to inherit upon his death. Vertigo, along with Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) were unavailable for television broadcast or film rental for several years. During this period the critical reputation of Vertigo only increased, along with the mystique of a film that was literally inaccessible. Finally, the five films were reissued by Universal in 1983, with the greatest acclaim saved for Vertigo.

In the mid-1990s, film restoration experts Robert Harris and James Katz took on the task of restoring Vertigo. They went to the original VistaVision elements and made their transfers to the very similar aspect ratio to be found on 70mm film. The soundtrack was mixed in digital Surround, although to do so they had to recreate the Foley sound effects for the film. The restoration was a great success, particularly in reviving the intricate color schemes devised for so much of the film.

by John M. Miller

Famous Quotes from VERTIGO

Scottie (James Stewart): I'm a man of independent means as the saying goes. Fairly independent.
Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes): Hmm hmm. Well, why don't you go away for a while?
Scottie: You mean to forget? Oh now, Midge, don't be so motherly. I'm not going to crack up.

Scottie (pointing to a bra hanging in her work area): What's this doo-hickey?
Midge: It's a brassiere. You know about those things. You're a big boy now.
Scottie: I've never run across one like that.

Scottie: Don't you think it's a waste, to wander separately?
Madeleine (Kim Novak): Only one is a wanderer. Two together are always going somewhere.

Scottie: What are you thinking?
Madeleine: Of all the people who've been born and have died while the trees went on living.
Scottie: Their true name is Sequoia Sempervirens, 'always green, ever-living.'
Madeleine: I don't like it.
Scottie: Why?
Madeleine: Knowing I have to die.

Madeleine (looking at a giant redwood cross-section representing thousands of years in time): Somewhere in here I was born, and there I died. It was only a moment for you, you took no notice.

Scottie: Will you have dinner with me?
Judy (Kim Novak): Why?
Scottie: Well, I just feel that I owe you something after all this.
Judy: No, you don't owe me anything.
Scottie: Well, will you then, for me?
Judy: Dinner and what else?
Scottie: Just dinner.
Judy: Cause I remind you of her?
Scottie: Because I'd like to have dinner with you.
Judy: Well, I've been on blind dates before. Matter of fact to be honest, I've been picked up before.

Scottie: Judy, I just want you to look nice. I know the kind of a suit that would look well on you.
Judy: No, I won't do it.
Scottie: Judy, Judy it can't make that much difference to you. I just want to see you...
Judy: No, I don't want any clothes. I don't want anything. I want to get out of here.
Scottie: Judy, do this for me.

Scottie: The color of your hair;it can't matter to you.

Scottie: I have to go back into the past once more, just once more for the last time.
Judy: Why? Why here?
Scottie: Madeleine died here, Judy.
Judy: I don't want to go. I'd rather wait here.
Scottie: No, I need you.
Judy: Why?
Scottie: I need you to be Madeleine for a while. And when it's done, we'll both be free.

Compiled by John M. Miller