Summary Of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

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Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo starts off with a detective who is chasing a criminal across the rooftops of San Francisco. This detective whose name is Scottie Ferguson finds himself dangling from the gutter of a building after he slips and falls. When one of his partners tries to rescue him, he falls to his death. He soon discovers his new fear of heights which results in his quitting the police force. Scottie is later contacted by a college friend Gavin Elster who wishes to hire him to trail his wife who he believes is possessed by the spirit of her great grandmother Carlotta who committed suicide at the age of twenty six which happens to be the same age as Elster’s wife Madeline. He eventually tracks her down at the Mckittrick Hotel in which he discovers she has been spending time there under the name of her deceased great grandmother which we later find is Carlotta’s former home.
He continues to trail Madeline and spots her throwing herself into the San Francisco Bay. After diving in and rescuing her, he brings her back to his apartment, undresses her, and puts her to bed. She does not remember anything about this incident after she wakes up and they continue to talk and begin to fall in love. Later into the movie, Madeline professes her love for Scottie and run toward the bell tower. His fear of heights prevents him from going after her towards the top of the tower where he sees her body falling from the rooftop. The coroner accuses Scottie of letting his fear of heights cause the death of an innocent person causing him to spend the next year pretty isolated from the world.
He later meets a woman, Judy, who he thinks resembles a brunette Madeline and he questions her about her identity. His obsession with the fact that she rese...

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...he movie that may seem small, but after realizing how much the colors present themselves throughout the movie, they are hard to miss such as Scottie’s red door or Madeline’s green car. Although it is normally Madeline in the color green, it is especially eye catching when Scottie is now the one wearing green in the apartment scene while Madeline on the other hand is wearing a red robe which is the color associated with all of his fantasies.
These are just some of the bigger then that one can easily recognize throughout the movie. There are a lot smaller things that one would probably only notice if they were to watch it a few times. These things include the neon green sign outside of Judy’s home, the green light on the door from where Judy presents herself as Madeline, the traffic light changing from green to red when Scottie leaves Midge’s house for the last time.

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