The spiral for Scottie is broken at the end of the movie, which can be seen by him standing on the ledge atop The Bell Tower without the feeling and fear of falling or heights.

Jimmy Stewart is one of the most fascinating actors in Hollywood history.  A phenomenal actor who as a real life Brigadier General served in 3 American wars.

27:24 It's surprising how much sympathy Judy gets at this point from so many people since she knew she was a part of the murder scheme going in during her affair with Gavin.

"Gavin is a good man."  Yeah, that didn't last long.  It is interesting that some reactors, even sharper ones like LSL here, forget that Judy is a murderess or at least an accomplice to murder.  There would be no getting over that for Scottie.

Vertigo can indeed be fairly called the greatest movie ever made.

Very good review.  You are one of the few people (incl. Friedken) to remark that for two seconds we think everything's going to work out --- which makes the final blow so much more powerful.

I love this movie for the exact spiraling reasons you talked about so innocently in the beginning and that double down so much more stupendously in the second half. So it goes without need for saying that I really enjoyed your reaction: it was like watching the movie all over again for the first time. I wanted their romance to work out, too, and then I cross-examined myself: Exquisite as she was as Madeleine, Judy did prey on a man with a mental illness for money. And she was an accomplice to murder, causing Scotty irreparable harm along the way. She created the monster that then rose from the slab to force a recreation of his own upon her. Such a nightmarishly dark and exceptional film!

The beauty of this movie is that NO ONE EVER predicts the major plot twist or the-rug-pulled-out-from-under-you ending. Hitchcock masterfully misleads the viewer around by the nose. Also, notwithstanding all the beautiful color, Vertigo is still a film noir and Madeleine/Judy is the femme fatale. It would’ve never worked out between them. It was doomed from the beginning. Scottie would’ve had to turn Judy in for being a willing accomplice to an elaborate murder, so it’s just as well she fell off the tower. 🤷🏻‍♂️

That dream sequence and the accompanying music are fucking brilliant

My perspective: A lot of reactors get angry at Scotty for trying to turn Judy into Madeleine, but I believe part of the reason for his obsession is that he unconsciously knows that Judy is the woman he thought was Madeleine.

Even the nightmare he has after the inquest suggests that he unconsciously knows there is something wrong with the entire situation.

Scotty’s tragedy is that he can’t love in a normal way; if he could, he would probably be married to Midge, He needs the fantasy, he needs the illusion, which is all “Madeleine Elster” was — he never even met the real woman.

It might not seem like it, but I think Hitchcock is firmly on the side of the victims in this story, of Madeleine, of Carlotta, and of Judy. 3 times in the story, a character talks about men having “the power and freedom” to do whatever they like, especially to women.

Elster talks about “old San Francisco” and says he misses the “power and freedom” men had in those days, and the historian in the bookstore says that Carlotta’s former lover “threw her away,” and says that men could do that in those days because they had the power and freedom.

If you look carefully, you’ll see that the interior of the McKitridge hotel is the color version of what will be used for the interior of the main house used in Hitchcock’s Psycho, two years later.

Judy was an accessory to a murder

I think you are kind of missing the point here, this movie has a happy ending : Scotty is cured of his acrophobia!

Judy was an accessory to murder who played Scottie for a fool. She can't just tell him.

It was a happy ending. Scottie was cured of his vertigo and Judy didn't get away with being an accessory to murder.

Along with others, I'll just point out that, no matter how sympathetic Judy's plight is, she was still an accessory to murder.  I was really intrigued by your theory of the spiral.  Nice reaction!  I'll recommend your next Hitch movie be Dial "M" For Murder.

Vertigo was based on a short story written by Boileau and Narcejac called ''D'Entre deux mortes' two French writers who wrote Les Diaboliques. In the original story, the ending is much darker. After discovering that the Madeleine character was Judy, he becomes so obsessive when he learns the truth, that he strangles the Judy character

That was great, thanks.

"Judy" can tell him the truth because she was an accessory to a murder

Thanks for this reaction. This is an absolute classic with many wonderful features, including Herrmann’s great, pseudo-Wagnerian score. Nevertheless, when the Sight & Sound poll named this the greatest film of all time, actor Alan Arkin opined that this is not the greatest film ever, not one of the 500 greatest films, not Hitchcock’s greatest film, etc. One YouTuber called it the most perverse film ever to come out of Hollywood. Personal connection: In about 1980, I saw Henry Jones (coroner) at the Tower Records in Westwood, CA.

You're very forgiving of Judy conspiring with a man to murder his wife in exchange for money. But then again, the plot may be preposterous. Hitchcock movies are usually not so much about the plot, but the incredible visual styling to explore psychological themes. This is fun to watch reactions to because absolutely no two reactors respond the same way.