Video #5: Vertigo Summary why did Judy Kill Herself?

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It’s been over 70 years since Alfred Hitchcock’s romantic thriller, Vertigo, was released, about time for a Vertigo Summary Video.

This film is now a cult classic, with a high rating of 8.3 on IMDB.

Vertigo stars James Stewart who is the main character, John or “Scottie”, and Kim Novak, who plays the famous dual roles of Madeline and Judy.

Scottie is a detective who develops a severe case of vertigo and has to retire from the police force. Scottie is then contacted by a former colleague who wants to hire him to follow his wife, who he believes is acting strangely.

Madeline, “the wife” is played by Kim Novak, but not everything is as it seems, and in true Hitchcock fashion, there actually is a dramatic plot twist resulting in Scottie being set-up as the patsy for Madeline’s death.

Today we’re discussing the Vertigo summary and why did Judy kill herself at the end of Alfred Hitchcock’s romantic thriller (or did she)?

This video is all about Vertigo Summary

Video Highlights

• Although Vertigo ranks in the greatest films of all time, why was it a dud on its release? 

• What exactly is vertigo, this debilitating fear that Scottie is battling?

• What caused Scottie to get vertigo?

• Vertigo is based on the French psychological thriller, The Living and the Dead 

• Although the novel was originally set in Paris, Hitchcock set the film in San Francisco, as he believed the extreme elevation differences were a better setting for Scottie, battling vertigo

• Did Scottie fall in love with both Madeline and Judy?

• How did Scottie figure out that Madeline and Judy were the same person?

• Why didn’t Judy run away when Scottie found her, after the “real Madeline” was killed? 

• The bell tower was reconstructed on set, because the original tower was destroyed by fire

• Did Judy kill herself at the end of Vertigo?

People, Resources, Articles Mentioned in the Video

• The Vertigo Movie

• The original Vertigo novel: The Living and the Dead

• Read the blog post: Vertigo plot holes—and did Judy commit suicide at the end?

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• Subscribe to our channel

Read the transcript

Joanna Lynn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our channel. Today, we’re gonna talk about another Hitchcock film, Vertigo.
Vertigo is now a cult classic. It’s got a super high rating on IMDB, like 8.3. Super high-level overview. It stars James Stewart and Kim Novak. James Stewart plays a detective who develops a severe case of vertigo and has to retire from the force. He is then contacted by a former colleague who wants to hire him to follow his wife, who he believes is acting strangely. The wife is of course played by Kim Novak. And as we’ll see, not everything is as it seems.

Hanna Marie: Yeah, and also, interestingly, even though Vertigo now tops the list of the greatest films of all time. Typically in the top five, top 10, it was actually a dud on its release. And Hitchcock blamed poor James Stewart. He blamed the failure of the film on James Stewart, because at the time of shooting Vertigo, James Stewart was actually 50 years old and his love interest in the film was 25 years old, which was Kim Novak.

Joanna Lynn: Yeah, which actually makes no sense, because a very similar age difference to Rear Window where Jimmy Stewart was almost the same amount of years older than Grace Kelly.

Hanna Marie: Yeah, exactly.

Joanna Lynn: So, poor James Stewart.

Hanna Marie: Okay, so now we’ll talk about some of the interesting facts about Vertigo. So number one, Vertigo is based on the French psychological thriller called The Living and the Dead. And it was actually set in Paris originally, the novel, but Hitchcock specifically chose San Francisco because of its famous hilly landscape and it’s got the extreme differences between the highs and the lows that he thought would be a lot better setting for Vertigo, especially for Scotty, I.e, James Stewart who is struggling with vertigo, the fear of extreme heights.

[Vertigo Trailer Announcer]: Vertigo, a feeling of dizziness, a swimming in the head, figuratively a state in which all things seem to be engulfed in a whirlpool of terror.

Joanna Lynn: The famous bell tower scene where Madeleine falls off and then later on at the end of the film Judy falls off, as we’ll see when we talk more about the plot, was filmed partially on location at a California mission a few hours South of San Francisco, San Juan Bautista. But the tower part had to be reconstructed on set, because the original tower had burned down earlier and then Hitchcock actually preferred to shoot on set, because it gave him more control. So he rebuilt the whole tower and the staircase that Jimmy Stewart runs up and is about to get vertigo on a set in Los Angeles.

Hanna Marie: Okay, so now that we’ve talked a little bit about some of the interesting background or fun facts about Vertigo, what are your thoughts in terms of the setting? Do you think Hitchcock made the right decision in choosing to place the setting for Vertigo at San Francisco, famous San Francisco? Or do you think the video would have done better set in Paris where it was originally set in the novel? Let us know in the comments below. 

Now, before we go deeper into the Vertigo plot, I know you’re all on the edge of your seat. You also have your hot tea or Matcha available as well. Be sure to hit the like and the thumbs up. If you haven’t subscribed, subscribe already and share this with another classic movie fan. So let’s talk about the Vertigo plot. So Jimmy Stewart at the beginning of the film experiences a very traumatic event, which causes him to have this extreme case of vertigo that’s completely debilitating for him. So him, spoiler alert, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, him and a fellow police officer are chasing someone across the rooftop. They’re chasing a burglar or some thief across a rooftop at night. And Jimmy Stuart almost slips off the rooftop, but the police officer comes back and tries to help him. And the police officer ends up falling to his death. So Jimmy Stewart is completely traumatized and is fighting such a severe case of vertigo that he actually has to resign from the police force.

Joanna Lynn: Yeah, and then this incident is actually written about in the newspaper along with a description of how he had developed a severe case of vertigo. And so one of his old colleagues kind of approaches him and wants him to follow his wife, Madeleine, who he believes has been like possessed by a previous relative of hers. And he’s a little bit worried about her sanity and then Jimmy Stewart doesn’t really want to take the case until he gets a glimpse of her at a restaurant. And then he agrees to take the case.

Hanna Marie: So it would be a remiss of the classic critic’s corner not to mention the romance between James Stewart and Kim Novak on screen in Vertigo, because of course the romance is what makes or breaks the movie typically, if not always. So James Stewart falls head over heels for the mentally tortured Madeleine. He also saves her from on an attempt on her life. Again, spoiler alert, she’s mentally unstable and believes she’s a long lost relative, Carlotta. So he actually saves her from her death. And contrary to what Hitchcock believed, because James Stewart was again 50 at the time of the filming and Kim Novak was 25. We think there’s fantastic on-screen romance between Novak and James Stewart’s character. Let us know what you think. So, I mean, it’s one of those classic kind of haunting love stories, like happy and sad, but … Also, even though it wasn’t supposed to happen, Madeleine or Kim Novak’s character, she actually falls head over heels for Jimmy Stuart as well. And some of the last scenes before the famous bell tower scenes are pretty heart-wrenching and really believable too. So again, let us know what you think. Do you think that the on-screen chemistry between the two characters is believable and real? What are your thoughts on the romance side?

Joanna Lynn: So they then travel south to San Juan Bautista, the mission there that is supposed to be connected to Madeleine’s past. She then starts to run for the bell tower, and Jamie Stewart, again, fearing for her life after her previous attempt on her own life, panics and runs after her as he sees she’s going for, there’s like this dramatic scene where they’re running up the stairs and of course they’re getting higher and higher and Jimmy Stewart’s vertigo starts to kick in. He isn’t able to make it to the top of the tower because of his vertigo. And then he sees Madeleine falling to her death from the window in the side of the tower. He’s so traumatized by the event he actually has to be hospitalized. And as if that’s not bad enough, before it gets hospitalized he actually has to go through like a police inquest where they kind of make it look like it’s his fault that she fell to her death because he was supposed to be watching over her.

Hanna Marie: So in true Hitchcock fashion, there actually is a huge plot twist. So shortly after James Stewart is released from the hospital. Again, he’s been in the mental ward for over about a year, about a year now. And when he’s walking down the street he notices someone that looks remarkably like his late lost love, Madeleine. And what had actually happened, to try to kind of give you in a quick brief summary. So what actually happened is James Stewart had been trailing Madeleine, who he believed was his college friend’s wife, but it was actually someone else. It was actually his college friend’s girlfriend who was pretending to be the wife, because the husband wanted to bump off his real wife, but they had this elaborate scheme cooked up so that James Stewart was really the Patsy in attesting to her unstable mental health. So when he saw Madeleine fall off the roof, it was the real Madeleine, but the girlfriend was pretending to be Madeleine.

Joanna Lynn: And remember that Jimmy Stewart’s vertigo was written about in the paper. So then the husband had thought up this whole plot, had basically masterminded the whole thing.

Hanna Marie: And if it sounds confusing, it is confusing. You almost have to see it twice to kind of understand the whole plot, like what’s going on. Like who’s pretending to be who, who actually fell off the roof, who actually got killed.

Joanna Lynn: So that’s kind of behind the scenes Jimmy Stewart hasn’t figured this out yet. So he sees this woman that looks like Madeleine, her name was Judy. And at first he’s just kind of in awe that it looks like her and you know, he’s really attracted to her.

Hanna Marie: He’s also just still so heartbroken and he just he’s still drawn to her, for some reason he’s drawn to her, but he also is still so in love with the deceased Madeleine, he’s kind of doing this balancing act of wanting to be with her and wanting to change her into Madeleine.

Joanna Lynn: Yeah, and then at first it starts out kind of creepy. He’s trying to make her like dress, like have this cute little dress, and do her hair differently and all this stuff. And then after he changed her, she looks just like the Madeleine.

Joanna Lynn: And he still doesn’t quite figure it out until she pulls out a piece of jewelry that he had seen the other Madeleine wear, and then he starts to put it together.

Joanna Lynn: Another interesting thing is she didn’t have to go along with it, but she is in love with him as well. So she doesn’t run away.

Hanna Marie: She’s so in love with him, even though she knows it might not be perfect, he’s kind of trying to change her to be someone else, she just wants to be with him so bad. And she’s hoping that he’ll finally fall in love with her for who she is, because she knows she’s the same person that he fell in love with both times. So he’s fallen in love with again a second time.

Joanna Lynn: Yeah. So then again, another dramatic scene, they drive south again to San Juan Bautista and he’s figured it out now, because he saw the necklace. And so he’s gonna force her to climb the bell tower and try to get a confession out of her.

Hanna Marie: And at this point he’s starting to get very angry.

Joanna Lynn: Yeah, he’s getting angry and she’s crying. And they’re at the top of the bell tower where Madeleine had fallen off and suddenly a nun comes out of the shadow and she falls backwards and screams and basically dies in the same way that Madeleine died who she had helped plot to kill.

Hanna Marie: It’s so confusing.

Joanna Lynn: It is confusing.

Hanna Marie: It’s really interesting because Kim Novak, even from like reading interviews that she wrote about it, she seems to think that she committed suicide, but it’s very clear from the movie that the nun walked out of the bell tower and startled James Stewart and Kim Novak, the Judy character. And so she was so startled she jumped back and accidentally fell to her death.
Joanna Lynn: Yeah, well, what do you think? Do you think that she committed suicide or she fell back? And we’ll show the clip here and see what you think. We think she fell down.

This video was all about Vertigo Summary

What do you think happened to Judy at the end? Did she jump or did she accidentally fall?

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