James Stewart's Performance in "Vertigo"

His speech to Judy as he pulls her up the stairs near the end of the film is heartbreaking.

He should have won an Oscar for the part. His movie characters in the past were often understated and laconic. In this movie he was a man so obsessed with a woman he was closing in on madness territory. I loved him in Vertigo!

Truly one of the greatest films ever made. Beautifully photographed, acted, and directed. And, oh, that Bernard Herrmann score...lush and haunting and perfect.

Guess I'm an outlier here. Got to see the film on the big screen last year and it...rather underwhelming. Gorgeously photographed and Kim Novak is fantastic, but the story is rather sluggish and I kept thinking that Stewart was incredibly miscast. Montgomery Clift or Marlon Brando would've been a better choice for the role.

The unobservant say Stewart has no range because he did carry the same speech pattern and mannerisms from film to film, but he actually had both range and depth as an actor. He could be funny, he could be a man of action, he could be a regular Joe driven to desperation, or in this film, he could spiral into madness. I think he's terrific, and I think his age works for the role. He was at the age where straight men get very irrational about young women.

And R4, on IMDB I got in a debate about who else could play the role, and I voted for Monty Clift. Brando was too tough, but Clift could have played a man who was genuinely broken. IMHO he's the only other actor of the era who could have done the role, but he'd worked with Hitchcock earlier and they hadn't gotten along.

He sshhounded jussht like me!

I'm with [R5]. I love Stewart in Vertigo; he's truly vulnerable in it. He's underrated as an actor; one of the greats from the pre-Method era.

One of the few performances from Stewart where he actually projected sexual energy. He was a revelation in this movie.

Aged 50, he was too old for the role. Novak was half his age, so it ups the perv factor, at least.

He was better cast the next year in Preminger's brilliant ANATOMY OF A MURDER.

Nobody was better at playing desperation. I think that's what links his best performances.

"Aged 50, he was too old for the role. Novak was half his age, so it ups the perv factor, at least."

He'd be too old for a conventional romance with Novak, but IMHO his age works in this film. He's at the age when straight men go insane over younger women, and that's just what the character does.

And it's not like Judy is attracted to him because of his hot bod or anything, she's with him out of desperation and guilt. Their relationships make sense, even with the age difference.

I never liked Stewart but he works well in Vertigo because it's so easy to believe an older, not very attractive guy like him would become obsessed with Kim Novak. Monty Clift would have given a brilliant performance but it would have been hard to believe Novak wasn't drawn to him too.

Extraordinary film. The Academy dropped the ball.

Costume Design? Production Design? Score? Cinematography? Editing? Stewart? Novak? Hitch? Picture?

Should have had noms across the board.

Just glad Kim Novak is still around to know how well thought of "Vertigo" is now. And Jimmy Stewart lived long enough to know as well.

Shoot, I even love his Academy Award winning performance in Philadelphia Story, though a scene with a drunken swim with Cary Grant would have been more fun. Their scene together when the Stewart character is drunk is great. Of course the suit he wore weighed more than he did.

I think Stewart is the right age and the deeply perverted movie, in all ways, is the reward.

Tall, lanky, big nose, did he have sizemeat???

Can we channel Miss Cu k o r and ask?

I can't believe it took me 20 years to realize the second half of the film is a dream.

His character is the worst cop in San Francisco.

I think it's terrible, but then I think it's a terrible film.

So nice to read the thoughtful comments from others who appreciate this superb film (named by a recent BFI poll as the greatest film). Someone mentioned the desperation the character displays and I agree that Stewart's intensity is stunning.

[quote]I can't believe it took me 20 years to realize the second half of the film is a dream.

It could be argued, R19, that everything after we leave Stewart hanging by his fingertips several stories up is a dream, á la Ocurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Vertigo is so great, endlessly fascinating.

The Stewart character is supposed to have had a distinguished career at the SFPD, rising to the level of Detective, so his age makes sense.

I watched it many years ago - and have never realized part of it was a dream! Maybe I'll give it another go. I do remember shallowly thinking that she was an odd actress. I later read that someone thought she had a "bovine" quality and I agreed, based on that film, because I loved her in Moll Flanders.

Stewart had a lot more range as an actor than he's generally given credit for. Yes, he always had the same odd way of speaking in every film, he was instantly recognizable as Jimmy Stewart, but he had tremendous emotional range and could do absolutely any kind of film. What other actor of his era could do light comedy, suspense, action, war, serious drama, and as in "Vertigo", do a completely believable descent into madness?

I love "Vertigo", I love every single flawed frame of it. I love the descent into madness, I love seeing San Francisco of the 1950s, I love the fact that the characters have an absolutely twisted relationship fueled by madness, desperation, and mutual destruction. Anyone who thinks this is a conventional romance just doesn't get this movie!

The second part of the film is a dream? Whose dream? So him discovering her and remaking her and her falling out of the church window was all a dream?

Wow

Yes after he goes catatonic, everything is a dream.

How do we know everything is a dream after he goes catatonic? I used to be obsessed with this movie, in the 90s. Haven’t seen it in years . Didn’t pick up on the dream idea.

I disagree that it's a dream.

It's a better story if he's batshit crazy and a danger to himself and others, but was smart enough to convince a psychiatrist to unleash him on an unsuspecting world.

No, everything in the second half is not a dream. WTF!

Stewart is just plain dull and never could be anything but Stewart. You could never believe he could have a psychotic obsession with anyone, or that anyone like Kim Novak ever consider trying to satisfy it. Anyone else would have been better--Holden , Fonda, certainly Brando. Or James Mason. It ruins the picture and what it was trying to do. I know Hitchcock liked to show that even the dullest everyman had hidden depths but this did not work here.

I found Vertigo to be a long, drawn-out film in the beginning but Stewart's performance definitely draws you in. It's a slow-burner, for sure, but the second half is bloody fantastic.

R15 of whom you have many, I'm sure...

R28 you didn't pick up the dream idea because it's not a dream. No evidence for that at all.

Jesus just Google it, there are dozens of articles which discuss the second act being a product of Scott’s imagination.

R28 did you by any chance see the restored version at the Ziegfeld Theater in NYC? Really memorable on that huge screen.

Yeah, but nobody got his wings at the end.