An Inconsequential Yarn

<span id="goog_932988669"></span><span id="goog_932988670"></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">by guest contributor Steven DeRosa</span></i></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgPE0fsRPY8R6hm6vUeismJ9RLViYNQGoghEjgoCpgD_DbiUks2ZkDOQaRwvj4RV3CngSDg2uPp4PCTxSQnfSaFkaW50bWtWli1gN6YXbNFJBmL0ZJbFRZNFunhDhlAsuGNDLPYjnInpF/s1600/good+finale+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCgPE0fsRPY8R6hm6vUeismJ9RLViYNQGoghEjgoCpgD_DbiUks2ZkDOQaRwvj4RV3CngSDg2uPp4PCTxSQnfSaFkaW50bWtWli1gN6YXbNFJBmL0ZJbFRZNFunhDhlAsuGNDLPYjnInpF/s400/good+finale+graphic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 15pt 0.0001pt 42pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">“They say every true San Franciscan has one foot on a hill and the other in the past.”—Kate in Samuel Taylor’s <i>The Pleasure of His Company</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Since <i>Vertigo</i> is a film that garners such personal reactions, I wanted to begin this piece on something of a personal note. It’s not a matter of whether one likes the film or doesn’t.  For those who truly connect with <i>Vertigo</i>, it’s because it resonates with something inside of them. I was in high school when I saw <i>Vertigo</i> for the first time and the build up to seeing it was intense. It was only a few months before that I had begun to seriously study the master’s work, having been introduced to <i>The Lodger</i>, <i>The 39 Steps</i>, <i>Sabotage</i>, <i>Notorious</i>, <i>Rear Window</i>, and <i>North by Northwest</i>. Having become hooked on Hitchcock through that line up in school, I began my own exploration of every Hitchcock film I could get my hands on and by reading the corresponding chapter from Donald Spoto’s <i>The Art of Alfred Hitchcock</i> afterward. Then I’d re-watch the film over again, etc. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Given the laudatory opening paragraphs on <i>Vertigo</i> in Spoto’s chapter, as well as its massive size in relation to chapters on other films, I knew to expect something very special. When I finally did see <i>Vertigo</i>, I was swept away by its beauty, its movement, the emotional punch it delivered, and by its haunting images and score. Over the next five years or so, I would watch it once a month—yes, I was that obsessed (I would perform the same monthly ritual with <i>Rear Window</i> and <i>North by Northwest </i>as well). To this day, I still get goose bumps during certain sequences, and on occasion well up by the final moments of the film.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">After a few years of immersing myself in my own Hitchcock education, I had become increasingly curious about his collaborators, particularly his screenwriters. I was of course familiar with the countless statements Hitchcock made about how for him the most creative part of the filmmaking process was the writing and preparation stage, and that the actual process of shooting the picture was boring. Statements like this fed my curiosity to know how much of an impact his writers had on the finished films. What did they bring to the table? What contributions did they make beyond the dialogue? I found myself becoming more and more fascinated by these writers who had sat beside Hitchcock, not merely observing him create and taking down dictation, but who’d earned a seat in the inner sanctum and engaged with him in creating these films. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12Dv5d1hEpwVf-ChIYDmBCG3xKn91C4l864anpn6TYotN2hxvNnPV4eEXP8MdhJyVGE_WHhMVgyeRLsS_4rMHz43xzLE9mp7F3y1-FRn-VU2NtdoK4olObpBHJ9g5K4md6wXkAVaWekiG/s1600/Vertigo+Taylor+1+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg12Dv5d1hEpwVf-ChIYDmBCG3xKn91C4l864anpn6TYotN2hxvNnPV4eEXP8MdhJyVGE_WHhMVgyeRLsS_4rMHz43xzLE9mp7F3y1-FRn-VU2NtdoK4olObpBHJ9g5K4md6wXkAVaWekiG/s320/Vertigo+Taylor+1+b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screenwriter Samuel Taylor</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: right;"></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Of the Hitchcock screenwriters of the 1950s and 1960s, Samuel Taylor was not the most prolific. Although he directed a film after having written only two screenplays, Taylor did not adapt quite as well to the Hollywood lifestyle as say John Michael Hayes, Ernest Lehman, or even Joseph Stefano. Each of these writers found their niche—Hayes as adapter of “difficult” material, Lehman as adapter of road-show musicals, and Stefano brought his special touch to the small screen as principal writer for <i>The Outer Limits</i>. Sam Taylor however was more at home writing plays in Maine and then seeing them through to production on the New York stage. Yet, in spite of a short list of screenwriting credits in comparison to say Lehman or Hayes, Taylor played a significant role in shaping and refining Hitchcock’s most dreamlike film.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><u><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">An Unconventional Screenplay</span></i></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgTWEpckP4HUK87NjtG28E6o7t09SU3zY_n2SatAtOkuusDH8d8xRUyRA2Y9sCT7pWtdX2jJYukaWBLOWpZC4LHJfEuu8NDkQCVGTpXUm3N6zhVZEVYkw6HIDZ3M8apLeBJ5G2S0CD0UPY/s1600/opening+credits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgTWEpckP4HUK87NjtG28E6o7t09SU3zY_n2SatAtOkuusDH8d8xRUyRA2Y9sCT7pWtdX2jJYukaWBLOWpZC4LHJfEuu8NDkQCVGTpXUm3N6zhVZEVYkw6HIDZ3M8apLeBJ5G2S0CD0UPY/s320/opening+credits.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">By conventional screenwriting standards, the screenplay for <i>Vertigo</i> could be regarded as a failure. It contains so many “no-nos,” cheats, and just plain writing crutches that most writers would never attempt to get away with all in the same script—flashbacks, a dream sequence, and a lengthy voiceover where a character composes a letter <i>on screen</i> in order to explain much of the plot. But these devices, to name just a few, are exactly what make <i>Vertigo</i> work. The illusory nature of the movie required an unconventional script.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">By the end of 1956, Hitchcock had already been through three writers in adapting the Boileau and Narcejac novel <i>D’Entre les Morts</i>. Playwright Maxwell Anderson had a go at a first draft which Hitchcock found lacking in mood, direction and structure. Hitchcock then turned to his old friend Angus MacPhail who knocked out a very rough outline—what today might be called a step-sheet. Structurally, the MacPhail outline closely resembles the finished film and Hitchcock hoped he would be up to the task of roughing out a construction or treatment from which Anderson would write a second draft. However, MacPhail opted to bow out gracefully. Hitchcock then turned to Paramount contract writer Alec Coppel, who had provided the text for one of the threatening notes used in <i>To Catch a Thief</i> when a re-take was needed after principal photography. Coppel worked closely with Hitchcock in fashioning a screenplay that followed MacPhail’s structure and now included most of the visual set pieces that Hitchcock envisioned for the film. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">With Coppel’s draft, Hitchcock now had a mysterious, moody love story with elements of the supernatural, and a big twist to be revealed in the final scene—the supernatural elements were merely a hoax conceived to cover up a murder. Hitchcock returned to Anderson to finesse the dialogue and clarify the characters’ motivations, but the writer turned him down. As was custom when he needed a new writer, Hitchcock reached out to his go-to agents, one of which was Kay Brown, who on learning the film was to be set in San Francisco immediately suggested her client Samuel Taylor.  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqafi3qSNa1bzo77JGw0Qh9NbMawUCoo9irVuyPTnwwkLtft5tuw1LEW_syKwT9_ppRNg37UF2VUpPPjUsA8PDF7wX9Lu_3GSh_IY3YOFLB2ZJm_5VUHaclEemtvijGz3IjBvlPDOA13S/s1600/SF+hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqafi3qSNa1bzo77JGw0Qh9NbMawUCoo9irVuyPTnwwkLtft5tuw1LEW_syKwT9_ppRNg37UF2VUpPPjUsA8PDF7wX9Lu_3GSh_IY3YOFLB2ZJm_5VUHaclEemtvijGz3IjBvlPDOA13S/s400/SF+hill.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><u><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Hitchcock’s New Writer</span></i></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Although born in Chicago, Samuel Taylor grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of California, Berkeley, so he was already quite familiar with both the flavor and history of the City by the Bay. In fact, at the time Kay Brown suggested Taylor to Hitchcock, he was busy writing his play <i>The Pleasure of His Company</i> which was also set in San Francisco. No doubt, this appealed to Hitchcock who longed to film the city for the big screen (an early treatment for <i>I Confess </i>and an aborted adaptation of David Duncan’s <i>The Bramble Bush</i> had both been set in and around San Francisco).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Taylor</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> was sent the Coppel script and Hitchcock’s notes and after some initial uncertainty, he accepted the assignment and met with the director. “When I read the screenplay that had been written, I was quite confused because I couldn’t follow it at all,” recalled Taylor. “When I saw Hitchcock after I read the script, I knew what the problem was. I said to him, ‘It’s a matter of finding the reality and humanity for these people. You haven’t got anybody in this story who is a human being—nobody at all. They’re all cut-out cardboard figures.’”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">This was exactly what Hitchcock wanted and needed to hear. When writing for Hitchcock, you were hired because you brought something to the table that Hitchcock, as producer, felt the project needed. In the case of <i>Vertigo</i>, it was the emotional story and characters that needed work at this point. Taylor told Hitchcock he would need to invent a character to help make Scottie real. To Taylor’s surprise Hitchcock said, “Fine.” And with very little discussion about it, he went off and created Midge. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoQfSagBoFIi44JLz3mwMbN3ZjT23tTvmm-7sl8yBb7PsTYkeykAg3LDciU3sE-_2dyou73Z_Nmunk3wsKc8R-LGMUEjaM_RMXmxdrFlZMlr4xjQDPa7D3zQsMT8vSFpSM_mxx0jfyIgAP/s1600/midge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoQfSagBoFIi44JLz3mwMbN3ZjT23tTvmm-7sl8yBb7PsTYkeykAg3LDciU3sE-_2dyou73Z_Nmunk3wsKc8R-LGMUEjaM_RMXmxdrFlZMlr4xjQDPa7D3zQsMT8vSFpSM_mxx0jfyIgAP/s400/midge.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">According to Taylor, once he invented Midge, the whole picture fell into place for him.  “All the Midge scenes were mine,” recalled Taylor. “He didn’t know anything about Midge until he read the script and liked it.” Midge provided Taylor the opportunity to give Scottie more back story and allowed him to eliminate any scenes with Scottie’s police colleagues. Midge became the cynical voice of reason—much like Stella in <i>Rear Window</i>—not believing in any of the Carlotta Valdes nonsense. Taylor also added to the San Francisco flavor of the story by changing Madeleine’s dead ancestor from the novel’s Pauline Lagarlac to Carlotta Valdes, drawing on the local Spanish history. The Carlotta Valdes back story—that she was of Spanish-American ancestry, had been raised on a mission settlement, and that at a young age was a cabaret entertainer who became the kept woman of a wealthy, powerful man who abandoned her after having his child—added a social/sexual subtext that had been lacking in the previous scripts. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfskzjCignYXMkSChgkTcI-RgsVrruGveWx5NreckzEfuL1QswHHHIWKg8lITwiu3eV1nBcB5zC5Zf6nIdP5QUCs84MGM3QNWcVsLQY4Lzd_XwyGbGgLzMjfLCnyvOtgj-fu__vwrEIYkr/s1600/pop+leibel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfskzjCignYXMkSChgkTcI-RgsVrruGveWx5NreckzEfuL1QswHHHIWKg8lITwiu3eV1nBcB5zC5Zf6nIdP5QUCs84MGM3QNWcVsLQY4Lzd_XwyGbGgLzMjfLCnyvOtgj-fu__vwrEIYkr/s400/pop+leibel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">To speak even more about that history, Taylor added the character Pop Leibel. The Pop Leibel Taylor recalled from his childhood ran a candy store instead of a bookshop. Taylor knew the bookshop atmosphere well from having worked in a similar one while in college. With the invention of Pop Leibel, Taylor introduced a phrase that added to the script’s subtext. “Power and freedom” are used three times in the film significantly—first by Elster to Scottie, then when Pop Leibel refers to the man who left Carlotta but kept her child, and finally by Scottie to Judy. All the talk about “wandering” that pervades the movie also came from Taylor. And with these changes, Taylor helped Hitchcock layer the script into something very special.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">And yet Taylor found that something was still missing. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He told Hitchcock that it was lacking a “Hitchcockian thing.” And then it hit him. Rather than saving the big reveal for the ending, they should let the audience in on the secret—that Judy was the woman who had pretended to be Madeleine. “The whole first act is deception,” said Taylor. “But once you get past the death and actually have destroyed the man, you’ve got to tell the audience that this was a plot. It can’t be a surprise. You can’t go all the way to the end of the picture.” </span></span><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglj8Vfd1Te3EMBB4vdqBQOTuFS3U71GSHHkoIAPbdb-StD9QuIXiTvlmuihN_luB71aN0f1Pel52XvT9d5LP31r1k53vpcWNOhCGkR5QVq1HSi5Ftp9TwaZEaZlzExIPi6syl61F9kznPc/s1600/reveal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglj8Vfd1Te3EMBB4vdqBQOTuFS3U71GSHHkoIAPbdb-StD9QuIXiTvlmuihN_luB71aN0f1Pel52XvT9d5LP31r1k53vpcWNOhCGkR5QVq1HSi5Ftp9TwaZEaZlzExIPi6syl61F9kznPc/s400/reveal.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Hitchcock agreed. Thus the flashback showing Judy reaching the top of the mission tower where Elster was waiting with his dead wife and Judy’s letter writing scene were written. Taylor’s instinct was exactly correct and followed the Hitchcock suspense principle in providing the audience with information. Yet, in retrospect, Taylor felt that the letter writing scene was weak. “I think, Hitchcock and I goofed,” remembered Taylor. “After the Mozart scene, we should have said, ‘What about the girl? This is the time to tell the audience what is happening.’ And we should have gone back to Gavin Elster. We shouldn’t have forgotten about him and the girl that cavalierly.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Taylor</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> said years later that the letter writing scene was inept; pointing out that he also hated resorting to it in the film adaptation of his own play <i>Sabrina Fair</i>, which he adapted with Billy Wilder. Taylor suggested that the “argument scene” between Judy and Gavin Elster should not have been played offstage. “You would get a much stronger feeling about the girl if she had to face Gavin Elster and say, ‘You’re going away, and without me.’”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNgTmw4nd-0QRsYInrMI8FtwodJfJc8w70DE_YzLhfIS7CHycAGr-E5FBoL6fjvLOenXGR-89PqXTAGIha8mATLrx7kmvAYmEmXzk7XSIrDQmE2uUMIs1U2_sTWhbJTeNBv7onLv8qn-T/s1600/scottie+and+judy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtNgTmw4nd-0QRsYInrMI8FtwodJfJc8w70DE_YzLhfIS7CHycAGr-E5FBoL6fjvLOenXGR-89PqXTAGIha8mATLrx7kmvAYmEmXzk7XSIrDQmE2uUMIs1U2_sTWhbJTeNBv7onLv8qn-T/s400/scottie+and+judy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Taylor</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> reasoned that primed with this knowledge before hand, the audience would have a much greater sense of apprehension, anxiety, and foreboding at watching Scottie wander around San Francisco looking for Madeleine. On this point, I couldn’t disagree more. The audience needed to meet Judy from Scottie’s point of view <i>before</i> Hitchcock could cut away to hers. Furthermore, Hitchcock’s concern was with Scottie and Judy. There was no dramatic reason to see Elster or Midge again. As the world of the film became smaller—i.e. fewer and fewer characters—the situation between Scottie and Judy intensified. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Perhaps Taylor’s Monday morning quarterbacking was due to the criticism <i>Vertigo</i> received on its initial release. Nevertheless, even with its disappointing performance at the box office, Hitchcock had enjoyed working with Taylor enough to invite him back to collaborate on the screenplay for <i>No Bail for the Judge</i>—after Ernest Lehman turned him down. Sadly, Taylor’s script was victim to the director’s move from Paramount to Universal in 1961 and it remained unproduced. Taylor and Hitchcock would remain friends socially, and the writer came back to help Hitchcock with a rewrite on the troubled <i>Topaz.</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Inconsequential Material</span></i></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">I’ve always felt that Samuel Taylor best articulated Hitchcock’s approach to film and to working with writers when he said that constructing a film was like putting together a mosaic. And for Hitchcock, that mosaic was comprised of his favorite scenes, but when he didn’t have a good writer, there were pieces missing in that mosaic. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Taylor</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> also understood that to Hitchcock, plot was secondary to story, observing that while the plot of <i>Vertigo</i> may be farfetched, the story is honest and true. “Hitchcock was a very emotional man,” recalled Taylor. “And having a good actor in Stewart, and having a good situation of a man driven almost to madness by what has happened, he was able to infuse it with enormous emotion. He preferred telling an inconsequential yarn, but bringing to it all the artistry he had.” </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Taylor</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> was not denigrating his own work when he referred to <i>Vertigo</i> as “an inconsequential yarn.” To put it in other terms, one could say that the director and his writers were constructing their yarn out of—if not smoke and mirrors—mirrors and some carefully placed fog. The film was constructed and designed to be Hitchcock’s ultimate love story, and in that respect, it succeeded on every level.</span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHKjVn8deOZe0YqhlwazrSvk1Eb9iBE3qT1-sQlfztA3OFYIwwke8wmWEomh756ILHsIyc1GeQLEUdEPW3qvDEJX12WillRtQ_8qB0iRkPc5xw5BxmApuR2flouyeewD6AOENWkhwfDwfx/s1600/finale+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHKjVn8deOZe0YqhlwazrSvk1Eb9iBE3qT1-sQlfztA3OFYIwwke8wmWEomh756ILHsIyc1GeQLEUdEPW3qvDEJX12WillRtQ_8qB0iRkPc5xw5BxmApuR2flouyeewD6AOENWkhwfDwfx/s400/finale+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Samuel Taylor is quoted from a talk he gave at Pace University (my alma mater) in June 1986, and from the BBC’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Omnibus</i> (1986).</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">For more on the structure of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo</i> screenplay see <a href="http://youtu.be/iu6tI8nCslI" style="color: #990000;">The Hitchcock Kiss</a>.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">For a complete account of the screenplay’s development, I recommend Dan Auiler’s <i>Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic.</i></span></span></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">~ </span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5aGuc7m8LmI9ymHHj0qdgqG2An1tSob9X94Iq7y7iTsfJadXw6v_Yi99iA1QUbh337BfaQ801-2ba3RUBc-iFOMNnweSKHlmjP1333N4vN0kgEK2_gp3LAIXUnJlrsnw6cW5x5qLz5DL/s1600/Steven+DeRosa+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF5aGuc7m8LmI9ymHHj0qdgqG2An1tSob9X94Iq7y7iTsfJadXw6v_Yi99iA1QUbh337BfaQ801-2ba3RUBc-iFOMNnweSKHlmjP1333N4vN0kgEK2_gp3LAIXUnJlrsnw6cW5x5qLz5DL/s320/Steven+DeRosa+3.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steven DeRosa</td></tr></tbody></table><i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Steven DeRosa</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Hitchcock-Collaboration-Alfred-Michael/dp/0983205604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326502456&sr=8-1" style="color: #990000;">Writing with Hitchcock</a>. He has lectured on screenwriting and film at NYU's Hitchcock Centennial Conference, The American Museum of the Moving Image, Film Forum, and New School University, and has been a contributing writer to the Writers Guild of America Awards. Steven can be seen on-screen in the documentary, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style</span><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">, available on Warner Home Video's 50th Anniversary Blu-ray of </span></i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">North by Northwest</span><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">, as well as in featurettes on Paramount's forthcoming Blu-ray of </span></i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">To Catch a Thief</span><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">. Steven's website is </span></i><a href="http://blog.writingwithhitchcock.com/" style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Writing with Hitchcock</span></a><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">. He has a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/writingwithhitch" style="color: #990000;">facebook page</a> of the same name and can be found on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/WriteHitchcock" style="color: #990000;">@WriteHitchcock</a>...</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"></ul>

A Month of Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock Samuel Taylor Steven DeRosa An Inconsequential Yarn

by guest contributor Steven DeRosa “They say every true San Franciscan has one foot on a hill and the other in the past.”—Kate in Samuel Taylor’s The Pleasure of His CompanySince Vertigo is a film that garners such personal reactions, I wanted to beg…

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A Month of VERTIGO: the Bloggers...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUl_9vJNmX4bZnXCB3BIftS-0a0CuPuyAb4NtcJ6_S0ppAKFtCdwF0UTT22_GPDM1YF0r_0uGiabxHyCn51OW56eroCv4lyISuAa3Vf_cwD_L4IzzSIaaJ3HUhS9p2rJapQuQPI2S2zMk/s1600/Vertigo+gfx+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUl_9vJNmX4bZnXCB3BIftS-0a0CuPuyAb4NtcJ6_S0ppAKFtCdwF0UTT22_GPDM1YF0r_0uGiabxHyCn51OW56eroCv4lyISuAa3Vf_cwD_L4IzzSIaaJ3HUhS9p2rJapQuQPI2S2zMk/s400/Vertigo+gfx+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Arriving with 2012 will be this blog’s first major event, <i>A Month of VERTIG</i>O. The month will feature <strike>10</strike> 11 bloggers and one ‘vlogger' reflecting on facets of Alfred Hitchcock’s <i>Vertigo</i> (1958).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJQmHXKTHcFXsLev6pAT6S4xOws0gZfDYzG1QGZyRWAPjompJmQiqA8PynCQn-i5IBg2mPGG0TlYZhnJPnAqfVIhlt1dXWpoTZHRQ1hTEWNy78YYMKAQd4MGDB4TnuSl3X5WQAUmFNz8/s1600/hitchcock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJQmHXKTHcFXsLev6pAT6S4xOws0gZfDYzG1QGZyRWAPjompJmQiqA8PynCQn-i5IBg2mPGG0TlYZhnJPnAqfVIhlt1dXWpoTZHRQ1hTEWNy78YYMKAQd4MGDB4TnuSl3X5WQAUmFNz8/s1600/hitchcock.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">Unpopular with critics and audiences when it was released, <i>Vertigo</i> has endured. Today it is generally considered the great auteur's masterpiece of masterpieces and is one of the most highly regarded films in movie history. <i>Vertigo </i>is an ambitious work of grand scale and reputation - a staggering review subject for the lone blogger. And so, we <strike>eleven</strike> twelve have joined together to contemplate this masterwork from many angles.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;"> Here's what to expect at <i>The Lady Eve's Reel Life </i>during January 2012:</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 1, R.D. Finch of <i>The Movie Projector </i>offers <i>Deadly Obsession: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 4, Whistlingypsy of <i>Distant Voices and Flickering Shadows</i> muses on <i>Bernard Herrmann ~ Composer of Haunting Music and Treacherous Dreams</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 7, Christian Esquevin of <i>Silver Screen Modiste</i> and author of <u>Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label</u> takes a look at the costumes and the characters who wore them with <i>The Costumes of Vertigo</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6IVwhBFDmgFO7XCgASK0ozl12nJaaIn83_fxsCqxcj7c5eY95ROVQNbu5V5BiTvcFbBQV8kp79W41J5XnXDtJ8SzzHTfF8MW6G7K1gB1rG_tZbxNLpfoQoXkbR7q2cWqLk-pDsZsxgY/s1600/kim_novak_spiral-french_twist_vertigo_1958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6IVwhBFDmgFO7XCgASK0ozl12nJaaIn83_fxsCqxcj7c5eY95ROVQNbu5V5BiTvcFbBQV8kp79W41J5XnXDtJ8SzzHTfF8MW6G7K1gB1rG_tZbxNLpfoQoXkbR7q2cWqLk-pDsZsxgY/s200/kim_novak_spiral-french_twist_vertigo_1958.jpg" width="146" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">January 10, Brandie Ashe of <i>True Classics</i> considers <i>Kim Novak in Vertigo: A Hypnotic Presence</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 13, Michael Nazarewycz of <i>Filmoria.com</i>, <i>ManILoveFilms.com </i>and <i>ScribeHard on Film</i> contemplates the setting of <i>Vertigo</i>, that "jewel of American cities," with <i>More Than Just the Streets of San Francisco</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 16, Steven DeRosa, author of <u>Writing With Hitchcock,</u> looks at <i>Vertigo</i> from the perspective of  screenwriter Samuel A. Taylor with <i>An Inconsequential Yarn</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 19, John Greco of <i>Twenty Four Frames</i> offers his recent interview with preeminent Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan (<u>Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light</u>) on the subject of <i>Vertigo </i>and the filmmaker who conceived it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 22, Allen Hefner of <i>Bit Part Actors</i> honors those with roles small and momentary in <i>Vertigo’s </i>supporting cast with <i>Vertigo, the Bit Players</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ24KT53Z5aQw_JwDD__RI4YfIBJCPCjC131D3g95C0n5M3vIJcXe5belGhjlis4Sq9JxrAVUldD-1DZFJnoq8Owqu5cdtbq1_EIMJB8Kz19CKOR24QJEX2f_kEkg1b2LdEbWsvwf2O5E/s1600/vertigo+steps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ24KT53Z5aQw_JwDD__RI4YfIBJCPCjC131D3g95C0n5M3vIJcXe5belGhjlis4Sq9JxrAVUldD-1DZFJnoq8Owqu5cdtbq1_EIMJB8Kz19CKOR24QJEX2f_kEkg1b2LdEbWsvwf2O5E/s320/vertigo+steps.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">January 25, Classic Film Boy of <i>Classic Film Boy’s Movie Paradise</i> assesses James Stewart's iconic and complex performance as ‘Scottie Ferguson’ in <i>Vertigo</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 28, Brandon Kyle Goco of TCM’s Classic Film Union, <i>Brandon Kyle the Cinephile</i> and guest host of TCM’s October podcast series will ‘vlog’ (video blog) about his passion for <i>Vertigo</i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">January 31 - Dan Auiler, author of the most essential book on <i>Vertigo </i>out there, <u>VERTIGO: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic</u>. A late addition to the guest contributor group, Dan offers <i>Marking Vertigo</i>, which he describes as "understanding <i>Vertigo </i>as Madeleine with Chris Marker as guide. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: small;">February 3 - I'll ponder <i>Vertigo</i> in relation to the the French noir novel it was adapted from, <u>D'Entre Les Morts</u> by</span><span style="font-size: small;"> Boileau-Thomas Narcejac.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Each post will include a bit of background on its author plus links to the contributor’s blog or site. Please join us for what promises to be a month of wide-ranging commentary on the Hitchcock film that critic David Thomson called "a masterpiece and an endless mystery," and about which he wrote, "It's a test case: If you are moved by this film, you are a creature of cinema..."</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/epclrhxLJJ4" width="420"></iframe></div></div>

A Month of Vertigo Allen Hefner Brandie Ashe Brandon Goco Christian Esquevin Classic Film boy John Greco Michael Nazarewycz R.D. Finch Steven DeRosa The Lady Eve (author) Whistlingypsy A Month of VERTIGO: the Bloggers...

Arriving with 2012 will be this blog’s first major event, A Month of VERTIGO. The month will feature 10 11 bloggers and one ‘vlogger' reflecting on facets of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958).Unpopular with critics and audiences when it was released,…

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