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Vertigo is Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece and perhaps his most personal film. To view it once is to be devastated. With each subsequent screening, most viewers notice bits of business, depths of thought, and stunning ironies that had previously eluded them. Vertigo is a riveting experience, haunting its fans in the same way that Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) is haunted by the mysterious Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak).
Upon researching the film, author Dan Auiler found that "this odd, obsessional, very un-matter-of-fact film was created" under "systematic, businesslike, matter-of-fact circumstances." His book gives us the opportunity to witness the construction of a film that seems at once amazing complex and absolutely seamless. He discusses the painstaking development of the screenplay (including its controversial explication of the mystery only two-thirds of the way through the film), the decision to cast Novak instead of Vera Miles opposite Stewart, the typically meticulous Hitchcock shoot, the film's amazing special effects and extraordinary credit and dream sequences, and the legendary musical score composed by Bernard Herrmann. Upon finishing the book, readers will appreciate the various contributions of Hitchcock, Herrmann, Stewart, Novak, actress Barbara Bel Geddes, Thomas Narcejac and Pierre Boileau (who wrote the book upon which it is based), uncredited scenarists Maxwell Anderson and Angus MacPhail, screenwriters Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, cinematographer Robert Burks, editor George Tomasini, costume designer Edith Head, and many others. The book includes a list of cast and crew, an appendix discussing the VistaVision process in which it was shot, a forward by Vertigo enthusiast Martin Scorsese, and hundreds of production photos, reproductions of memos, storyboard sketches, and posters. Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic has enhanced even this avid fan's appreciation of a film he's long known and loved. --Raphael Shargel
From Publishers Weekly
When the newly restored print of Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 thriller, Vertigo, was released nationally to sold-out theaters in 1996, New York Times critic Janet Maslin called it "the deepest, darkest masterpiece" of the director's career. That couldn't have been obvious to those behind the scenes during the film's turbulent production four decades ago, according to Auiler, a film collector and teacher. In this splashy companion/study guide, Auiler traces the "matter-of-fact circumstances under which this odd, obsessional, very unmatter-of-fact film was created." He reconstructs the sometimes uneasy give-and-take between Hitchcock and his playersAactors Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes; screenwriters Samuel Taylor and Alec Coppel; Robert Burks and his second-unit cameraman who created the now-famous Vertigo effect (a forward-zoom/dolly-out shot); and Bernard Hermann, who composed the mesmerizing score. Interesting factoids abound, from details of the intermittent hospitalizations of Hitchcock and his wife for various ailments, to a list of inane titles suggested by Paramount executives unhappy with calling the film Vertigo; from information about a pop song of the same name commissioned by the studio but never released, to details of Novak's widely reported off-screen dalliances with Sammy Davis Jr. and the son of the dictator of the Dominican Republic. Interspersed throughout are sections of dialogue from the film, notes and memos from Hitchcock, an interview with the restoration team and more than 50 b&w photos and eight pages of color photos. This is a fittingly levelheaded history of a film whose dizzying complexity continues to fascinate. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The 1996 restoration and theatrical rerelease of Hitchcock's masterpiece has renewed interest in the director and his work. Film collector Auiler re-creates the production of the 1958 thriller Vertigo with interviews of original crew members and the restorers, plus early scripts and production files from the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Hitchcock's biographers have argued over how to label the enigmatic director, whose famous perfectionism drove every aspect of his films, from scripts to performances, color, and camera angles. Focusing on the day-to-day production of one film, Auiler allows readers to draw their own conclusions about Hitchcock while revealing the fascinating inner workings of a motion picture. Readers of Stephen Rebello's Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho (Barricade, 1990) will find this book a more businesslike approach but interesting nonetheless. Necessary for film collections and recommended for larger public library circulating collections.?Kelli N. Perkins, Herrick P.L., Holland, MICopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Vertigo (1958) has long been a critics' favorite and the subject of reams of commentary, yet Auiler manages to disclose a wealth of new information about it. Linking its themes and imagery to those of Hitchcock's other films, he offers a detailed account of its script's development by Hitchcock and four screenwriters and a painstaking, day-by-day account of its shooting, based on the director's personal files as well as production records and interviews with crew members. The text is augmented by stills, storyboards, production design sketches, and other visual features, and the volume closes with a discussion of Vertigo's subsequent influence on other filmmakers and an interview with the preservation team responsible for the 1996 restoration of the film that presented it virtually afresh to a new generation of filmgoers. If Auiler's thorough treatment comes off as a tad obsessive, it still seems an appropriate response to Hitchcock's absorbing presentation of a man who, relentlessly pursuing erotic obsession, ends up alone and emotionally devastated. Gordon Flagg
From Kirkus Reviews
A yeomanlike study of one of the few deserving films not yet granted an entire book. Carefully and thoroughly (and with the cooperation of Hitchcock's daughter), film collector Auilers first book traces Vertigo to its start as a pesky alternative to another Hitchcock plan for a more studio-agreeable extravaganza called Flamingo Feather. Auiler then details Hitchcock's interest in the authors of Vertigo's novel source (their first novel became Les Diaboliques) and reports the screenwriting process, spanning playwright Maxwell Anderson, Angus MacPhail, and credited authors Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor. The book brims with behind-the-scenes material, all presented matter-of-factly. Unintoxicating (and pregnant) Vera Miles was replaced by ``heat''-carrying Kim Novak, who attracted problematic paramours Sammy Davis Jr. and Rafael Trujillo Jr. and who said she understood her character Madeleine/Judy's desire to be loved. Jimmy Stewart was a pro and an avuncular counselor to Novak; Hitchcock did shoot efficiently, except for the troubling post-rescue encounter. The film's crew considered Vertigo ``just another Hitchcock project,'' and on release, the movie was generally praised but panned by Time as ``another Hitchcock and bull story.'' And maybe the movie showed that Hitchcock never recovered from losing Grace Kelly to Monaco. Yet even more interesting is the authors noting how Vertigo has grown in stature over the past 40 years, through a survey of Hitchcock scholarship, interviews with those involved in its restoration for 1996 rerelease, and speculation that it reveals a ``longing for what we can never have again.'' This book assumes the film's worth and through well-researched explication of its subtleties leads even skeptics to understand it, too. (50 b&w photos, 8 pages color photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"Auiler's devotion is so compelling and his book is so informative that it should help movie lovers take a fresh look at the film."--San Francisco Examiner
"Lavishly illustrated throughout, the book contains not only stills from the film, but also design sketches, storyboards, memos, telegrams, and behind the scenes snaps of the stars...making this a book not so much to be read as devoured!"--Film Review
Book Description
Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo--in which obsessve ex-cop James Stewart pursues troubled loner Kim Novak throughout San Francisco--is one of the most dissected, discussed, and revered movies of all time. Now, for the first time, the story of this remakable film is revealed. Writing with the full cooperation of the director's family and many crew members, Dan Auiler offers up a remarkable in-deph re-creation of Hitchcock's signature thriller. The result is one of the most thorough and illuminating studies of a single film ever published, and a testament to the enduring power of Hitchcock's masterwork of suspense.
About the Author
Dan Auiler, a film collector, teacher, and historian, is the author of Hitchcock's Notebooks and North By Northwest: The Making of Hitchcock's Classic Thriller. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
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