#No Wonder They Say Vertigo Is The Greatest Movie Of All Time

“Vertigo” takes on even more weight as Scottie begins to retrace his steps through the movie. Visual echoes play out before us, but it’s not the same this time. The frame is emptier because Madeleine is not there. She has fallen to her death from a bell tower … or so he thinks.

He was in love with her and still is. A doctor played by Raymond Bailey (Mr. Drysdale on “The Beverly Hillbillies”) says he “suffers from acute melancholia, with a guilt complex.” The movie holds empathy for both him and Midge, who tried to paint herself into his Carlotta fantasy and was left jilted and juxtaposed with her own self-portrait. She’s last seen walking down the lonely hallway of her own life outside the doctor’s office.

When Scottie meets Judy, she becomes a doll for him to dress and style like Madeleine. As his illusions begin to fade, he realizes a fundamental truth: the inability to recapture the magic of the moment. It was there once but now it’s gone, lost to time and the tree rings. All that’s left for him is a mausoleum of memories.

I’ve only visited San Francisco once, for a few days, 15 summers ago now. However, for years, the magnet pull of a different city on the other side of the world has drawn me back to certain landmarks, much like Scottie. It has kept me visiting and revisiting the same places on my own or with different people.

You go somewhere once, then you go there again, and the colors are less vivid, the tastes less flavorful, the smells less fragrant. There will never be a sunset quite as gorgeous as that one. Madeleine is the moment, and the moment is gone.