San Francisco detective John "Scottie" Ferguson (James Stewart) suffers an experience which leaves him scarred with a case of acrophobia (fear of heights), and vertigo (a false feeling of spinning to the senses). He retires early from his job but is soon roped back into action when an old friend from college, Gavin Elster, asks him to follow his wife Madeleine. She is acting strange and he rescues her on more than one occasion. Things turn bad though when she ascends a church spire, and he is unable to follow her due to his condition. Frozen by fear he sees her plunge to her death from the rooftop. Later, after the dust has settled and Gavin is receiving treatment in a sanatorium, Scottie can't shake the case. One day he runs into somebody who looks exactly like Madeleine but claims to be Judy Barton. This drives Scottie to taking things further, much further in fact, to the point where he won't settle for what he believes has happened. Could Judy be Madeleine? Is it all a ruse? If so, why?
Review of Vertigo
