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Vertigo It is not unknown for Alfred Hitchcock to make films that utterly defy classification, as witnessed earlier in the quarter by “The Lady Vanishes.” Yet, no film up to this point has had so much depth as that of Vertigo. On the very surface it appears to be nothing more than a story of a man deceived into acting as an accessory in a murder, his eventual detection of the ploy, and the magnificent unscrambling of the plot. While, on the psychological level, the film follows the progression of a keen mind heavy with guilt and focused on the “prey” of his hunt for clarity and sanity. Then, metaphorically, it is, at its root, the age-old story of a desperate man who, upon suffering the loss of his one true love, descends into the pits of his very soul to redeem her spirit. This aspect of the story is most often compared to the tragic drama of Greek mythology, namely that woeful tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. Yet, the intricacy of film extends beyond these perceptions, for it also successfully blurs the line between the audience and the main protagonist, Johnny. Hitchcock takes the reader so far into the consciousness of Johnny that our own objectivity is lost amidst Johnny's own obsessions. John “Scottie” Ferguson i