3. Both the crucial reveal and the ending were nearly changed in post-production.
Despite having a novel to work from, several crucial aspects of the story remained in flux until very close to release. Perhaps most importantly was the revelation of Judy’s role in Madeleine’s death. Hitchcock had decided when the script was being written that it should be revealed two-thirds of the way through the film, through the scene where Judy writes a confession to Scottie, only to rip it up, in order to give the audience better insight into her state of mind. However, after the first test screening, the director got nervous that he was giving the game away too early, and decided to excise the scene. James Stewart sided with Hitchcock, associate producer Herbert Coleman disagreed, but it was only when Paramount boss Barney Balaban told the director to “Put the picture back the way it was” that the scene was restored. Meanwhile, had the film followed the book’s ending it would have been much darker, with Stewart’s character strangling Novak’s for her deception. It was softened, but even then it wasn’t enough for the Production Code Adminstration, who demanded that Madeleine’s husband Gavin Elster was seen to be punished for her murder. Hitchcock did shoot such a scene, where Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) listens to a radio report regarding Gavin’s capture in Europe, but he managed to fight the censorship demands, and got to keep his original ending. As a result, it’s the only one of Hitchcock’s films where the killer gets away scott free.
4. The bell tower that’s so crucial to the plot had to be added in through matte painting after the real version was demolished before filming began.
“Vertigo” displays some of Hitchcock’s most memorable location photography, with one of cinema’s most indelible portraits of San Francisco, and cinephiles often hit the tourist trail to visit locations (indeed, the Empire Hotel, where Scottie tracks down Judy, was renamed the Hotel Vertigo in 2009). But don’t go looking for the bell tower of the Mission San Juan Bautista, from which Madeleine and Judy fall. The mission is real, and it did once have a bell tower, but in between scouting the location and filming the scene, the tower was torn down because of dry rot. Hitchcock was forced to add a new tower, taller than the real one, via matte paintings. Don’t look for the grave of Madeleine’s great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes either: it was left after filming at the Mission Dolores, but then removed for fear that a tourist attraction grave for a fictional character (and one who committed suicide, no less) would be disrespectful to the dead.
5. The film saw the creation of one of the most famous effects in cinema history.
Few films are important enough to have a particular kind of shot named after them, but “Vertigo” was responsible for the popularization of the so-called “Vertigo effect” — the trademark shot that creates the effect of Scottie’s acrophobia (falling away from yourself). Hitchcock had originally had the idea as far back as “Rebecca,” but couldn’t work how to do it, and it took second-unit cameraman Irmin Roberts to crack it. It’s created by adjusting the zoom lens while dollying towards (or sometimes away from) the subject (see the staircase shots in the clip below). Hitchcock would use the technique again in “Marnie,” and Steven Spielberg paid tribute in “Jaws,” before using it again for “E.T.” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Other films which feature the effect include “Goodfellas,” “La Haine,” the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Lion King.”