Movies - TV
How Alfred Hitchcock Got Vertigo’s Ending Past Hollywood Censors
By MICHAEL BOYLE
Throughout the 1930s to the late 1960s, filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, dealt with the constraints of Hollywood's censorship guidelines, notably the self-imposed Hays Code.
The Hays Code was a self-imposed censorship system for Hollywood that strictly prohibited lewd or controversial content in film such as profanity, nudity, sexuality, or drugs.
While directing “Rebecca,” Hitchcock initially crafted an ending that had to be revised due to breaking the Hays Code, which mandated punishment for the wrongdoing of antagonists.
Later, Hitchcock ran into censorship issues again when filming “Vertigo.” The film follows Scottie Ferguson (played by James Stewart), a retired police detective who hates heights.
Hired to follow the mysterious Madeleine Elster (played by Kim Novak) by her husband, Scottie becomes entangled in a complex web of deception, obsession, and mistaken identity.
Scottie discovers Madeleine's apparent death was part of an elaborate plan orchestrated by her husband, Gavin Elster. Madeleine was never truly in danger, and Scottie was tricked.
Hitchcock included a scene to show the punishment of Gavin Elster, the husband orchestrating the murder plot, aiming to address censorship concerns of punishment for heinous acts.
However, he later removed this scene to create the ambiguous ending that is now famous in “Vertigo,” allowing the film to be released without explicitly showing the villain's fate.