MovieChat Forums > Vertigo (1958) Discussion > Horrible nun and horrible ending

Horrible nun and horrible ending

posted 9 years ago by HeavyDutyMan
22 replies | jump to latest

This was one of the most poorly executed endings I have ever seen. In addition, that was the worst played nun in filmmaking history. The nun coming out of the shadows nonchantly saying "I heard voices", causing Medeleine to get spooked and fall of the tower was too ridiculous. I just have to assume that the nun went up the stairs at the wrong moment and that she wasn't just standing like a statue in order to make sense of the situation. The ending was so abrupt and ridiculous that think Hitchcock's intent was to make the ending comedic.

The idea of having the nun leading to the death wasn't bad but the execution was extremely disappointing.

[–] Jwink72 9 years ago

The nun heard noises, went up the stairs, appeared as a dark shadow near nighttime, scared Maedeline and she fell over from trying to back away from what scared her.

I guess it was either the abrupt ending or the strangeness of the situation that dissatisfied you, but I don't see any other way it could've been filmed. I don't think it was comedic, I think it was tragic. The entire film was not supposed to be realistic like psycho, but dreamlike and the way Hitchcock envisioned it, strange and weird as it may be.

But I can see why someone watching it for the first time may find it silly.

I don't see how the nun was horrible though, she had one line and ten seconds of screen time. She looked and acted like a nun.

[–] Kawada_Kira 9 years ago

I loved the movie but that ending... I swear, I don't think i've ever seen Hitchcock do a good ending. He made great movies for the most part (though there were some bad ones; I HATED "Torn Curtain"), but I never like his endings. They're always so abrupt and "wtf"...

Edit:
Actually, I take back that he never did good endings. I just remembered, The Birds had a great ending. But every other Hitchcock ending that I remember, I didn't like.

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[–] Jwink72 9 years ago

Did you like psycho's ending?

[–] rsgre 9 years ago

Thanks for your comments everyone, I too find the ending to be over-dramatic and maybe even a bit silly. The optional foreign censorship ending was better, but still incomplete. Somehow, Hitchcock got away with it...he did it his way

RSGRE

[–] Kawada_Kira 9 years ago

I actually don't remember Psycho's ending. It's been many, many years since i've seen it. I'll have to watch it again. I've been meaning to anyway.

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[–] TVippy 9 years ago

You've nailed it. Hitch's endings look like they were done by some super amateur POS director. Although, I'm sure Uwe Boll is proud of his endings.

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[–] JimBallard 9 years ago

Actually if you think about it the ending is rather appropriate. We initially believe that Madeleine has been possessed by Carlotta, but it turns out that Judy is playing the part of Madeleine possessed by Carlotta. Since both women should fall to their deaths it seems apt that the woman who assumes their identities should suffer the same fate. It's a common human superstition to believe that what we act we become. Remember the actress who played Mama Corleone in the Godfather not wanting to do the scene of herself dead inside the coffin because she thought it was a bad omen.

It's a film about possession which although it turns out to be hokum - the fact all three women suffer the same fate just makes you think hmmm..... coincidence?

[–] TVippy 9 years ago

It's not the substance, it's the presentation. It's too cheesily, too campily made. Why cut immediately to black like that?
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[–] Christopher_Smilax 7 years ago

I love the fact that we immediately cut to black. I mean, what else is there left to say? The mystery was solved long before then, and Madeleine is dead. Plus, it leaves the viewer with a sinking feeling of "That can't be it!" when one would naturally expect to be let down gently after a bleak turn of events, via an epilogue or some type of closure to give insight into Scottie's impending grief

The ending wasn't meant to sooth so I applaud Hitchcock for executing that in a rather unusual (and bold) manner

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[–] krycek19 8 years ago

I agree.

Horrible ending to a horrible movie that looked so fake it was laughable.

[–] Beau_Buffet 8 years ago

causing Medeleine [sic] to get spooked and fall of the tower

You did not understand the scene, and, therefore, the whole movie.

This Vertigo board seem full of people that did not get this film. I concede that I did not get it either when I first saw it at the age of 17... 25 years ago.

[–] bloody-3 8 years ago

The ending of this film reminded me of the beginning of PSYCHO III in that it was about nuns.

[–] Volkisistan 8 years ago

So... Would you care to explain it?

I was dissatified with the ending as well, I saw the movie for the first time today and thought it was just brilliant!

What bothered me most was that it seems that Scottie seemed ok with Gavin murdering his wife, but the tool (Judy) had to be punished.
I had been screaming "Just go, stupid woman, what do you want with a mentally instable James Stewart anyway?" at the screen for minutes, because it was so obvious that she would die.

And the nun? Honestly! Who would start ringing a bell directly after seeing someone fall to their death? It did seem comedic, though of course that couldn't have been Hitchcock's intention...

[–] Beau_Buffet 8 years ago

(English is not my native language, so I'll keep it simple.)

So, OP wrote:

causing Medeleine [sic] to get spooked and fall of the tower

The nun did not "spook" Madeleine.

My understanding is: when Madeleine saw the nun she experienced two things.

First, the guilt of being accessory to a murder.

Second (and that not so much on the nun, but on the scene that just preceded it, and all her affair with Scottie), she realized that whatever she would do, she would never be loved for who she really was. And she couldn't live with that thought.

So she jumped to her death.

[–] movieghoul 8 years ago

Scottie says "It's no good, there's no bringing her back." THen the nun appears in shadow in the background, presumably to ring the bellgggggh, and JUdy is so spooked that for a fleeting moment she may think this is Madeleine returned to haunt her.

[–] burakndc190596-90-467551 7 years ago

Also, just before Scottie says "there is no bringing her back", he states that taking the necklace ("the souvenir" of a killing) was a mistake. Therefore, this statement by Scottie could also have made her think that the shadow of the nun was the dead wife of Elster and she was coming to haunt her.
Besides, I don't think the thought of her never being the Madeleine again triggerred her to commit suicide in the last scene. She clearly seems shocked only after she sees the shadow, not after Scottie says "there is no bringing her (Madeleine) back. Moreover, maybe she was so scared that she accidentally fall off the tower. Perhaps, she did not kill herself intentionally.
One more thing: Did you realize nun's voice sounded too young?

[–] PKLarkins 8 years ago

Who would start ringing a bell directly after seeing someone fall to their death?

Anyone who wanted to summon help quickly.

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[–] Jamal-Nazreddin 8 years ago

The nun may be indeed horrible.

Hitchcock was Catholic and there was another unpleasant nun in his The Lady Vanishes twenty years earlier.

[–] TwittingOnTrender 7 years ago

I think it's a great idea, poorly executed. When the figure appears, it's quite obviously a nun. If what we/Madeleine saw was just a SHADOW or a silhouette, her shock and reaction would have been more understandable. As it is, with the nun partly emerged into the light, it seems a melodramatic, unnecessary reaction.

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[–] 7 years ago

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[–] slimone (7996) 6 years ago

The nun was in the shadows, so I thought that Judy didn't really see her and might have thought it was her husband now that she knew he was trying to kill her. Hitchcock looking for a comedic ending doesn't surprise me at all.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

Judy had a husband? He was trying to kill her?

Where did you get all this from?