That's a good read. I have, and have read, my fair share of Hitchcock books and essays, but one thing I've never been able to find is an explanation for the scene in Vertigo where Scottie follows Madeline to the motel, sees her in the window, but is told she isn't there. Sure enough, when they go upstairs to check, she isn't. I haven't been able to come up with a logical explanation myself, always preferring to think of it as Hitch's way of proving to us sometimes things are better left unexplained and, as such, it certainly adds another realm of mystery to the story.

I thought that Vertigo scene followed a very natural logic. I'm sure to some extent such senarios have happened to most of us; you get home incidently when no one notices, you don't realize someone can see you, you hear someone say you're not home and duck out til they leave for whatever reason. It's like the scene in The Young Philadelphians when Tony quickly snuffs out his cigarette and pretends to be asleep when his boss's wife knocks on his bedroom door in the middle of the night. She sneaks in anyway, sees him sleeping, walks around to the other side of the bed and notices the cigarette is still smoking. We see that she figures out he is faking to avoid her and turns to leave. If he hadn't sat up to grab her hand, she would have left and it all would have gone unsaid. Funny what we take-away from any given movie.

I thought that Vertigo scene followed a very natural logic. I'm sure to some extent such senarios have happened to most of us; you get home incidently when no one notices, you don't realize someone can see you, you hear someone say you're not home and duck out til they leave for whatever reason. It's like the scene in The Young Philadelphians when Tony quickly snuffs out his cigarette and pretends to be asleep when his boss's wife knocks on his bedroom door in the middle of the night. She sneaks in anyway, sees him sleeping, walks around to the other side of the bed and notices the cigarette is still smoking. We see that she figures out he is faking to avoid her and turns to leave. If he hadn't sat up to grab her hand, she would have left and it all would have gone unsaid. Funny what we take-away from any given movie.