Continuity mistake: In the final scene, parts of Madeleine's hair come undone in the struggle inside the bell tower stairwell. At the top of the tower, before she falls, her hair is in perfect shape again.
Vertigo (1958)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Scott angrily forces Judy to climb the stairs up to the bell tower. As they ascend, Scott becomes more and more angry. He asks Judy if the real Madeleine was already dead when Judy pretended to be Madeleine. Scott laughs scornfully while imagining that Gavin Elster and Judy were together until Gavin ditched her after he killed Madeleine. Scott asks Judy why she screamed as the real Madeleine fell from the tower. Judy is in anguish because she just wants Scott to love her, not the version of her that pretended to be Madeleine. When they reach the top of the bell tower, Scott is so angry he seems capable of violence. A shadow appears in the doorway. Is it the ghost of Madeleine or Carlotta? Judy screams in fright and accidentally falls from the tower and dies. The shadow belongs to a nun. Scott looks down at her body and stands with his arms outstretched, just as he did in his dream in which he falls and dies.
Kruger-Brent
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Trivia: The McKittrick Hotel was a very real building in San Francisco. The indoor set was the same one used by Hitchcock two years later in the film "Psycho."
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Suggested correction: The McKittrick Hotel lobby and staircase scenes were all shot on location in San Francisco in the Henry F. Fortmann mansion. Proof can be seen in a book about the house in photos taken before it was demolished by Sacred Heart Prep School. The Psycho mansion interiors were all shot on a Hollywood soundstage.
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