Vertigo Quotes

Scottie: What's this doohickey?
Midge: It's a brassiere! You know about those things, you're a big boy now.
Scottie: I've never run across one like that.
Midge: It's brand new. Revolutionary up-lift: No shoulder straps, no back straps, but it does everything a brassiere should do. Works on the principle of the

cantilevered bridge.
Scottie: It does?
Midge: An aircraft engineer down the peninsula designed it; he worked it out in his spare time.
Scottie: Kind of a hobby, a do-it-yourself kind of thing!

Gavin Elster: She'll be talking to me about something. Suddenly the words fade into silence. A cloud comes into her eyes and they go blank. She's somewhere else, away from me, someone I don't know. I call to her, she doesn't even hear me. Then, with a long sigh, she's back. Looks at me brightly, doesn't even know she's been away, can't tell me where or when.

Scottie: How often does this happen?
Gavin Elster: More and more in the past few weeks. And she wanders. God knows where she wanders. I followed her one day, watched her coming out of the apartment, someone I didn't know. She even walked a different way. Got into her car and drove off to Golden Gate Park. Five miles. Sat by the lake, staring across the

water at the pillars that stand on the far shore. You know, Portals of the Past. Sat there a long time without moving. I had to leave, get back to the office. When I got home that evening, I asked her what she'd done all day. She said she'd driven out to Golden Gate Park and sat by the lake, that's all.
Scottie: Well?
Gavin Elster: The speedometer on

her car showed that she'd driven ninety-four miles. Where did she go? I've got to know, Scottie, where she goes and what she does before I get involved with doctors.

Judy: SPOILER
[Writing a letter]
Judy: Dearest Scottie... and so you found me. This is the moment that I dreaded and hoped for - wondering what I would say and do if ever I saw you again. I wanted so to see you again just once. Now I'll go and you can give up your search.
[pause]
Judy: I want you to have peace of mind.

You've nothing to blame yourself for. You were the victim. I was the tool and you were the victim of Gavin Elster's plan to murder his wife. He chose me to play the part because I looked like her; he dressed me up like her. He was quite safe because she lived in the country and rarely came to town. He chose you to be the witness to a suicide. The Carlotta story was part real, part invented to make

you testify that Madeleine wanted to kill herself. He knew of your illness; he knew you'd never get up the stairs to the tower. He planned it so well; he made no mistakes.
[pause]
Judy: I made the mistake. I fell in love. That wasn't part of the plan. I'm still in love with you, and I want you so to love me. If I had the nerve, I'd stay and lie, hoping that I could

make you love me again, as I am for myself... and so forget the other and forget the past. But I don't know whether I have the nerve to try...
[She pauses for a long time, then stands and tears up the letter]