Vertigo

Give me your hand!

Give me your hand!

Ouch! Ouch!

- I thought you said no more pains. - It's this corset, it binds.

No three-way stretch? How very un-chic.

Well, you know those police department doctors, no sense of style.

- Anyway, tomorrow will be the day. - Why, what's tomorrow?

Tomorrow? The corset comes off tomorrow.

I'll be able to scratch myself, I'll throw this miserable thing out the window.

Be a free... free man.

Midge, do you suppose many men wear corsets?

- Mm, more than you think. - Really?

You know that from personal experience?

Please. What happens after tomorrow?

- What do you mean? - Well, what are you going to do?

- Once you quit the police force. - You sound so disapproving.

No, it's your life. But you were the bright young lawyer

that decided he was going to be chief of police someday.

- I had to quit. - Why?

Because of this fear of heights I have, this acrophobia.

I wake up at nights seeing that man fall from the roof and I try to reach out and...

- It wasn't your fault. - That's what everybody tells me.

- Johnnie, the doctors explained... - I know, I know.

I have acrophobia which gives me vertigo, and I get dizzy.

Boy... what a moment to find out I had it.

Well, there's no losing it. There's no one to blame, so why quit?

You mean sit behind a desk? Chairborne.

- Where you belong. - What about my acrophobia? What...?

Suppose I'm sitting in this chair behind the desk

and a pencil falls to the floor, I reach down to pick it up,

- bingo, my acrophobia's back. - Oh, Johnnie-o.

Well, what'll you do?

I'm not going to do anything for a while.

I'm a man of independent means, as the saying goes.

- Fairly independent. - Mm.

- Why don't you go away for a while? - You mean to forget?

Oh, Midge, don't be so motherly. I'm not going to crack up.

Have you had any dizzy spells this week?

I'm having one right now.

The music, don't you think it's sort of...

Oh.

What's this doohickey?

It's a brassiere.

You know about those things, you're a big boy now.

I've never run across one like that.

It's brand-new. Revolutionary uplift. No shoulder straps, no back straps

but it does everything a brassiere should do.

It works like a cantilever bridge.

It does?

Aircraft engineer down the peninsula designed it,

worked it out in his spare time.

Kind of a hobby.

Oh. A do-it-yourself type thing.

How's your love life, Midge?

That's following a train of thought.

Well...

Normal.

Aren't you ever gonna get married?

You know there's only one man for me.

You mean me.

We were engaged once, weren't we?

- Three whole weeks. - Good old college days.

You were the one that called off the engagement.

I'm still available. Available Ferguson.

Do you remember a fellow in college called Gavin Elster?

- Gavin Elster? - Yes, funny name.

You'd think I would. No.

I had a call from Gavin today. Funny, we lost touch during the war.

Somebody said he went east. I guess he's back.

It's a Mission number.

- That's skid row, isn't it? - Could be.

He's probably on the bum and wants the price of a drink.

I'll buy him a couple of drinks and tell him my troubles.

But not tonight, how about we go out for a beer?

- Sorry, old man, work. - I think I'll go home.

Midge, what did you mean, ''there's no losing it''?

- What? - The, er, the acrophobia.

I asked my doctor, he said only another emotional shock could do it,

and probably wouldn't.

Don't dive off another rooftop to find out.

I think I can lick it.

- How? - I have a theory.

I think if I can get used to heights, just a little bit at a time.

Just a little like that. Progressively. I'll show you what I mean.

Here. I'll show you what I mean.

- We'll start with this. - That?

You want me to start with the Golden Gate Bridge?

Watch this. Here we go.

There. There.

Now, I look up, I look down.

I look up...

- You're kidding. Wait a minute. - There's nothing to it!

- Here. - Oh, that's a girl.

We'll use that. Put it right there.

All right. Here's the first step. There.

OK, now step number two.

All right, step number two coming up.

There we are. See, I look up, I look down. I look up...

I'm going to buy myself a tall stepladder.

- Take it easy. - All right, here we go.

No problem.

This is a cinch. I look up, I look down.

I look up, I look down.

Oh, Johnnie, Johnnie.

How did you get in the shipbuilding business, Gavin?

I married into it.

- Very interesting business. - To be honest, I find it dull.

You don't have to do it for a living.

No, but one assumes responsibilities.

My wife's family has all gone, someone has to look after her interests.

Her father's partner runs the company yard in the east - Baltimore.

So I decided, as long as I had to work at it, I'd come back here.

- I've always liked it here. - How long have you been back?

- Almost a year. - You like it, huh?

Well, San Francisco's changed.

The things that spell San Francisco to me are disappearing fast.

- Like all these? - I should like to have lived here then.

Colour, excitement, power, freedom.

- Er, shouldn't you be sitting down? - No, I'm all right.

I was sorry to read about that thing in the paper.

And you've quit the force, is it a permanent physical disability?

No. No, it just means I can't climb steep stairs or go to high places,

like the bar at the Top of the Mark.

But there are street-level bars in this town.

Would you like a drink now?

No, I don't think so, it's a little early in the day for me.

Well, I guess that just about covers everything.

I never married, I don't see much of the old college gang,

I'm a retired detective and you're in the shipbuilding business.

What's on your mind, Gavin?

I asked you here, Scottie, knowing you'd quit detective work,

but I wondered whether you'd go back on the job as a special favour to me.

I want you to follow my wife. No, it's not that.

- We're very happily married. - Well, then...

- I'm afraid some harm may come to her. - From whom?

Someone dead.

Scottie, do you believe that someone out of the past, someone dead,

can enter and take possession of a living being?

No.

If I told you I believed this has happened to my wife, what would you say?

I'd say take her to the nearest psychiatrist or psychologist

or neurologist or maybe just the plain family doctor.

I'd have him check on you too.

Then you're of no use to me, I'm sorry I wasted your time.

Thanks for coming in, Scottie.

OK.

I, er... I didn't mean to be that rough.

It sounds idiotic, I know.

You're still the hard-headed Scot, aren't you?

Always were.

- You think I'm making it up? - No.

I'm not making it up, I wouldn't know how.

She'll be talking to me about something

and 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.

Well... how often does this happen?

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 out to Golden Gate Park,

five miles.

Sat by the lake, staring across the water at the pillars on the far shore,

you know, the Portals of the Past.

Sat there a long time without moving.

I had to leave, get back to the office.

When I got home, I asked her what she'd done all day.

She said she'd driven to Golden Gate Park and sat by the lake, that's all.

Well?

The speedometer on her car showed she'd driven 94 miles.

Where did she go?

I've got to know where she goes and what she does, before I involve doctors.

- Have you talked to doctors? - Yes, but carefully.

I want to know more before committing her to that kind of care.

OK, I'll get a firm of private eyes to follow her for you.

- They're dependable. - I want you.

Look, this isn't my line.

Scottie, I need a friend, someone I can trust. I'm in a panic.

I'm supposed to be retired, I don't want to get mixed up in this.

We're going to an opening at the opera tonight,

we're dining at Ernie's first.

You can see her there.

Ernie's.

Will you tell me something?

That lady, who's the woman in the painting she's looking at?

That's Carlotta. You'll find it in the catalogue. Portrait Of Carlotta.

- May I have this? - Yes.

Thank you.

Yes?

Is there something I can do for you?

- You run this hotel? - Oh, yes.

Who has the room on the second floor in the corner?

That corner.

Oh, we couldn't give out information of that sort.

Our clients are entitled their privacy.