Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor, based on the novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

Detective John 'Scottie" Ferguson

• Well, I think that explains it. Anyone could become obsessed with the past with a background like that!

• [to Midge] I always said you were wasting your time in the underwear department.

• You're gonna be all right now, Madeleine. Don't you see? You've given me something to work on now! I'm gonna take you down there to that mission this afternoon and when you see it, you'll remember when you saw it before, and it'll finish your dream. It will destroy it. I promise you. All right?

Gavin Elster

• The things that spell San Francisco to me are disappearing fast..I should have liked to have lived here then - color, excitement, power, freedom.

• My wife Madeleine has several pieces of jewelry that belonged to Carlotta. She inherited them. Never wore them - they were too old-fashioned, until now. Now when she's alone, she takes them out and looks at them, handles them gently, curiously. Puts them on and stares at herself in the mirror. Then goes into that other world, is someone else again.

• Sorry Scottie, that was rotten. He had no right to speak to you like that. It was my responsibility. I shouldn't have got you involved. No, there's nothing you have to say to me. I'm getting out Scottie, for good. I can't stay here. I'm going to wind up her affairs, and mine, and get away as far as I can. Europe perhaps. I probably never will come back. Goodbye, Scottie. If there's anything I can do for you before I go? There's no way for them to understand. You and I know who killed Madeleine.

Others

• Pop Leibel: Oh yes, I remember. Carlotta, beautiful Carlotta, sad...It (the McKittrick Hotel) was hers. It was built for her many years ago...by...the name I do not remember, a rich man, powerful man...It is not an unusual story. She came from somewhere small to the south of the city. Some say from a mission settlement. Young, yes, very young. And she was found dancing and singing in cabaret by that man. And he took her and built for her the great house in the Western Addition. And, uh, there was, there was a child, yes, that's it, a child, a child. I cannot tell you exactly how much time passed or how much happiness there was, but then he threw her away. He had no other children. His wife had no children. So, he kept the child and threw her away. You know, a man could do that in those days. They had the power and the freedom. And she became the sad Carlotta, alone in the great house, walking the streets alone, her clothes becoming old and patched and dirty. And the mad Carlotta, stopping people in the streets to ask, 'Where is my child?' 'Have you seen my child?' ...She died...by her own hand. There are many such stories.

• Midge: Oh, Johnnie, Johnnie. Please try. Try, Johnnie. You're not lost. Mother's here...John-O, you don't even know I'm here, do you?

• Judy Barton: I heard that one before too. I remind you of someone you used to be madly in love with, but then she ditched ya for another guy. And you've been carrying the torch ever since. Then you saw me and something clicked.

• Judy Barton: [in a letter to Scottie] Dear Scottie: And so you found me. This is the moment that I've dreaded and hoped for, wondering what I would say and do if I ever saw you again. I wanted so to see you again just once. Now I'll go and you can give up your search. I want you to have peace of mind. You have 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, 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 a witness to a suicide. Carlotta's 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. I made a 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.

Dialogue

Scottie: It's because of this fear of heights I have, this acrophobia. I wake up at night seeing that man fall from the roof and I try to reach out to him, it's just...

Midge: It wasn't your fault.

Scottie: I know. That's what everybody tells me.

Midge: Johnny, the doctors explained to you.

Scottie: 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!

Midge: Well, you've got it and there's no losing it. And there's no one to blame, so why quit?

Scottie: You mean and sit behind a desk, chair-bound...

Midge: ...where you belong.

Scottie: What about my acrophobia? What about... Now, suppose, suppose I'm sitting in this chair behind a desk, here's the desk, and a pencil falls from the desk down to the floor, and I reach down to pick up the pencil - BINGO - my acrophobia's back.

Midge: [Laughing.] Oh, Johnny-O.

Scottie: I'm a man of independent means as the saying goes. Fairly independent.

Midge: Hmm, mmm. Well, why don't you go away for a while?

Scottie: You mean to forget? Oh now, Midge, don't be so motherly. I'm not gonna crack up.

Elster: Is it a permanent, physical disability?

Scottie: No, no. It just means that I can't climb stairs that are too steep or go to high places like the bar at the Top of the Mark. But there are plenty of street-level bars in this town.

Elster: [regarding his wife] 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 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?

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.

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.

Midge: Is she pretty?

Scottie: Carlotta?

Midge: No, not Carlotta. Elster's wife.

Scottie: Yes, I guess you'd consider that she would...

Midge: I think I'll go and take a look at that portrait.

Scottie: You'd better come over here by the fire where it's warm.

Madeleine: What am I doing here? What happened?

Scottie: Well, you fell into San Francisco Bay. I, uh, I tried to dry your hair as best I could. Your things are in the kitchen. They'll be dry in a few minutes. Come on over by the fire.

Madeleine: It's lucky for me you were wandering about. Thank you. I've been a terrible bother to you.

Scottie: No you haven't.

Madeleine: ...You shouldn't have brought me here, you know.

Scottie: Well, I didn't know where you lived.

Madeleine: You could have looked in my car. Oh, but then you didn't know my car, did you?

Scottie: No, I knew which one it was. It's right outside here now, but I didn't think you wanted to be taken home that way.

Madeleine: No, you're right. I'm glad you didn't take me home. I wouldn't have known you. Thank you. But I don't know you and you don't know me. My name is Madeleine Elster.

Scottie: My name's John Ferguson.

Madeleine: A good strong name. Do your friends call you John or Jack?

Scottie: Oh, John mostly. Old friends call me John. Acquaintances call me Scottie.

Madeleine: I shall call you Mr. Ferguson.

Scottie: Oh, gee whiz, I wouldn't like that. Oh, no, and after what happened this afternoon, I should think maybe you'd call me Scottie, maybe even John.

Madeleine: Then I prefer John...And what do you do, John?

Scottie: Oh, just wander about.

Madeleine: That's a good occupation. And you live here alone? One shouldn't live alone.

Scottie: Some people prefer it, you know.

Madeleine: No, it's wrong. I'm married, you know.

Scottie: Will you tell me something? Has this ever happened to you before?

Madeleine: What?

Scottie: Falling into San Francisco Bay.

Madeleine: Oh, no. No it's never happened before...

Scottie: Don't you think it's a waste, to wander separately?

Madeleine: Only one is a wanderer. Two together are always going somewhere.

Scottie: No, I don't think that's necessarily true.

Scottie: Madeleine, Madeleine where are you now?

Madeleine: Here with you.

Scottie: Where?

Madeleine: Tall trees.

Scottie: Have you been here before?

Madeleine: Yes.

Scottie: When? When? When were you born?

Madeleine: Long ago.

Scottie: Where? When? Tell me. Madeleine, tell me!

Madeleine: [shaking her head back and forth] No.

Scottie: Madeleine, tell me where? Where do you go? What takes you away? When you jumped into the bay, you didn't know where you were. You guessed but you didn't know.

Madeleine: I didn't jump. I didn't jump I tell you. You told me I jumped.

Scottie: Why did you jump? Why did you jump?

Madeleine: Oh I can't tell you.

Scottie: Why did you jump? What was there inside that told you to jump?

Madeleine: No please. Please.

Scottie: What? What?

Madeleine: Please don't ask me. Please don't ask me. Get me away from here.

Scottie: Shall I take you home?

Madeleine: Somewhere in the light. Promise me something? Promise you won't ask me again? Please promise me that.

Madeleine: Why did you run?

Scottie: Well, I'm responsible for you now. You know, the Chinese say that once you've saved a person's life, you're responsible for it forever. So, I'm committed. I have to know.

Madeleine: There's so little that I know.

Madeleine: It's as though I-I were walking down a long corridor that once was mirrored. And fragments of that mirror still hang there. And when I come to the end of the corridor, there's nothing but darkness. And I know that when I walk into the darkness, that I'll die. I've never come to the end. I've always come back before then, except once.

Scottie: Yesterday? [She nods agreement.] And you didn't know. You didn't know what happened till you found yourself in the...you didn't know where you were. But the small scenes, the fragments of the mirror, do you remember those?

Madeleine: Vaguely.

Scottie: What do you remember?

Madeleine: There's a room and I sit there alone, always alone.

Scottie: What else?

Madeleine: A grave.

Scottie: Where?

Madeleine: I don't know. It's an open grave, and I, I stand by the gravestone looking down into it. It's my grave.

Scottie: But how do you know?

Madeleine: I know.

Scottie: Is there a name on the gravestone?

Madeleine: No. It's new and clean and waiting.

Madeleine: There's a tower and a bell and a garden below. It seems to be in Spain, it's in Spain, but so often it's gone.

Scottie: A portrait. Do you see a portrait?

Madeleine: No.

Scottie: If I could just find the key, the beginning and put it together...

Madeleine: ...to explain it away? There is a way to explain it you see. If I'm mad, that would explain it, wouldn't it?

...

Madeleine: Oh Scottie. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I don't want to die. There's someone within me and she says I must die. Oh Scottie, don't let me go.

Scottie: I'm here. I've got you.

Madeleine: I'm so afraid. [They kiss] Don't leave me. Stay with me.

Scottie: All the time.

Madeleine: [describing her dream] It was so very clear for the first time, all of it...It was a village square in a green with trees and an old white-washed Spanish church with a cloister. Across the green, there was a big gray wooden house with a porch and shutters and a balcony above, a small garden, and next to it a livery stable with old carriages lined up inside...At the end of the green, there was a white-washed stone house with a lovely pepper tree at the corner...

Scottie: And an old wooden hotel from the old California days? And a saloon, dark, low ceilings, with hanging oil lamps?

Madeleine: Yes.

Scottie: It's all there. It's no dream. You've been there before. You've seen it.

Madeleine: No never!

Scottie: Madeleine, where are you now?

Madeleine: Here with you.

Scottie: And it's all real. It's not merely as it was 100 years ago, or a year ago, or six months ago, or whenever it was you were here to see it. Now, Madeleine, think of when you were here.

Scottie: I love you, Madeleine.

Madeleine: I love you too. It's too late.

Scottie: No, no, we're together.

Madeleine: It's too late, there's something I must do.

Scottie: No, there is nothing you must do. There is nothing you must do. No one possesses you. You're safe with me.

Madeleine: No, it's too late.

...

Madeleine: Look, it's not fair. It's too late. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. It shouldn't have happened.

Scottie: But it had to happen. We're in love. That's all that counts.

Madeleine: Look. Let me go. Please let me go.

Scottie: Listen to me. Listen to me.

Madeleine: You believe I love you?

Scottie: Yes.

Madeleine: And if you lose me, then you'll know I, I loved you. And I wanted to go on loving you.

Scottie: I won't lose you.

Madeleine: Let me go into the church - alone.

Scottie: Why?

Scottie: Will you have dinner with me?

Judy: Why?

Scottie: Well, I just feel that I owe you something after all this.

Judy: No, you don't owe me anything.

Scottie: Well, will you then, for me?

Judy: Dinner and what else?

Scottie: Just dinner.

Judy: 'Cause I remind you of her?

Scottie: Because I'd like to have dinner with you.

Judy: Well, I've been on blind dates before. Matter of fact to be honest, I've been picked up before.

Judy: Why? Because I remind you of her? It's not very complimentary. And nothing else?

Scottie: No.

Judy: It's not very complimentary either.

Scottie: I just want to be with you as much as I can, Judy.

Judy: You're looking for the suit that she wore for me. You want me to be dressed like her.

Scottie: Judy, I just want you to look nice. I know the kind of a suit that would look well on you.

Judy: No, I won't do it.

Scottie: Judy, Judy it can't make that much difference to you. I just want to see you...

Judy: No, I don't want any clothes. I don't want anything. I want to get out of here.

Scottie: Judy, do this for me.

Judy: Why are you doing this? What, what good will it do?

Scottie: I don't know. I don't know. No good, I guess, I don't know.

Judy: I wish you'd leave me alone. I want to go away.

Scottie: You can, you know.

Judy: No, you wouldn't let me. And I don't want to go.

Scottie: Judy, Judy, I'll tell you this. These past few days have been the first happy days I've known in a year.

Judy: I know. I know because, 'cause I remind you of her and not even that very much.

Scottie: No, no Judy, Judy, it's you, too. There's something in you...

Judy: You don't even want to touch me.

Scottie: Yes. Yes, I do.

Judy: Couldn't you like me, just me the way I am? When we first started out, it was so good. We had fun. And then you started in on the clothes. Well, I'll wear the darn clothes if you want me to - if-if you'll just, just like me.

...

[Scottie suggest changing her hair to blonde]

Scottie: Judy, please, it can't matter to you!

Judy: If, if I let you change it, will that do it? If I do what you tell me, will you love me?

Scottie: Yes, yes.

Judy: [at the mission bell tower] Scottie, why are we here?

Scottie: I told you. I have to go back into the past once more, just once more for the last time.

Judy: Why? Why here?

Scottie: Madeleine died here, Judy.

Judy: I don't want to go. I'd rather wait here.

Scottie: No, I need you.

Judy: Why?

Scottie: I need you to be Madeleine for a while. And when it's done, we'll both be free.

Judy: I'm scared.

...

Scottie: No, no, I have to tell you about Madeleine now. Right there, we stood there and I kissed her for the last time. And she said, 'If you lose me, you'll know that I loved you and wanted to keep on loving you.' And I said, 'I won't lose you.' But I did. And then she turned and ran into the church...and when I followed her, it was too late.

[Scottie pulls Judy into the church]

Judy: I don't want to go in there.

[They begin climbing the tower's steps]

Scottie: I couldn't find her. And then I heard footsteps on the stairs. She was running up to the tower. Right here. You see, she was running up the stairs and through the trap door at the top of the tower. And I tried to follow her, but I couldn't get to the top. I tried but I couldn't get to the top. One doesn't often get a second chance. I want to stop being haunted. You're my second chance, Judy. You're my second chance.

Judy: Take me away.

Scottie: You look like Madeleine now. Go up the stairs...Go up the stairs! Go up the stairs, Judy, and I'll follow. This was as far as I could get...but you went on, remember? The necklace Madeleine, that was the slip. I remember the necklace."

...

Judy: [about climbing to the top] You can't, you're afraid.

Scottie: Now we'll see. We'll see. This is my second chance. But you knew that day that I wouldn't be able to follow you, didn't you? Who was up there when you got up there? Elster and his wife?...Yes, and she was the one who died! The real wife, not you! You were the copy. You were the counterfeit, weren't you? Was she dead or alive when you got there?

Judy: Dead. He'd broken her neck.

Scottie: He'd broken her neck. He wasn't taking any chances was he? So when you got up there, he pushed her off the tower. But it was you that screamed. Why did you scream?

Judy: I wanted to stop it.

Scottie: You played the wife very well, Judy. He made you over, didn't he? He made you over just like I made you over. Only better. Not only the clothes and the hair. But the looks and the manner and the words. And those beautiful phony trances. And you jumped into the Bay, didn't you? I'll bet you're a wonderful swimmer, aren't you? Aren't you? Aren't you? And then what did he do? Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do and what to say? You were a very apt pupil, too, weren't you? You were a very apt pupil. Why did you pick on me? Why me?...I was the set-up. I was the set-up, wasn't I? I was a made-to-order witness.

...

Scottie: I made it. I made it. So this is where it happened. The two of you hid back there and waited for it to clear, and then you sneaked down and drove into town, is that it? And then, you were his girl, huh? Well, what happened to ya? What happened to ya? Did he ditch ya? Oh Judy, with all of his wife's money and all that freedom and that power and he ditched you. What a shame! But he knew he was safe. He knew you couldn't talk. Did he give you anything?

Judy: Money.

Scottie: And the necklace, Carlotta's necklace, there was where you made your mistake, Judy. You shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn't have been, you shouldn't have been that sentimental. I loved you so, Madeleine!

Judy: I was safe when you found me. There was nothing that you could prove. When I saw you again, I couldn't run away. I loved you so. I walked into danger, let you change me because I loved you and I wanted you. Oh, Scottie, oh Scottie please. You love me. Please keep me safe, please...

Scottie: It's too late. It's too late.

Taglines

• Alfred Hitchcock engulfs you in a whirlpool of terror and tension!

• A mystery revised... A Master Remembered! (1996 Restored Film Premiere)

Cast

• James Stewart - Det. John 'Scottie' Ferguson
• Kim Novak - Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton
• Barbara Bel Geddes - Marjorie 'Midge' Wood
• Tom Helmore - Gavin Elster