VERTIGO: Stewart’s desperate, fetishistic “makeover” of Judy is humiliating to both Judy and himself. He’s almost sweaty in the scene, hectoring her to wear her hair the “right” way.

The thing I was forgetting about Stewart drugging his wife, until I saw it again, is that he needs to sedate her so they can escape the hotel and pursue the kidnappers to London, and they need to present a normal appearance. At least, that’s the narrative excuse.

The other point is that it’s the only scene where Dr McKenna’s medical expertise is used in the plot. In Rear Window it’s consistently crucial that he’s a photographer, it’s highly relevant that he’s a professional thinker in Rope, and in Vertigo his status as detective is key. Can’t allow the protagonist’s profession to go to waste!

(And in North by Northwest, Cary Grant is an ad man, a professional liar, who finds himself mixed up with the big liars, the secret service and international spies.)

I believe it was Molly Haskell who pointed out that Day, unhappy at having her singing career stopped by marriage to Stewart, finds strength and resolution by singing out — at the embassy (the “Que Sera”) and, metaphorically, by screaming at the sight of Nalder.

There’s a good joke, too, in Brenda De Banzie’s saying of her husband “He’s such a bore, he never does anything!” (or words to that effect. *This* of a kidnapper involved ina spy plot?