The movie would have worked better if Kim Novak had not written that note to Stewart just prior to his picking her up to take her to diner down the coast (and ultimately to the mission church). The note, which she did not give to him, but read out loud to the audience, was information that we should not have been given. The knowledge ruined the suspense rather than added to it. The viewer would have guessed that Stewart had become suspicious when he suggested that they first vision the mission church. On the steps up to the tower, Novak could have confessed her love as the reason she allowed herself to be transformed. But instead we already knew and were simply waiting, not for the climax, but for the falling action and the conclusion.
Review of Vertigo
