The detective/mystery film has a number of different features which identify it while at the same time it consists of several different sub-genres representing variations in the basic generic structure. Many of the films of Alfred Hitchcock can be and have been identified as mysteries, though they are not usually mysteries in the sense of the "whodunit" or the strict detective film. Instead, they are films about crime, using the psychological underpinnings of crime as keys for delving into the realm of suspense. Mysteries use suspense as well as the viewer waits to see who committed the crime. The detective story is one of the staples of the Hollywood film, though in different periods the detective story has taken different forms according to public tastes. For much of the thirties and forties, the detective in the mold of Sherlock Holmes--the consulting detective, often a private individual rather than a police official, sometimes a gifted amateur rather than a professional--was common, with several different series characters exemplifying this genre. The detective film would later shift to the private eye while retaining the emphasis on discovery and the unraveling of a mystery.
Alfred Hitchcock often stated that he did not direct mysteries as such but suspense films, and the difference between the two is vital in terms of the way he shapes his films. There is still an element of the detective or mystery story in his films. Hitchcock uses these elements in his larger scheme to make use of the expectations of his audience as a way of increasing the suspense. Hitchcock in fact plays against the expectations of the mystery genre itself in order to draw in his audience and develop his thematic concerns, and he often does this in a tongue-in-cheek way that deliberately undercuts the mystery element.
The expectations of the detective story are raised in the structure of Vertigo, and one reason for doing this is to misdi...