the camera itself takes over the enunciation…it first shows scottie sitting at a bar and then detaches itself from from his searching gaze to conduct its own search for the woman through the restaurant. finally it comes to rest in a long shot of a woman seated…at a table, with her back to the camera. romantic music emerges slowly on the soundtrack and the camera moves slightly forward. it cuts back to scottie looking and to a point of view shot of madeleine, who gets up from her chair and walks into a closeup of her profile. only much later will we be able to see her entire face and only at that time will we get to hear her speak.

this camera movement establishes madeleine as the mute, only half-seen object of a man’s romantic quest

Tania Modleski, The women who knew too much: Hitchcock and feminist theory available at harrow campus