Full Definition of SWAG. 1. : sway 1. 2. a: something (as a decoration) hanging in a curve between two points: festoon b: a suspended cluster (as of evergreen branches). 3. a: goods acquired by unlawful means: loot b: spoils, profits.
Both aloof and sensual, Kim Novak was cast by Hitchcock in Vertigo after original actress, Vera Miles, left due to pregnancy. Novak played the dual role of Judy Barton/Madeleine Elster, who becomes the sole obsession of acrophobic police detective John Scottie Ferguson (Stewart).
Finally, Hitchcock rushed Samuel Taylor, who had worked on Vertigo (1958), onto the film. For one of the few times in his career, the director went into production without a finished script. Taylor was submitting scenes throughout the shoot, often the same morning a scene was scheduled to be filmed.