WE ARE ENTRANCED...

I have just finished watching Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND on dvd. For some unknown reason I have never seen it before though it must have been on tv countless times. It's not up there with 'Vertigo' but it was damn good and a real tribute to Hitch's storytelling abilities.

Despite knowing the ending (one of the curses in coming late to a famous film) - and having seen Salvador Dali's dream sequence so often out of context - I was engaged throughout mainly thanks to the very fine performances of Ingrid Bergman and surprisingly Gregory Peck. I say surprisingly as he is usually an actor that does nothing for me.. portrayers of American Everyman usually leave me cold - Peck, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, Harrison Ford for me all have that stolid, solid dull exterior. However in SPELLBOUND Peck plays 'JB' was immense charm and a vulnerable sense of bewilderment at his amnesiatic state. Tall, dark and apt to faint. I like that in a man.

There was also a genuine warmth and charisma between him and Bergman which carries you through the plot contrivences to actually believe in the love story. A rare occurence these days when the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck etc. are so disgustingly self-absorbed on screen.

All this for the cost of a snoozepaper - the dvd was free a few weeks ago with the Saturday Times.

The Tory press can be so handy.