Again Hitchcock features a wary couple falling in love while on the run when one is accused of a crime.
Gender roles are reversed: Ingred Bergman drives the story - ultimately unmasking the killer - while Gregory Peck is the man-in-distress, swooning when memories overwhelm him.
Psychoanalyst Constance Peterson works at an institution whose director Dr Murchison is retiring after a nervous collapse. The new director is Dr Anthony Edwardes and he and Constance, who wearies of the sexism of the male analysts, are immediately attracted.
Slowly Constance realises that he is not Dr Edwardes but 'JB' an amnesiac impersonating the doctor to cover up his belief that he was responsible for the doctor's death.
'JB' flees to New York when discovered but Constance follows him, determined to reveal the truth of his identity. Pursued by the police, Contance and her former mentor Dr Brulov piece together 'JB's shattered memory.
Shelf or charity shop? A keeper in my DVD plastic storage box limbo. Made while Hitchcock was still under contract to David O. Selznick, they again clashed as with the filming of REBECCA which might explain why Hitch dismissed SPELLBOUND later in his career. Selznick even edited out practically all of the highly-publicised dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí. But there is much in SPELLBOUND to enjoy - Hitchcock's masterly story-telling (despite the occasional pause to discuss what psychoanalysis is), Ingred Bergman's wonderfully sympathetic performance paired with Peck's haunted 'JB', the Academy Award-winning Miklos Rosza score and - as usual with Hitchcock films - supporting performances that really pop off the screen like Michael Chekhov's wise mentor, Bill Goodwin's hoodwinked hotel detective and, in just one scene, Rhonda Fleming as a seductive asylum inmate.
No comments:
Post a Comment