DVD/150: SPELLBOUND (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)

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.

DVD/150: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Sidney Lumet, 1974)

The first of four EMI Agatha Christie starry adaptations of the 70s and 80s always brings back the thrill of seeing it on the big screen when first released.

 

Christie's 1934 classic has Hercule Poirot solving the brutal stabbing of a shady businessman on a snowbound train with the usual cross-section of probable and improbable suspects.

Sidney Lumet was always a fine director of actors and here he orchestrates his cast into a wonderful ensemble.

It is almost an anti-thriller: after the murder, there is no feeling of threat to the other characters, just the pleasure of watching Albert Finney's dazzling Poirot question the other passengers one-by-one.

Lumet offered Ingrid Bergman the role of Princess Dragomiroff - after Dietrich said no - but she chose instead the smaller role of the missionary.  He filmed her 5 minute scene in one take - and she won an Oscar for it!

Shelf or charity shop? Total shelf for Lumet's direction, Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography, Tony Walton's production design and costumes, Richard Rodney Bennett's score and of course that cast!  Pauline Kael, in her New Yorker review, called it a film full of 'turns' which is, of course, the pleasure of watching it.  Personal favourites are Bergman, Finney, John Gielgud's disdainful manservant, and Vanessa Redgrave who has never seemed so relaxed and playful.  Sadly, it would be a lonely cast reunion with only four of the seventeen main cast members still alive at time of writing.  A special mention too for the unnerving montage intro that lingers in the mind as the film progresses and the blue-lit murder scene.

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.