Movie Type: Romantic Mystery, Psychological Thriller
Themes: Doctors and Patients, Assumed Identities, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Jean Acker, Rhonda Fleming, Leo G. Carroll, Donald Curtis, Norman Lloyd, Regis Toomey
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
Plot
As Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychothriller opens, the staff of a posh mental asylum eagerly awaits the arrival of the new director. When the man in question shows up, it turns out to be handsome psychiatrist John Ballantine (Gregory Peck). But something's wrong, here: Ballantine seems much too young for so important a position; his answers to the staff's questions are vague and detached; and he seems unusually distressed by the parallel marks, left by a fork, on a white tablecloth. Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) comes to the conclusion that Ballantine is not the new director, but a profoundly disturbed amnesiac--and, possibly, the murderer of the real director. But is she correct in her inferences? Scriptwriters Angus MacPhail and Ben Hecht soon add to this the complication that Constance begins to fall in love with John. Director Hitchcock tapped surrealist artist Salvador Dali to design the visually arresting dream sequences in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Behind a veil of psychoanalytic babble lies a simple tale of murder in Alfred Hitchcock's popular thriller Spellbound. During the WWII era in which the film was released, it was heralded for its intellectual use of Freudian theories to solve a murder. In retrospect, however, the film reveals psychoanalytic ideas that are simplistic and obsolete to the point of becoming comical. In spite of this, Hitchcock's tremendous ability to create suspense remains a timeless one and the film's thriller elements, combined with a series of outstanding visuals, bring Spellbound within a notch of the director's best works. The psychological elements allowed Hitchcock to be creative visually and he went to the best, hiring artist Salvador Dali to design a series of incredibly eerie dream sequences. Sadly, only a few of Dali's wonderful creations made the final cut while the others were either lost or destroyed. Hitchcock often spoke of one particularly fantastic sequence in which a statue cracked and fell apart, revealing star Ingrid Bergman beneath it. Gregory Peck is a strong male lead playing the protagonist with a confused and cloudy mind, but Bergman steals the show as his love-struck shrink, a woman described by one of her peers as "a human glacier." Spellbound was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor (Michael Chekhov), but went on to win for Miklos Rozsa's chilling score. Hitchcock's cameo arrives at the film's 38-minute mark, when the director can be seen exiting an elevator. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
John Ewing - Art Director, Howard Greer - Costume Designer, Lowell J. Farrell - First Assistant Director, Alfred Hitchcock - Director, William H. Ziegler - Editor, Hal Kern - Editor, Miklos Rozsa - Composer (Music Score), James Basevi - Production Designer, George Barnes - Cinematographer, Rex Wimpy - Cinematographer, James Wimpy - Cinematographer, David O. Selznick - Producer, Emile Kuri - Set Designer, Jack Cosgrove - Special Effects, Ben Hecht - Screenwriter, Angus MacPhail - Screenwriter, Salvador Dali - Sequence Director, Francis Beeding - Book Author
