Spellbound is important as it's responsible for bringing psychoanalysis to mainstream Hollywood, influencing Woody Allen, The Sopranos, and other depictions of the therapist/patient dynamic.The dream sequence was to be produced by poverty-row studio Monogram, and met with rejections by producer David O. It serves as a time capsule for the 1940s, where psychoanalytic terms were considered edgy, with some of the dialogue cut to please the censors. It certainly has its fans, and while I don’t consider it top 10 Hitchcock, it really is an expressive and compelling film. Spellbound became a hit with audiences and critics, garnering seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. However, I think Spellbound has the more memorable score, with the haunting music complementing Hitchcock’s suspense quite beautifully. It borders on cheesy, even by my Nancy Meyers-loving standards.įamed composer Miklos Rozsa won the Academy Award for his score in Spellbound. Selznick wanted Spellbound to be the first film to use the theremin, but as luck would have it Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend (also composed by Rozsa) beat this film by a month. Both he and Bergman pull off the romance, but without that menacing angle, the love story is too straightforward for me. Perhaps I’m too influenced by To Kill a Mockingbird and Peck’s other humanitarian efforts, but I don’t find him believable as a murder suspect. At the time, the psychiatry angle was new, but now it just doesn’t have the same novelty. The psychoanalysis is almost too neatly employed to solve the murder. Spellbound has some visually inventive moments where Hitchcock uses forced perspective quite brilliantly. Many of Dali’s ideas were simply impossible (a scene where Bergman is covered in ants) and Selznick cut much of the sequence. The other point of contention was the hiring of Salvador Dali to create the film’s important dream sequence. May Romm as a consultant, but Hitchcock wasn’t interested into that. Selznick wanted the film to be a positive portrayal of psychoanalysis, even hiring his own therapist Dr. Hitchcock and Selznick clashed during the making of this film, even more so than their previous film Rebeccain 1940. That’s especially true when compared to Ingrid Bergman, who is as warm, determined, and empathetic as ever. Seeing Peck, typically a commanding, authoritative actor, in such a passive, confused role is fascinating.
Constance is the detective/psychiatrist, with the imposter-later revealed to be John Ballantyne-in the feminized role of patient/amnesiac. Spellbound is interesting in its gender reversal.
SPELLBOUND 1945 CRACK
Both films are about one person trying to psychoanalyze another in order to crack a big mystery-in Marnie, it was the title character’s aversion to sex here, it’s who killed Dr. Spellbound is a companion piece to Marnie, which I discussed back in July. Believing he is innocent, Constance sets out to solve the murder and help the imposter. Edwardes and took his place, but does not know who he really is. The imposter confesses that he killed Dr. Edwardes has a strange phobia of parallel lines and discovers that the man is an imposter through comparing handwriting. Murchison (Carroll), who is being forced to retire. Constance Petersen (Bergman) is a psychiatrist who falls in love with the new director of the hospital where she works, Dr. Written by frequent Hitchcock collaborators Ben Hecht and Angus MacPhail, the film features a score by Oscar-winner Miklos Rozsa.ĭr.
Saunders), Spellbound stars Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, and Leo G. Edwardes by Francis Beeding (pseudonym for John Palmer and Hilary A. Selznick tapped Alfred Hitchcock to make Hollywood’s first psychoanalysis movie. In the 1940s, America was swept up in a psychoanalysis craze, and star producer David O. Hitchcockian protagonists often have some sort of hang-up preventing them from finding happiness. Hitchcock peered into the dark recesses of the mind, bringing the subconscious up to the surface. Alfred Hitchcock and psychoanalysis seem like they go hand in hand.
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