Spellbound

Rating:
Summary: Psychoanalysis
Review: Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychiatrist, who thinks she has a firm understanding of human nature, that is until she meets Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). He has just become the chief of staff, at the institution, where they both work. As one might expect, the 2 fall in love. but all is not as it seems...For each is hiding a secret.

Direected by Alfred Hitchcock, SPELLBOUND, like the "Master's" later film, MARNIE, this movie concentrates more on the human drama aspects of the story. The film is not a thriller per se` The end result gets bogged down by too much psychobable at times. That said though, I still admire the film, thanks to (the lovely and radiant) Bergman and Peck. Even though some of the dialogue is now dated, the pair gives solid peformances. The movie also boasts an Oscar winning score by composer Miklos Rozsa and memorable dream sequence, created by icon Salvador Dali

The Criterion Collection DVD contains some fine extras. Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane provides another good commentary, as she has in the past, with other Hitchcock Criterion DVDs. There's an illustrated essay on Dali's dream sequence. One of the best supplements on the disc is the '73 radio interview with composer Rozsa, really rare stuff. Speaking of radio, the disc also boasts, the complete 1948 LUX radio adaptation. Additional essays on the director, an exhaustive photo and publicity gallery, and the theatrical trailer, top off the extras on the disc. The look of the film has never been better...

SPELLBOUND may not be among my favorites from Hitchcock, but I still think it's worth your time, as a film, and the rare extras can't be beat. Recommended with *** and a half stars

Rating:
Summary: A compelling psychological drama
Review: This movie is a product of that golden age of incredible plots, talented actors, and visionary directing. A description of the plot may sound somewhat banal, and I doubt if the same movie could be made today and be taken seriously, but this classic is a masterful piece of cinema. When Dr. Edwards (Gregory Peck) arrives at Green Manors Mental Asylum to replace the head man, he quickly falls for the heretofore distant, hyperanalytical Dr. Constance Petersen (played by the incomparable Ingrid Bergman). Constance soon discovers that the man she is falling in love with is not Dr. Edwards at all but is instead an amnesiac who has taken the place of the real Dr. Edwards. Although the impostor is afraid he killed the real doctor, Constance is determined to help him regain his memory. The mystery of Dr. Edward's disappearance quickly leads to a police investigation, but Constance follows her "patient" to the city and eventually takes him to the home of her mentor, striving to prove that the man she loves is not a murderer. The ending, I must say, does not disappoint; it actually exceeded my own expectations.

Bergman is naturally wonderful in her role, and her accent adds a trace of mystery to an already suspenseful story. The portrayal of Dr. Murchison, the previous head of the asylum, is smooth, polished, and quite effective, and the actor portraying Constance's former mentor does a masterful job as a somewhat stereotypical pseudo-Freud blessed with a penchant for making remarks I found quite humorous. While Gregory Peck is also very good, he seems to go a little over the top at times when he is reacting to troubling stimuli. Hitchcock's direction is both innovative and masterful. There are several scenes involving unusual camera shots that add much to the atmosphere of mounting suspense, and a dream sequence supposedly designed by Salvador Dali is unique and oddly compelling.

Certainly, Freudian analysis was more in vogue when this movie was made in 1955 than it is now. It is Constance's belief that something from the impostor's childhood triggered his amnesia, and she seeks to help him by unlocking his buried memories. A crucial plot point centers around a surreal dream the impostor has and Constance's interpretation of its meaning. While some modern viewers may scoff at the notions espoused here, such feelings should take nothing away from the enjoyment of this classic, atmospheric, suspenseful drama.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely sacrilegious review...
Review: First things first: I am not a Hitchcock fan, fanatic, or devotee. The only film I like by him, after seeing quite a few, is Frenzy, a lesser known work from the early 70s.

Why is that?

Let's take Spellbound, the film here reviewed. Hitchcock is famous for romantic suspense; there are quite a few examples of his work in this category, and Spellbound is one of the most flagrant. I say "flagrant" because he delights in working with actors who can provide emotional overheat, supposedly signifying passion. When Ingrid Bergman as psychoanalyst Constance Peterson is worried about her lover, John Brown (nee Ballantine), played by Gregory Peck, she rants and cries and throws herself around. When Gregory Peck remembers something about his past, his face becomes completely zomboid and he subsequently spouts emotionally overheated dialogue, making absolutely sure the viewer knows he is upset about what he's experiencing.

Hitchock may have believed in "MacGuffins", but he did nothing to hide this bombast from the audience. Anyone seeking subtlety and real depth--i.e., intelligence--in the portrayal of human behavior won't find it watching a Hitchock film.

Additionally, he's not only not above using stereotypes, he often loves them, because they convey what he really wants to convey--his fulfillment of what he believe the audience EXPECTS to see and hear. Thus, in Spellbound, for example, he has a wise old psychoanalyst, Bergman's mentor, who proffers sagely advice. This is a character the audience can relax with, and the principal reason for that is that they, the audience, EXPECT this character to deliver certain lines and that's excatly what he does.

Hitchock was an arch conservative who may have been innovative in cinematic technique from time to time, but storywise, took no chances. Spellbound, like most of his films, today seems dated, even coy, because the actors are enacting what really amounts to an emotional tableau--a series of set pieces designed to elicit intensity of feeling by providing them, the actors, with dialogue and related behavior attempting to force the audience to experience simple responses. This simple-minded approach to film making is, in fact, an insult to intelligence.

While much has been made of the Dali-inspired dream sequence, it counts for little here, because it is used for show only. Once presented, its analysis is piecemeal, which is all very well and good, but its detail is discarded. That is, the care and precision that went into creating the sequence itself is essentially thrown out in favor of, yet again, a simple-minded subsequent "analysis" that disregards any real discussion of its bizarre-ness and instead focuses on its basics. One might argue that this is necessary to prevent audience loss of interest, but the converse of this arguement is, as I would maintain, an approach to filmmaking that refuses to really investigate human behavior but only scratch the surface.

This being the case, it appears that Hitchcock is really afraid that he will not appeal to the common man if he makes a film that provides the viewer an opportunity to think with his heart, or feel with his head. Instead what we have, in Spellbound as in most of his films, is a work that revels in overkill to insure that the "message" is not lost.

While Spellbound's message, like that of many films, is that love conquers all, the manner of its presentation is much too simplistic and overwrought to make this an interesting film today.

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Summary: Dreams of Morality Perversion and Exposed Evil
Review: SPELLBOUND was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick in 1945. As the story unravels it is essentially a murder plot interwoven around psychiatrists and psychoanalysis. It is actually Alfred Hitchcock's approach to the story and his collaborations with composer Miklos Rozsa and surrealist artist Salvador Dali that highlights this film. Gregory Peck plays John "J.B." Ballantine who poses as a psychiatrist while in a state of amnesia. Uncovered by Dr. Constance Peterson played by Ingrid Bergman, Ballantine must find out if he is responsible for the death of the missing psychiatrist that he posed as and simultaneously discover his own identity. Miklos Rozsa's score is both romantic yet eerie as Ballantine tries to remember what happened through analysis of his dreams. Alfred Hitchcock hired Salvador Dali to design illustrations and paintings in order to construct a crisp and vivid rendering of these dreams. Hitchcock did not want to use conventional techniques such as blurred camera shots to recreate the dreams. He wanted them to be as clear and even sharper than the rest of the film. He wanted Dali's style of using shadows, lines of convergence and the idea of infinite distance incorporated into the dream sequences. In the dream sequence we see a black stage highlighted with people at gambling tables with huge mysterious looking eyes peering over them. A man cuts away at the fabric of one eye with a giant scissors revealing another eye. In another part of the dream we see a man standing on a roof behind a chimney that has sprouted roots. The hooded man holds what looks like a deformed or eccentric wagon wheel in his hand. In the distance there is a formation of rocks and boulders, which look like they are sprouting into the shape of a man's head. Another part of the dream shows a man running down a pitched geometric plane as the shadow of a bird follows him. In the background there are geometric shapes and lines that go off into infinity. All these images must be interpreted into experiences from reality. Dali's images are unsettling and thought provoking. Eventually, the eccentric wagon wheel turns out to represent the chambers of a revolver pistol and reveals the true identity of the murderer. A surrealistic painting brings to the canvas an image from reality but puts it into a context of the unreal. I think Dali was successful in translating the realistic elements from the plot into a vision of incomprehensibility of the conscious human mind. Hitchcock and the scriptwriter Ben Hecht then had their characters translate Dali's images back into plausible reality. This is brilliant filmmaking years ahead of its time.

Rating:
Summary: HITCHCOCK AND DALI
Review: Ingrid Bergan is an intense iceberg psychiatrist, who is sexually awakened by her institute's new chief, Gregory Peck, finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery revolving about him. An imposter suffering from amnesia, Peck is everyone's prime suspect. But through a combination of love, psychological technique, and persistence, Bergman protects him and eventually solves the crime. Ingrid also shows up a gaggle of idiotic collegues and is definitely the dominate, sane force. In a rare film where events are resolved by feminine strength, Hitchcock used Bergman to cure Peck of his memory lapse and in no way comprimised her background, education or career to effect happiness and dignity for both of them Famous for Salvador Dali's art sequences, this movie was both a commercial and critical success in 1945. While Bergman and Peck make a rather strange pair, SPELLBOUND remains one of the best "madmen take over the asylum" genre films and it's an interesting if not totally successful excursion into the pathways of the human mind. Meticulous attention to technical detail as well as to narrative is characteristic of Hitchcock, and makes his films virtually textbooks for the creation of an idea through both formal and narrative means.

Rating:
Summary: Compromised but engaging Hitchcock classic
Review: Although not up to the standard of Notorious, Hitchcock's Spellbound had a number of interesting elements. The film stars Gregory Peck as Dr. Edwardes the head of a new mental institution. He's immediately smitten with Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman in her first of three Hitchcock films)and she with him. There's just one problem; Dr. Edwardes isn't Dr. Edwardes at all but an imposter suffering from amnesia. Constance tries to use psychoanalysis to help uncover who her mysterious new love is and just what has happened to the real Dr. Edwardes. The faux Edwardes is suspected of murdering the real Dr. and suddenly their both trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together while on the run.

Spellbound was the second film that Hitchcock made directly under producer David O. Selznick (Foreign Correspondent, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Susicion, Saboteur and Shadow of a Doubt were all made while out on loan to other studios)and Hitch's vision was somewhat compromised by Selznick's interference. The budget was cut, a minute of the famous Dali dream sequence was hacked out along with about twenty minutes of Hitch's footgage were sacrificed as well. Despite all these set backs, Spellbound works due to Bergman and Peck's uneasy performance as "Edwardes". Peck was a second choice for the role; originally Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant for the role but Grant's salary demands and lack of committment to the project meant that the two weren't going to collaborate on this film. This was only Peck's third film but he pulls off the difficult role.

The Criterion transfer is sharper than the soft looking Anchor Bay edition. Personally, I prefer the crisper looking Criterion transfer but it's all a matter of preference. The extras here aren't as interesting as some of the other Criterion releases. Unfortunately, the cut footage from Spellbound no longer exists in any form so we're not able to see what might have been or have a faux director's cut assembled.

Despite the set backs that Hitch faced working on Spellbound, he manages to turn the script by Ben Hecht into an interesting suspense thriller. The last shot as the real murderer of Edwardes contemplates suicide is a bit of a jolt and an example of Hitch's unusual and creative approach to film direction even during his years working for Selznick.

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Summary: Going Out-of-Print Soon
Review: Criterion has announced on its website that this title will be going out-of-print on December 31, 2003 along with Rebecca and Notorious. In addition, the "Wrong Men & Notorious Women" Hitchcock collection will also no longer be available. I suggest you snatch these up as soon as you can as out-of-print titles quickly become expensive.

Another Criterion DVD that will be going out-of-print on December 31, 2003 is "Straw Dogs" starring Dustin Hoffman.

Rating:
Summary: SPELLBOUND BY DIGITAL GLITCHES!
Review: "Spellbound" is director, Alfred Hitchcock's first foray into psychoanalysis. Ingrid Bergman stars as Constance; a frigid psychoanalyst, whose own repression is tested when she falls for the new head of Green Manors - Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). But Tony isn't all that he appears to be and its up to Constance to unravel the mystery behind his psychosis. Clever, fast moving and always, always suspenseful, "Spellbound" is a brain teaser with unhinging moments around every turn.

TRANSFER: Criterion isn't exactly living up to its namesake. The previously issued DVD from Anchor Bay was a touch on the soft side. But that was a blessing when compared to Criterion's overly harsh, digitally grainy print that also suffers from some minor edge enhancement and shimmering of fine details. Like the previously issued Anchor Bay disc, Criterion's "Spellbound" gray scale has been impeccibly rendered. But overall this disc really isn't up to Criterion's usual standards - a real shame, since this version of "Spellbound" remains the only comprehensive compendium of information gathered.
EXTRAS: Like most Criterion editions, there's a lot of stuff that promises to be fun, but then falls short of expectations. The audio commentary is drab and drably told - exploring more psychoanalysis then how Hitchcock made the film. There are no personal accounts on what transpired during the making of this movie. Also, while the disc packaging advertises deleted scenes, what it really gives you is some script pages that show revisions made before the shooting began. Ho-hum! Although it's nice to have the overture and exit music included, an isolated soundtrack throughout would have been even better.
BOTTOM LINE: If you're looking for extras - then this is the obvious choice. If you're looking for a smoother copy of the actual film - one that is not hampered by aliasing or shimmering of fine details - you may want to give the Anchor Bay version reconsideration!

Rating:
Summary: Freudian thriller by the Master is one of my faves.
Review: Psychoanalysis is the framework of this thriller by the Master of Suspense. At Green Manors psychiatric clinic, Dr. Constance Petersen tries to help a man suffering from amnesia who claims he has killed Dr. Edwardes, the intended new director of the clinic. Petersen is charmed by this handsome man, whose initials might be J.B., and believing his innocence, even follows him to the Empire State Hotel in NY.

This is quite a change from how a colleague, Dr. Fleurot describes her. He says she's brilliant but lifeless, approaching her problems "with an icepack on your head." However, he does have a very astute line on kissing her, "it's rather like kissing a textbook." Indeed, Petersen's initial view on love is cold and clinical, typical of a scientist. She says love is a "response to hair colouring or vocal tones, or mannerisms that remind us of parents." And "people read about love as one thing and experience it as another." Hence they get psychoanalyzed.

Amnesia is described by JB as "a trick of the mind for remaining sane. You remain sane by forgetting something too horrible to remember and put a horrible thing behind a closed door." Indeed, JB becomes agitated at seeing bright white and also rows of straight lines, something repeated throughout the movie.

Apart from Casablanca, this features one of Ingrid Bergman's best performances, and this is the first of two Hitchcock films she did, the other being Notorious. And Gregory Peck gives a standout performance as someone suffering from amnesia, haunted by something traumatic in his childhood, and someone who could be a killer.

Michael Chekov does wonders as Dr. Brulov, a delightful old man and Petersen's mentor, described as someone in a complete dream state, socially. His eyeglasses and goatee make him a stereotypical Freud-like figure.

The dream sequence, based on a design by Salvador Dali, is best seen without me giving it away, and the incidental music adds to the suspense after each discovery.

Along with Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, and Dial M For Murder, one of my favourite Hitchcock movies.

Rating:
Summary: A "Bone - Chilling" Hitchcock Classic
Review: "Spellbound" is Hitchcock's classic "bone-chilling", psychological thriller. Starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, it is full of suspense and mystery. All Hitchcock fans and those who like suspense and mystery will enjoy this film.