Conference bookie::movies

463.0. "Spellbound" by VMSDEV::HALLYB (Fish have no concept of fire) Wed Feb 09 1994 12:51

    Stars Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
    B&W, late 1940s. This is a mystery wherein Bergman plays a detached
    psychotherapist in a Vermont mental (?) hospital. The hospital Director,
    played by Leo G. Carroll, recently had a nervous breakdown and is being
    replaced by a Doctor Edwards. Edwards is an expert in "Guilt Psychosis"
    (where someone claims guilt for some action, usually to cover up some
    deeper internal trauma that innocence would expose).

    Edwards (Peck) shows up to take over, but we (via Bergman) soon find out
    that he's not the man he claims to be. Pretty soon everyone knows, but
    by then (a) Bergman is in love-at-first-sight with him, (b) Peck-Edwards
    has amnesia and doesn't remember anything except he thinks he killed
    the "real" Edwards, (c) the Police discover the "real" Edwards is
    missing and (d) Bergman and Peck have high-tailed it to Manhattan,
    just ahead of some very curious police who want to have a chat with
    Peck-Edwards -- who seems all too willing to admit to killing the real
    Dr. Edwards. During all this Bergman is trying to help Peck remember 
    what happened to cause his amnesia. Part of this therapy is a Salvador
    Dali-inspired dream sequence that ultimately solves the mystery, but
    there are several clever plot twists within twists that keep the ending 
    from becoming too pat.

    This is not a Hitchcock "terror" movie a la _the Birds_ or _Psycho_.
    And the interaction timings with the police seem a bit contrived.
    The psychotherapy is pretty well-done, surely much more romantic than
    realistic but nevertheless appropriate for this movie, i.e., "fun".

    Rent or borrow the video sometime. Might seem a bit slow at first, but
    once Gregory Peck drinks the glass of milk things start happening
    fast and furious, so don't get caught napping. 

    ***/*****,

      John

Selznick spent 10,000 each for several Dali paintings and a lot more to film 
the dream sequence. Everyone concerned was displeased with the results. They
cut most of it and showed a truncated version that was still disappointing.
Nonetheless it's still one of the best parts of the film.


Randy