Cast
§ Donald Curtis as Harry, a staff of Green Manors
Spellbound is a psychological mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945. It tells the story of the new head of a mental asylum who turns out not to be what he claims. The film stars Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. It is an adaptation by Angus MacPhailand Ben Hecht of the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927) by Hilary Saint George Saunders .
Although Spellbound was a critical and box office success in its day,[4] François Truffaut, in his series of interviews with Hitchcock, said that he was disappointed in the film despite being fascinated by the legendary dream sequence and the "doors-within-doors" kissing scene between Bergman and Peck.[5] Hitchcock himself dismissed it later on as "Well, it's just another manhunt story wrapped in pseudo-psychology".[5]
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Plot
Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychoanalyst at Green Manors, a mental hospital in Vermont, and is perceived by the other (male) doctors as detached and emotionless. The director of the hospital, Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll), is being forced into retirement, shortly after returning from an absence due to nervous exhaustion. His replacement is the much younger Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck).
Dr. Peterson notices that there is something strange about Dr. Edwardes. He has a peculiar phobia about seeing sets of parallel lines against a white background, first displayed in an inappropriate reaction to seeing a diagram drawn with the tines of a fork on a tablecloth.
Dr. Peterson soon realizes, by comparing handwriting, that this man is an impostor and not the real Dr. Edwardes. He confides to her that he killed Dr. Edwardes and took his place. He suffers from massive amnesia and does not know who he is. Dr. Peterson believes that he is innocent and suffering from a guilt complex.
'Dr. Edwardes' disappears during the night, having left a note for Dr. Peterson that he is going to New York City.
It becomes public knowledge that 'Dr. Edwardes' is an impostor, and that the real Dr. Edwardes is missing and may have been murdered.
Dr. Peterson goes to the hotel indicated in the note, knowing that the police are in pursuit. She needs to use her psychoanalytic skills to unlock his amnesia and find out what had really happened.
One of Hitchcock's characteristic innocent-person-pursued-by-the-police evasions ensues, as Dr. Peterson and the impostor (who now calls himself 'John Brown') travel by train to Rochester, to meet Dr. Brulov (Michael Chekhov), who had been Dr. Peterson's teacher and mentor.
The two doctors analyze a dream that 'John Brown' had. The dream sequence (designed by Salvador Dalí) is full of psychoanalytic symbols—eyes, curtains, scissors, playing cards (some of them blank), a man with no face, a man falling off a building, a man hiding behind a chimney dropping a wheel, and wings. They deduce that Brown and Edwardes had been on a ski trip together (the lines in white are ski tracks) and that Edwardes had somehow died there. Dr. Peterson and Brown go to the ski resort (the wings provide a clue) to reenact the event and unlock his repressed memories.
Near the bottom of the hill, Brown's memory suddenly returns. He recalls that there is a precipice in front of them, over which Edwardes had fallen to his death. He stops them just in time. He also remembers a traumatic event from his childhood—he slid down a hand rail and accidentally knocked his brother onto sharp pointed railings, killing him. This incident had caused him to develop amnesia and a generalized guilt complex. He also remembers that his real name is John Ballantyne.
All is understood now, and Ballantyne is about to be exonerated, when it is discovered that Edwardes had a bullet in his body. Ballantyne is convicted of murder and sent to prison.
A heartbroken Dr. Peterson returns to her position at the hospital, where Dr. Murchison is once again the director. After reconsidering her notes from the dream, she realizes that the 'wheel' was a revolver and that the man hiding behind the chimney and dropping the wheel was Dr. Murchison hiding behind a tree, shooting Dr. Edwardes and dropping the gun. She confronts Murchison with this and he confesses, but says that he didn't drop the gun; he still has it. He pulls it out of his desk and threatens to shoot her. She walks away, the gun still pointed at her, and explains that while the first murder carried extenuating circumstances of his own mental state, murdering her as well surely would result in the electric chair. He allows her to leave and turns the gun on himself. Dr. Peterson is then reunited with Ballantyne.
Awards
Spellbound won the Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Michael Chekhov); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Director; Best Effects, Special Effects; and Best Picture. Ingrid Bergman did not receive an Academy Award nomination for the film, although she was nominated the same year for The Bells of Saint Mary's. She received the New York Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Actress for the film in 1945.
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