picture edited by Laura Lai
by Laura Lai/ Review
Film’s Title: Spellbound
Lead Actors: Ingrid Bergman (Dr. Constance Petersen), Gregory Peck (Dr. Edwardes/John Brown), Michael Chekhov (Dr. Alexander Brulov, ‘Alex’)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
The movie is based on the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes (1927) by Francis Beeding.
The movie Spellbound deals with psychoanalysis as its director, Alfred Hitchcock, warns us from the very beginning: ‘the story deals with psychoanalysis, the method by which modern science treats the emotional problems of the sane.’ In comparison to other movies of Hitchcock, Spellbound has also a motto from Shakespeare: ‘The fault…is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’
Despite its psychoanalysis topic, this movie is not a psychoanalysis movie. What I mean is that A. Hitchcock does not apply psychoanalysis to his characters, but the characters deal with a psychoanalysis topic. The movie presents the story of a young psychiatrist, Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) working at the Green Manor's hospice in Vermont, who met and fell in love with John Brown (Gregory Peck) who pretended to be Dr. Anthony Edwardes. She discovered that John Brown was an impostor comparing his signature ‘Dr. Edwardes’ to the autograph of the real Dr. Edwardes that she had previously received on a limited edition of his psychoanalysis book. Accused of having murdered the real Dr. Edwardes, Constance continued to believe in Brown’s innocence and to help him recover his memory from deep amnesia and overcome his guilt complex. They run away from the police to Dr. Alex Brulov – Constance’s former professor, who had only words of appreciation for her as a professional. Constance even introduced him as her husband, but Alex realized that he was just a patient suffering from amnesia that she was trying to help, and he agreed to help shortly before turning him in to the police.
The Spellbound is another remarkable movie made by A. Hitchcock. It was nominated by the American Film Academy in several categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. Although in a supporting role, Michael Chekhov made a fantastic role as Dr. Brulov. Besides the way he played Dr. Brulov, he also had a few memorable lines such as: ‘The brain of a woman in love operates at the lowest level of its intellect,' or ‘her husband is my husband.' J
In the process of recuperating from amnesia, a highly important role was played by dreams – the night dreams of the patients. And in order to successfully reflect this on the screen, Alfred Hitchcock used drawings of Salvador Dali – which from an artistic point of view is both a brilliant and an original idea. Furthermore, it is remarkable the way Hitchcock thought to show the memory recovery process: he used a series of doors getting opened and lights – which from a technical point of view, it was a terrific idea.
Enjoy the movie!
P.S.: See you in the next great movie made by Alfred Hitchcock!
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