Spellbound (1945)
Written: Sep 23 '99 (Updated Nov 11 '99)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cast, sets, cinematography
Cons: characters, direction
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| BrianKoller's Full Review: Spellbound |
"Spellbound" is a slightly disappointing entry from the production and direction team of Selznick and Hitchcock. There's romance, psycho-babble and an entertaining dream sequence, but character motivation and plot development are not convincing.
The plot has an eminent young doctor (Gregory Peck) arriving to a psychiatric institute as its new director. He promptly has a romance with lovely doctor Ingrid Bergman. Peck begins acting strangely, and is revealed to be an amnesiac imposture, and murder suspect. Peck and Bergman flee to old timer psychiatrist (Michael Chekhov), who studies Peck's dreams. Peck is cured, but there is still the matter of the murder.
Peck does as well as he can given his character.
Sometimes he acts normal, then suddenly freaks
out when he sees black lines on a white
background. He can also be threatening, testy, or
catatonic, and has amnesia and a "guilt complex"
to boot. It is frustrating to find some
consistency to his character, or the motivation
for frigid Bergman to fall suddenly for him to
the extent of ruining her career.
More quibbles: one scene has the psychiatric
doctors performing surgery. I am no medical
expert, but aren't these separate fields? Another
scene has Peck able to recall a dream with
considerable detail, with Bergman and Chekhov
instantly able to surmise the significance of
each detail. Later, Peck is suddenly able to
determine the cause of his guilt complex and
recovers completely from his amnesia at the same
moment. Peck is jailed and tried for murder, but
this is depicted as a few Bergman speeches.
Hitchcock movies often have terrific music, but
this one seems to borrow from both "Gone With the
Wind" and "The Lost Weekend" The latter is
understandable since Miklos Rozsa did that score
as well. He also did the score for "A Song to
Remember", and was nominated for 1945 Academy
Awards for Best Score for all three films!
Looking for the positive, Bergman is lovely and
capable, Chekhov is well cast, and the script and
story moves things along nicely. But the dubious
psychiatry, and problems with Peck's character and
plot resolution keep the film from being
particularly good. (60/100)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
BrianKoller
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Member: Brian Koller
Location: Plano, Texas
Reviews written: 873
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About Me:
Conservative grades, but kinder and gentler reviews.
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