Though I haven’t seen SPELLBOUND in decades, I could hum the complete score for you if you wanted. It was one of the first sound tracks I bought, and listened to that 33.3 LP on vinyl until the stereo needle practically wore a hole in the record. Music by Miklos Rosza, who also did the score for DOUBLE INDEMNITY. The music is both romantic and lush, and strange... it sometimes sounds like a theremin was used (a second of Googling later - it was). But that music pops into my head every once in a while - it’s on the cerebral iPod in My Top Rated.
I was afraid the film wouldn’t hold up because it was cutting edge in 1945... and romantic at the same time. Romantic films often don’t age well. But despite a few places that show its age (they have to explain why psychiatry *is*), the movie was still really good and has some great scenes. But I’m a sucker for movies that are all about character motivations that the characters may not even know about. Those reactions we have that we don’t fully understand.
Nutshell: Single, probably frigid, psychiatrist Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) works in a mental institution surrounded by men - both inmates and fellow psychiatrists. None of them hit on her anymore, she’s non-sexual... all business. Until the new head head-shrinker arrives - Dr. Edwardes (Gregory Peck) to take over the institution, after Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll) is forced into retirement for having a breakdown. Edwardes is intelligent, has a quiet charm, and just oozes masculinity. The other shrinks seem stuffy, he’s dreamy. Moments after Edwardes sweeps Constance off her feet, they discover he isn’t the *real* Dr. Edwardes, but an imposter... and the couple goes on the run. The police believe this imposter has murdered Dr. Edwardes and taken his place. So, not that much different than most other Hitchcock movies - the MacGuffin isn’t microfilm or information about an assassination, it’s a repressed memory. The false Dr. Edwardes (whose real name is John Ballantine - same initials as Jason Bourne) witnessed the murder, but has blocked it out... because it reminds him of some other traumatic incident in his past. Now Constance must head shrink him while they are on the run, piecing together the clues to his past and to the murder... and finding out who John Ballantine really is, and whether he is a killer or just a witness (oh, and who the actual killer was).
A mystery where the clues are in a character’s behavior and emotional reactions - that is still a really cool idea to me, and the film is very powerful because of this concept. Why do we like one thing and dislike another? Why do we fear the things we fear? What makes us tick?
Experiment: The psychology is the main story experiment, here. The idea of repressed memories and analyzing dreams and that even our smallest reactions and actions are rooted in events from our past. This is a movie about the motivations behind the motivations. Psychiatry was fairly new at this time - Sigmund Freud became well known in the 30s and died in the early 40s... when this film was written. So the concept of using psychoanalyzes to solve a murder was pretty wild at the time... and it’s still really interesting - I wish there were more films focusing on characters as puzzles like this.
But it’s the visual experiment that this film is famous for - the beautiful dream sequences were designed by Salvadore Dali. No blurry camera work, they are strange and vivid - just like real dreams.
The film also has some interesting POV shots, that are still really amazing.
Hitch Appearance: Coming out of a hotel elevator with the usual musical instrument - a violin.
Great Scenes: One of the great things about this film is how they take Gregory Peck, who usually oozes normality and honesty and all of the things that make him the perfect Atticus Finch, and make him weird and dream-like and kind of like a walking ghost. He doesn’t seem human at all... and that makes him unpredictable. You half expect to come to the end and find out he really is the killer...
The Doors: Constance is emotionally closed off, one of the characters says romance with her would be like embracing a text book. Late one night she comes upstairs, where Edwardes’ room is, and the door opens - like in a dream - and he’s on a chair, fallen asleep while reading, and he wakes up, sees her, comes to her, and kisses her... and we get this great superimposed shot of a dozen doors opening one right after another... as if her *emotions* are opening up to him. It shows the feeling of that amazing kiss in a way that we can experience it.
Freaking Out: After they kiss, Edwardes looks down at her robe - which has parallel black lines on white fabric - and completely freaks out. The first time he freaked out was at lunch when Constance used a fork to “draw” something on the white table cloth - and he had to look away, then used a knife to remove the marks from the table cloth. Something is wrong with this guy! He keeps freaking out whenever he sees parallel lines on a white background. What could that mean?
Edwardes is intelligent, seems to know enough about psychiatry to pass... but these little things set him off. Constance takes care of him, protects him... but also snoops. She compares his signature on a note to her with Edwardes’ autograph in a book - and they do not match at all. She confronts him, “Who are you?” And he responds, “I remember know... I killed Edwardes.” He has amnesia, has no idea who he is - other than the murderer of the real Dr. Edwardes. But she’s in love with him, and wants to help.
The Letter: One of my favorite scenes in the film, and a great example of suspense. Edwardes slides a note under the door of Constance’s room, saying he loves her and doesn’t want to put her at risk while he figures out who he is and why he murdered the real Edwardes... and then leaves. Moments before the police arrive - they have discovered he’s an imposter, believe he has murdered the real Edwardes in order to take his place, and want to arrest him. When they can’t find him, the police and Murchison and every other doctor in the asylum goes to Constance’s bedroom to see if she might know where he is...
And wake her up. She sees the note on the floor moments before the whole gang comes into her room, trampling over the note. The police, Murchison, everyone else - if one of them looks down, they will see the note from the false Edwardes! As the scene stretches on - police asking all kinds of questions, Murchison mentioning that he had his suspicions that the guy might have been an imposter, Constance is sure someone will eventually see the note and discover where the imposter is... and that he and Constance have a relationship (which makes her an accomplice, doesn’t it?). Just when we can’t stand the tension any more, the police and everyone else leave her room... kicking the note out into the hallway! Murchison sees it on the floor, picks it up.... and tension builds as he looks at the envelope. Busted? Then he hands her the envelope and leaves.
The letter says he has gone to the Empire State Hotel in NYC - retracing the steps of the real Dr. Edwardes to find where their lives intersected.
The Masher: Constance goes to the Hotel, but has no idea which room he’s in (the character has no name for much of the story), so she sits in the lobby watching for him. Hot single woman sitting in a hotel lobby? This horny middle aged man sits right next to her and starts hitting on her. She’s trying to keep a low profile, not be noticed by any of the hotel staff or any of the guests... and this guy is *relentlessly* hitting on her, practically crawling into her lap! What is she supposed to do?
The hotel detective (security) sees the guy hanging all over her and comes over to pry him off and kick him out of the hotel - seems he’s done this before. One problem solved, and a worse problem takes its place - the hotel detective wants to know why Constance is hanging around the lobby? She says she had a spat with her husband and he stormed off and came here, and now she just wants to make up with him... if she only knew what room he was in. This changes a problem into a solution - the hotel detective gets registration cards for guests that fit Peck’s description so that she can look at handwriting. She knows which room he’s in, but the hotel detective is now watching her.
Newspaper Delivery: Constance finds the amnesia guy she loves, but insists, “I’m here as your doctor, it has nothing to do with love” as she plants a major lip-lock on him. Yeah, right. There’s a knock on the hotel room door... panicking both of them. She opens the door, and it’s a bellboy with the evening paper (which she requested). She tips him... then notices her face is on the front page - the police are searching for her as a possible accomplice in the murder/disappearance of Dr. Edwardes. Did the bellboy see her picture? She decides they shouldn’t take any chances, and they split... walking past the bellboy and hotel detective in the lobby as they get ready to call the police.
Waiting With The Detectives: Constance takes Amnesia Guy to her mentor, Dr. Alex’s house - he will hide them from the police. When the arrive, Alex isn’t home, but his maid tells them he will return shortly and to wait with the other men in the living room. So, Constance and Amnesia Guy wait with two men in suits... who end up being police detectives sent to question Alex about his relationship with Dr. Edwardes - and that big fight they got into at some shrink convention. Great suspense and the four wait for Alex... and you wonder when the two detectives are going to realize they are sitting across from the primes suspects in the case. But Alex (Michael Chekhov - completely stealing the film) finally shows up, and the detectives question him and leave. Constance tells Alex that Amnesia Guy is her husband, and they need someplace to stay a few days because all of the hotels are booked. And he believes it!
Razor Blade: Constance falls asleep, Amnesia Guy can’t sleep... decides (for some reason) he needs a shave... and pulls out his straight razor and shaving cream. The shaving cream - foamy white - freaks him out... and everywhere he looks in the bathroom - more white! He goes into a fugue state, and walks into the bedroom - looking at Constance sleeping in the bed... white bed spread with parallel lines rushing up to Constance’s head. walks downstairs like a zombie, still holding the glittering straight razor, to where on the pillow. Will he kill her? Peck has been acting so freaky in this film, you think he might. That straight razor sparkles in the moonlight - and you know he’s going to slit her throat!
But instead he continues in the trance - sleepwalking down stairs to where Alex is sitting behind his desk. Alex says he couldn’t sleep either, but doesn’t seem to notice the razor in Amnesia Guy’s hand. The scene is building to Amnesia Guy slitting Alex’s throat with the razor - and we believe nice Gregory Peck is crazy enough to do it. Alex asks if Amnesia Guy would like a glass of warm milk to help him sleep, and goes to get him one...
While Amnesia Guy holds that glittering razor in his hand.
Dr. Alex returns with the glass of warm milk, and we get one of several cool POV shots in the film - as the glass raises in front of us, as if *we* are drinking the milk, and the screen turns white with milk. White. The color that freaks out Amnesia Guy.
The next morning, Constance can’t find Amnesia Guy, and goes downstairs to find Alex flopped in a chair, lifeless! Shocked, horrified, she walks up to his still body to feel for a pulse... and he moves! He was just asleep... and Amnesia Guy is asleep on the sofa - Alex drugged the milk. He knew who Amnesia Guy was all along - the guy who killed Dr. Edwardes.
Dream Sequence: And now we get the great Dali dream sequence, which starts with a few dozen watching eyes, then someone cutting eyes with scissors, then it gets weird. Another amazing POV shot of dealing cards - *we* are dealing cards. And some amazing images - all of them crystal clear, no soft focus of fuzzy edges.
As amazing as the dream sequence is, it also may be the part of the film that’s the least believable - because they analyze the dream in such a way that it gives them all kinds of impossible clues to the murder and how it was committed... though it still doesn’t tell us if Amnesia Guy is guilty or innocent. Each part of that dream - every single weird image - has a meaning that is explained by Dr. Alex. When we deal the 7 of clubs to the man with the beard, who wins that hand of blackjack, it means that our Amnesia Guy met with the real Dr. Edwardes at Club 21 in New York City at 7pm. See, the 7 and the Club and 21... I don't know about you, but my dreams aren't that symbolic. Or maybe they are more symbolic... because they don't make any sense and don't have any big obvious clues. But, as a *movie*, this stuff is okay. Movies are not reality, and the audience has to be able to understand how a dream can be the subconscious giving us information... even if in real life the info isn't nearly this obvious.
Oh, and Amnesia Guy remembers that his name is John Ballantine and that he’s a medical doctor who was a patient of Dr. Edwardes. He and Edwardes went skiing together (and the dream outrageously tells us the name of the resort in weird Dali symbols that easily translate).
Process Skiing: So Constance and Amnesia Guy-Ballantine go to the resort and go skiing in some bad process work. It’s pretty obvious they are skiing in front of a screen showing a ski slope. But here we get the parallel lines on white background are ski trails, and that the real Dr. Edwardes skied off a cliff. But we also get the event in Ballantine’s past that caused all of these events to happen...
Flashback: The most powerful moments in the film are when Ballantine realize why he feels guilty about Dr. Edwardes’ accident - when he was a child, Ballantine killed his brother in a frightening accident. He and his brother were on the wide stone banister outside their NYC building, and he pushed his brother down the banister as if it were a slide... a slide with a giant steel spike on the end, that pierces his brother’s chest! How often do you see a kid killed on screen?
Big Twist: There are things you can’t do in Hollywood movies. After Ballantine has overcome the guilt of his past and realized his brother’s death was an accident, and so was Edwardes’ death, the police find Edwardes’ body at the base of the cliff and you would think that would be the end of the movie and Constance and Ballantine would live happily ever after. Except Edwardes’ body has a bullet in his back - he was *shot*. And the police arrest Ballantine...
And in one single amazing shot of Ingrid Bergman, Ballantine is tried, convicted, and set for execution. ‘
Just another 40s Hollywood happy ending.
POV: Constance goes back to the asylum - a completely broken woman. Dr. Murchison is back in charge, and it’s as if Edwardes and his imposter Ballantine never existed. Then Constance remembers something in the dream sequence that didn’t get analyzed into a solid clue to the murder, and know who really killed Dr. Edwardes.
And she confronts the killer, and the killer pulls out a gun and aims it at her! The murder gun. And we get another amazing POV shot - over the gun as it’s aimed at Constance. She says he won’t kill her, stands up, starts to slowly walk out of the room - the gun following her as she gets closer and closer and closer to the door. Crap! Gregory Peck is in prison waiting to be seated on the electric chair, and now Ingrid Bergman is going to get shot! How can a movie do this to us?
“The punishment for two murders is the same as for one.”
But Constance opens the door and leaves, and the gun in front of us slowly turns - barrel aiming at *us*, and fires... and what has been a black and white movie until now suddenly has a flash of red. A few frames of shocking color. The end. (We just assume that the police will figure out the murder gun thing and let Ballantine go free... into Constance’s waiting arms. But. Maybe they fried him anyway?)
SPELLBOUND isn’t in my top five Hitchcock, maybe not even in my top ten... but it’s entertaining and suspenseful and has some great stuff in it. If you can accept the amazing dream analyses (which is preposterous) it’s a fun film that focuses on motivations.
- Bill
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