THE PLOT THUS FAR
A female psychiatrist protects the identity of an amnesia patient accused of murder while attempting to recover his memory.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
The head of a mental institution, Dr Murchison, resigns from his post, and a replacement doctor takes up the vacant position. Dr. Edwardes is the new guy, but even though he seems outwardly very good at his job, he is prone to weird dizzy spells that no-one can quite explain. Fellow doctor Constance Peterson, a gifted and much-revered psychiatrist, slowly finds herself falling in love with Edwardes. But it doesn’t take her long to realize that he is not who he claims to be…. in fact, her new lover is actually a mental patient who has assumed Dr Edwardes’ identity.
The structure of Spellbound is also not ideally suited to the Hitchcockian mode of suspense, which was based upon revealing the identity of the villain to the audience and then creating tension from making us wonder when and how they will strike again. Sometimes, as in Shadow of a Doubt or Rear Window, the killer would not be identified with certainty, but Hitch would immerse us in the suspicions of the central character, and this worked just as well. In some respects it looks as if Spellbound is an example of the latter. There appear to have been some attempts to create suspense out of the possibility that Gregory Peck’s character is a murderer, and there are some typical Hitchcock moments like the business with the razor that play upon this. The trouble is, all those point-of-view shots placing us inside Peck’s innocent confusion make it impossible for us to accept him as a killer, not even one who has forgotten his crimes. As such these tense moments, while nicely constructed in themselves, have no impact. The final “twist”, when it arrives in the last five minutes seems tacked on, and does not shock or satisfy in any way.
Spellbound is also an example of why we don’t see many outstanding acting performances in Hitchcock movies. It’s not just because Hitch didn’t give any coaching to his cast members , it’s just that his films are too technical to show off the actors to the best of their abilities. Ingrid Bergman was an exceptional actress, but because of the way Hitch works, the key moments in her performance are cut up into fleeting reaction shots, close-ups of hands and so forth. The best impression we get of her acting is in a fairly mundane scene, when she is fending off the unwanted attentions of Wallace Ford, a moment Hitchcock allows to play out in a mid-shot unbroken take.
The Blu-Ray comes with the commentary, featurettes, interview and radio play ported over from the last several DVD releases. The A/V Quality is a major revelation, as Dali’s superb dream sequence comes to life in 1080p. A lot of the film showcases that it hasn’t been fully restored, but I don’t expect as much from the less popular Hitchcock titles. A lot of the editing and sudden transitions will give the appearance of washout, but it’s merely light exposure. The DTS-HD mono track is sharp enough and keeps the film’s original audio mix intact. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
