THE FILM:
With many of our boys coming home from World War II shell shocked and suffering from deep rooted trauma, not to mention the very public meltdown of screen starlet Francis Farmer at the time, the relatively new medical treatment of psychoanalysis was a hot topic in the public consciousness in the mid-1940’s. SPELLBOUND is heralded as being the first movie to ever use psychoanalysis as a major plot point and who better to bring it to the screen than uber-producer David O. Selznick and the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock? To add even more spice to the mix SPELLBOUND was written by one of the shining literary stars of the Algonquin Round Table, Ben Hecht and very publicly had its dream sequences created by one of the shining artistic stars of surrealism, Salvador Dali. With all these master cooks in the kitchen, how can it go wrong?
SPELLBOUND focuses on the button down Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) as she tries to unravel the mystery of the new director of her institution, Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck.) The two fall head over heels for each other at first sight, which is needed since he is soon revealed as NOT being the new director of Green Manors as he originally stated and may actually be a murderer. The trouble is Peck’s character suffers from amnesia and can’t remember who he is, so for Dr. Petersen’s safety he runs away. She soon enough tracks him down and while hiding in a friend’s home the two begin plumbing his mind to unearth what is causing his amnesia and bizarre fear of parallel lines.
So is anything really wrong with SPELLBOUND? Not really; it was a huge success upon its original release. Its psychoanalysis plot device just didn’t age very well. Back in 1945, dream analysis was just coming into vogue and imagery that seems extremely obvious and basic today was cutting edge back then. When Peck and Bergman first kiss, we get images of doors opening. Cool stuff in the ‘40’s; quaint and almost embarrassingly eye rolling stuff in the 21st century. Ironically, the main aspect of SPELLBOUND that is best remembered today is the main aspect Selznick kept cutting; Dali’s dream sequences. As the supplements discuss, there were originally five elaborate dream sequences mapped out, but Selznick wasn’t happy with the dailies he saw so he kept cutting them down to shorter and shorter seqments. Today, those wildly vivid pieces are cinematic catnip for fans and one of the prime reasons SPELLBOUND remains a must see movie.
THE DISC:
SPELLBOUND comes to Blu-ray in an acceptable, but by no means definitive, 1.37 transfer. While most film fans should be happy with the picture the discerning cineaste will find small things to complain about, particularly when compared with the Criterion Collections’ slightly better transfer on their out of print DVD. Selznick notoriously criticized the look of SPELLBOUND when reviewing dailies, complaining that it looked like something shot at Monogram Studios (a very low budget studio that cranked out B and C quickies) so even when it was being filmed, it never looked lustrous.
The soundtrack though, really shouldn’t sound as thin as it does. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix delivers a clear track, but the source material is unusually hissy. Dialogue and Miklos Rozsa’s excellent score are perfectly clear but don’t come into this looking for a rich or full soundtrack.
THE EXTRAS:
The supplements in this release include:
A Commentary by Thomas Schatz and Charles Ramirez Berg that is chatty and informative (though they do tend to speak over each frequently.)
“Running With Scissors: Hitchcock, Surrealism and Salvador Dali” is an entertaining look at how Hitch and Dali worked together and what Selznick thought of bringing the artist into the fold.
“Guilt by Association: Psychoanalyzing SPELLBOUND” is an unusually dry piece examining the public’s interest in psychoanalysis at the time the film was made.
“A Cinderella Story: Rhonda Fleming” is a nice overview of the actress’ career.
“The 1948 Radio Version of SPELLBOUND” directed by Hitchcock and starring Joseph Cotton is here for your listening pleasure.
“Peter Bogdanovich Interviews Alfred Hitchcock” is an audio excerpt with the director focusing on this film.
The “Original Theatrical Trailer” finishes off the goodies here.
MY SAY:
While SPELLBOUND has and will never be considered one of Hitchcock’s best films, there are more than enough aspects to it that make it hugely enjoyable (Rozsa’s score and Dali’s dream sequences mostly). Recommended.
