Spellbound (1945)
Spellbound is a film that features a female psychiatrist named Dr.Constance Peterson at a mental hospital. She is considered by her fellow doctors as one of the best doctors. When a new doctor, Dr. Anthony Edwardes, arrives at the hospital to replace retiring Dr.Murchison, he begins to behave very strangely. Soon, Constance discovers that he is not who he claims to be. He turns out to be an impostor, suffering from a serious case of amnesia. His real name is John Ballantyne. All of the circumstantial evidence indicates that he was the patient of now missing Dr. Edwardes and he might be the murderer. Still, Constance and John fall in love, and she is convinced that her lover is innocent.The next day he escapes, carefully before the arrival of the police. Constance decides to follow him, help recover his memory and solve the mystery of what happened to the real Dr. Edwardes.
When Constance first meets John, she thinks he is Dr. Edwardes. She does not fall in love with the idea of Dr. Edwardes. Instead, her expressions and behavior indicate that she becomes attracted to the guy who claimed to be Dr. Edwards for his own qualities. In the scene, when she sees him for the first time, the camera is instantly focused on her expressions. Her behavior and emotions are captured precisely; no verbal expressions were needed. There was another scene of the two of them outside the mental hospital, where they both just talk.That scene was beautifully and lovingly filmed. The camera charmingly incorporated their surroundings, applying romantic meaning to the scene.
This movie contains romantic and well put together scenes. Constance and John only knew each other for a few days, before admitting their love to each other. Their emotions are clearly expressed through the camera work. There was a scene of Constance passing by John’s room. She seems, as if she wants to see him, but at the same time she feels it is wrong. When she finally goes inside his room, he walks slowly towards her and she lifts her face to him and closes her eyes. The scene then shows a series of doors opening slowly down the hall, while they kiss.The music that came with the scene was very appropriate.
When John runs away, Constance decides to follow him to help him recover his memory. She takes him to her mentor, Dr. Brulov, whose appearance was very appropriate for his name and line of work. There was a scene of John sleepwalking and approaching Dr. Brulov with a straight razor and Dr. Brulov was able to calm him down with a glass of milk, in which he put a pill to make him sleep. The scene is shown from John’s perspective as the glass is brought to the front of the camera and the milk slowly disappears. The audience does not get to see what happens next. The music that came with it was chilling. Due to the dramatic music associated with this sleepwalking scene, it made me believe that Dr. Brulov had died. It was quite surprising to later see that it was not the case.
There were some other well done scenes. One of them was the eye-opening dream sequence. Constance and Dr. Brulov were trying to walk John through the dream to get some answers. In that scene, while John is speaking, the audience sees what he says, means and feels. The music, script, and the dramatic tension were all consistent with what he was saying. That scene was all visual, and creative. Another scene and my favorite one was where Dr. Murchison was pointing a gun at Constance. The audience would see his point of view. We see the gun moving and pointing directly at her. I liked the fact that the camera allowed us to see through Dr. Murchison’s eyes. Finally, when he decides not to shoot Constance, he slowly moves the gun towards himself and shoots. The camera’s main focus was on the gun and where it was being moved.
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The characters in this movie played their roles excellently and kept their viewers interested to the end. Constance’s emotions are coherent with her behavior, dialog, and the music. Her reactions to John’s behavior are as if she understands what he is going through. John also played his role well. His fear of seeing dark parallel lines was exhibited well. Every time he sees those lines, he has the same reaction. Constance and John’s attraction was obvious. There were many other interesting elements that added to the impact of the story. Powerful music that was a great sound affect which helped direct the audience and provided recognition to the upcoming events in the story. Another element of significance was smoking. In the opening shots, all characters are smoking. This implied commonality and shared power.
In the end, I think that Spellbound focuses on Constance’s story, more so than the story of both, John and Constance. She is the focus female character in this film and is also the best doctor, out of all the doctors. She helped the love of her life recover his memory and most importantly solved the murder of Dr. Edwardes. Therefore, I agree with this statement by Lesley Brill, “In the end, Spellbound is mostly Constance’s movie, just as Notorious, the film that Hitchcock made with Bergman a year later, is finally Alicia’s.”
References
https://cinephiliabeyond.org/spellbound-a-star-studded-love-story-in-dalis-design-and-hitchcocks-style/
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/224-spellbound-love-and-psychoanalysis
https://cinephiliabeyond.org/spellbound-a-star-studded-love-story-in-dalis-design-and-hitchcocks-style/
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/224-spellbound-love-and-psychoanalysis