Spellbound (1945)
Spellbound is a 1945 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Michael Chekhov.
Filming of Spellbound took place in the summer of 1944 in Vermont, Utah, and Los Angeles. Spellbound was released theatrically in New York City on Halloween 1945. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Director, and won in the category of Best Original Score.
Director – Alfred Hitchcock
Writers – Ben Hecht (screen play), John Palmer & Hilary St George Saunders (suggested by novel: “The House of Dr. Edwardes”)
Cast –
Ingrid Bergman as Dr. Constance Petersen
Gregory Peck as Dr. Anthony Edwardes / John Ballantyne
Michael Chekhov as Dr. Alexander “Alex” Brulov, a teacher of Dr. Petersen’s
Leo G. Carroll as Dr. Murchison, the head of Green Manors
Rhonda Fleming as Mary Carmichael, a patient at Green Manors
John Emery as Dr. Fleurot
Norman Lloyd as Mr. Garmes, a patient at Green Manors
Bill Goodwin as House Detective of the Empire State Hotel
Steven Geray as Dr. Graff
Donald Curtis as Harry, a staff member of Green Manors
Wallace Ford as Stranger in Empire State Hotel Lobby
Art Baker as Det. Lt. Cooley
Regis Toomey as Det. Sgt. Gillespie
Paul Harvey as Dr. Hanish
Watch “Spellbound” (1945)
Plot
Dr. Constance Petersen is a psychoanalyst at a mental hospital in Vermont. The hospital’s director, Dr. Murchison, is forced into retirement shortly after returning from an absence due to nervous exhaustion. His replacement, Dr. Anthony Edwardes, turns out to be surprisingly young. Petersen is immediately smitten with him.
They fall in love. One day, while kissing him, Petersen notices that this Edwardes has a peculiar phobia about sets of parallel lines against a white background. She compares his signature with an autographed copy of one of his books, realizing that they do not match and he is an impostor. He confides to her that he has killed the real Edwardes and taken his place. Suffering from amnesia, he does not know who he really is. Petersen believes he is an innocent man with a guilt complex. Overnight, he disappears. At the same time, it becomes public knowledge that the man is an impostor, and that the real Edwardes is missing and may have been killed.
Petersen tracks him down to a New York City hotel, where he is living under the pseudonym John Brown. Despite his insistence for her to leave, she convinces him that psychoanalysis can break through his amnesia and uncover his former memories. The two travel to Rochester, New York, and stay with Dr. Alexander Brulov, Petersen’s former mentor.
The two doctors analyze a dream that Brown had. He is playing cards in a mysterious club when a scantily-clad woman resembling Petersen starts kissing everybody there. His card partner, an older man, is accused of cheating and threatened by the club’s masked proprietor. The scene changes to the older man standing on the precipice of a sloped roof and falling off. The proprietor is found to be standing behind a chimney and dropping a wheel he held in his hands. Brown’s dream concludes with him being chased down a hill by a great pair of wings.
Brown’s phobia of dark lines on white turns out to be based on ski tracks in the snow and the older man in his dream is the real Edwardes, who met his demise in a skiing accident. The detail of the wings makes them deduce that it must have been the Gabriel Valley ski lodge. Brown and Petersen travel there to recreate the circumstances of Edwardes’ death. However, Brown fears that, if he really was Edwardes’ murderer, he may impulsively kill again in the same situation.
As they go down the slope, Brown remembers details of his former life: he has a guilt complex, rooted in a childhood accident where he killed his brother by knocking him onto a spiked fence. He also recognizes the cliff where Edwardes fell off and recalls his real name: John Ballantyne. Petersen and John later meet with the police, who find Edwardes’ body with Ballantyne’s directions. However, the corpse has a bullet wound in his back. Ballantyne is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder.
Heartbroken, Petersen returns to the hospital. Murchison, once again the director, lets slip that he knew Edwardes slightly and did not like him, contradicting his earlier statement that they had never met. This inspires Petersen to re-examine her notes of Ballantyne’s dream: the masked proprietor represents Murchison and the wheel represents a revolver. Murchison therefore murdered Edwardes and left the gun on the ski slope.
Confronting Murchison to prove her hunch, Petersen gets him to admit that the man in the dream likely represents himself. She presents her accusation, and Murchison replies that she got every detail right but one: he still has the revolver, and draws it on her. Deciding to phone the police, Petersen points out that while he could plead insanity and get a lesser charge for Edwardes’ murder, shooting her would guarantee his execution. She leaves the office, and Murchison turns the gun on himself.
In the final scene, Petersen and Ballantyne, now married, receive well-wishes from Dr. Brulov before departing on their honeymoon at Grand Central Terminal.