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SPELLBOUND (1945)
Selznick-International
Pictures / Vanguard Films
|
Produced
by David O. Selznick. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Based
on the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Francis Beeding
(Hilary St. John Saunders and Leslie Palmer. Screenplay
by Ben Hecht. Adaptation by Angus MacPhail. Music by
Miklos Rozsa. Dream Sequence by Salvador Dali. Art
Direction by John Ewing. Production Designs by James
Basevi. Miss Bergman’s Gowns by Howard Greer.
Photography by George Barnes. Edited by William Ziegler.
Sound by Richard De Weese. 111 min. |
| Not
vintage Hitchcock by any means, this rather static
account of a psychiatrist’s love for a new
colleague, who happens to be an imposter suffering from
amnesia, is one of those films that almost appears better
than it actually is. There is too much dialogue about the
“evils of unreason” and the ability of
psychoanalysis to drive them from “the human
soul.” Alfred Hitchcock has always erroneously cited
that SPELLBOUND was the very first American film to deal
with psychiatry. Six years earlier, however, Columbia
Pictures released a modest ‘B’ picture entitled
Blind Alley, which starred Chester Morris as a crazed
escaped killer, who breaks into a psychiatrist’s
home and holds the inhabitants as hostages until he can
make his getaway. While there, the psychiatrist (Ralph
Bellamy) attempts to unravel the killer’s tormented
past through treatment, trying to find out what
significance his nightmares might have to his life.
Through flashback, the audience is able to put the pieces
of the puzzle together before the law enforcers arrive
and exterminate the villain, thus satisfying the
Production Code. Loosely based on a 1927 novel entitled The House of Dr. Edwardes by Frances Beeding, Alfred Hitchcock convinced producer David O. Selznick to purchase the property for the asking price of $40,000. |
| The story, which concerns itself with a group of devil worshippers who secretly invade an asylum while one of them poses as a real psychiatrist, intrigued Mr. Hitchcock tremendously. One sequence that he absolutely thought was brilliant showed that the fake doctor’s shoes had a crucifix painted on the soles of each shoe and he is continually shown stepping on the religious symbol. Realizing that the Catholic Church would strongly object to this blasphemy, David Selznick called in Ben Hecht to compose a script and eliminate the darker elements of the plot in favor of a murder. |  |
|
| As
it turned out, Hitchcock was delighted with Hecht’s
realistic treatment because, coincidentally, the writer
had been undergoing psychoanalysis to get him through
some domestic difficulties. As usual though, producer
Selznick interceded, feeling that a professional could
add more depth to the screenplay. So, Selznick’s own
psychiatrist was hired as technical advisor, making many
unwanted suggestions to the director and writer
throughout the production. By the time SPELLBOUND went into production, Selznick International Productions was more of a talent agency than a production company, with the studio receiving tidy sums for the loan-outs of contract players like Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotton, Jennifer Jones and Gregory Peck. Hitchcock was ecstatic about casting Ingrid Bergman as Dr. Constance Peterson, but was skeptical about Gregory Peck, who had only one major role to his credit in Keys of the Kingdom the previous year. Hitchcock had been set on using Joseph Cotton, who gave a brilliant performance two years earlier as the psychopathic ‘Merry Widow Murderer’ in the director’s favorite film Shadow of a Doubt. Another newcomer cast as an asylum inhabitant was Rhonda Fleming in her first screen role, while Norman Lloyd, who we last saw hanging from the arm of the Statue of Liberty in Hitch’s Saboteur (1942) is seen again here in a minor role as Garmes, another inmate. Later, in the 1950s, Mr. Lloyd would become very important to the director, when he became associate producer and script supervisor on the director’s television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which ran for twelve seasons. |
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Budgeted at
$1.25 million, much of the production’s cost was
spent on the services of both the director and Miss
Bergman, not to mention cameraman George Barnes, who did
such a wonderful job five years prior on Hitchcock’s
Rebecca. Also, the much talked-about dream sequence by
Salvador Dali, who was hired to film that portion of the
film for $4,000, caused a big delay during the course of
the production. After much discussion and numerous
rewrites and retakes, the sequence cost an overwhelming
$20,000, and Selznick wasn’t pleased with the
results. He hastily hired Academy Award winning art
director William Cameron Menzies to revamp the sequence
for an additional $4,000. When the film was previewed on February 16, 1945, it’s total budget came in at $1,680,377. After trimming approximately 14 minutes from the picture, SPELLBOUND was finally released on October 31st, 1945, with most exhibitors harping that the movie “was a bit heavy-going, especially in small town markets.” |
|
| However, Mr. Hitchcock’s 31st production enjoyed a record-breaking engagement in London and eventually garnered worldwide receipts of eight million dollars, not to mention six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Michael Chekhov), Best Black and White Cinematography (George Barnes) and Best Original Music Score (Miklos Rozsa). Out of all of these, the only award SPELLBOUND would win was for its superb score, written by Rozsa almost simultaneously with his concurrent The Lost Weekend. Coincidentally, the two scores are very similar in their styles, which certainly didn’t please Mr. Selznick! | ||
