DIRECTOR: Alfred Hitchcock
PRODUCER: David O. Selznick
PRODUCTION CO: Selznick International Pictures
SCREENPLAY: Ben Hecht, Angus MacPhail, based on the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders and Francis Beeding
PHOTOGRAPHY: George Barnes
EDITOR: Hal C. Kern
MUSIC: Miklós Rózsa
WITH: Ingrid Bergman (Dr. Constance Petersen), Gregory Peck (Dr. Anthony Edwardes / John Ballantyne), Michael Chekhov (Dr. Alexander "Alex" Brulov), Leo G. Carroll (Dr. Murchison), Rhonda Fleming (Mary Carmichael), John Emery (Dr. Fleurot), Norman Lloyd (Mr. Garmes), Bill Goodwin (House Detective), Steven Geray (Dr. Graff), Donald Curtis (Harry)

FESTIVALS: Venice 

REVIEW

“As a study of psychoanalytic procedure, Spellbound, the latest creation of Old Master Hitchcock, wouldn’t merit a footnote in Freud. But when the film stops trying to be esoteric and abandons arcane mumbling for good, rousing melodrama, it moves along in the manner to which Hitchcock has accustomed us. I don’t think anyone could take seriously the proposition… that an amnesia victim could install himself with no trouble whatsoever as a substitute for the head of a high-class sanatarium, and I very much doubt whether Ingrid Bergman will be readily accepted as a lady psychoanalyst by those whose acquaintance with the profession is more than fleeting. She seems entirely too handsome and wholesome to be preoccupied with rooting around among neuroses, and her casework leaves much to be desired…

As part of her heady chores in the picture, Miss Bergman not only has to fall in love with the amnesia victim, played with shaggy determination by Gregory Peck, in five minutes flat, but also has to combine science and passion in fierce confusion in an effort to make him figure out who he is… Fortunately, [Hitchcock] hasn't forgotten any of his tricks. He still has a nice regard for supplementary characters, and he uses everything from eerie train whistles to grand orchestral crescendos to maintain excitement at a shrill pitch. Hitchcock manages his camera, as usual, with vast dexterity, and unless you’re emotionally gelid, I think a good many of the shots will have you twitching… Mr Hitchcock has also included some dream sequences confected by Salvador Dalí which seem pretty similar to those dreams of yesterday that the Surrealist scattered around Bonwit Teller’s windows.

The cast… is large and excellent. In a very tiny role as a lonesome drunk brooding in a New York lobby, Wallace Ford does as nice a piece of acting as he has turned out in his whole career, and Michael Chekov, nephew of the renowned Anton, is amiable and ingratiating as Miss Bergman’s old psychoanalytical chum. All in all, you’d better see this one.”

– New Yorker, 3 November 1945

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Dunedin
Wednesday, 2 March, 7:30pm

Canterbury
Monday, 14 March, 7.00pm

Hamilton  
Monday, 11 April, 8.00pm

Timaru
Monday, 2 May, 6:00pm

Nelson
Tuesday, 10 May, 6:00pm

Auckland
Monday, 23 May, 6:15pm 
​This screening is open to the public, all tickets $10 (AFS members free). Tickets & memberships on sale now at Academy Cinemas

Wellington
Monday, 13 June, 6:15pm

Queenstown
Tuesday, 21 June, 8.15pm

Whanganui  
Monday, 4 July, 7.00pm

New Plymouth
Wednesday, 20 July, 6.00pm

Tauranga
Thursday, 28 July, 6.30pm

Palmerston North
Wednesday, 30 November, 6:00pm

CLASSIC & CULT CINEMA selection >>