On the Beach (1959)

“Who would ever have believed that human beings would be stupid enough to blow themselves off the face of the Earth?”

            I am not a fan of films that deal with the end of the earth and human existence. They always make me nervous. I was not particularly in a rush to see On the Beach because it is of people living in world after a nuclear holocaust and they are waiting to die from the radiation. But I had to see it because the cast is really great. The story actually turned out to not only be sad but very good.

            The year is 1964 and the world has come to an end from nuclear warfare. The only country that was not devastated by the blasts was Australia but even they are preparing to face the radiation that will eventually find its way to them. Out at sea are the only surviving Americans traveling a submarine from the US Navy. When the war started they were out at sea. They surface in Australia. The captain of the submarine Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) works with the Royal Navy to go to sea to take tests of the air in different areas. One of the Royal Navy officers sent on the mission is Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins). He has a wife Mary and a little baby. Mary does not want to hear anything about how they will all eventually die.

            Dwight is to stay with Peter as his home outside Melbourne. Peter has his friend Moira (Ava Gardner) pick the captain up at the train station. Moira is immediately attracted to Dwight. That night Peter has a party at his place for Dwight. At the party is an older man named Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire). He is the one responsible for the weapons that have destroyed the world. Moira tells Dwight that she and Julian are the town drunks they have no but themselves. Out on the porch Moira asks Dwight about his family and he speaks about them as if they are still alive in Connecticut. You can see the sadness on Moira’s face as he speaks about his family she knows they are dead. When the party is over Dwight is sitting by himself on the porch. Moira is drunkenly walks over to him and they talk. She has Dwight take her in his arms and she passes out.

            The next Peter, Mary, Dwight, Moira, and Julian are at the beach. Moira and Dwight were in a sailing race when she flipped the boat over on purpose throwing her and Dwight into the water. When they get to the beach she jokingly tells everyone that Dwight made a pass at her so to get back at him she flipped the boat. Dwight takes Moira and wrestles with her a bit and when they come back he sticks to her joke. He goes to say something about Moira but instead of saying her name he says his wife Sharon’s name. Moira is upset after what happened on the beach so that night she goes to see Julian. She tells Julian she could have tried her tricks she uses to get a man but Dwight is married and he is still in love with his wife. Moira sees Julian is fixing up a race car. He tells her he plans to race it when he gets back from the submarine mission. She asks him if he plans on killing himself and he simply says if it happens.

            The American submarine leaves the next day for their mission. Scientists in Australia believe that rain and snow in other areas of the world will weigh the radiation in the air down and not be as powerful when it hits Australia. Julian and the crew prove their theory is unfortunately wrong the world is becoming hotter. One of the crew asks Julian how the war even started. He tells them:

“The trouble with you is you want a simple answer. There isn't any. The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained - - by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn't possibly use - - without committing suicide. Everybody had an atomic bomb, and counter-bombs, and counter-counter bombs. The devices outgrew us; we couldn't control them. I know, I helped build them. Somewhere, some poor bloke probably looked at a radar screen and thought he saw something. He knew that if he hesitated for a second that his own country would be wiped off the map. So he pushed a button and the world went crazy.”

            The submarine reaches San Francisco. Some of the men are from the town. One man abandons the sub and swims ashore. The next morning through the sub’s loudspeaker talks to the man. The poor man saw his family dead in their homes. He wants to die at home he does not want to return to the ship.

            Back in Australia, Moira thought she would never see Dwight again and that she would be all alone again. Dwight comes back to her and they are never without each other. They go to see Julian race his car and he winds up winning after continually missing dying in a crash by a few seconds.

            The radiation fallout begins to hit Australia. One of the crewmen has become infected. Before Peter left he gave Mary pills for her and their baby to take so they would not suffer. Mary became angry she did not want to even think of killing her baby. The country began handing out a powder that would kill people if they took it. Peter took some for himself and Mary and she agrees to take it. The crewmen of the submarine want to return to the United States to die they want to die at home not in a foreign country. Dwight unfortunately has to leave Moira behind.

            The last scene of the film is of an empty space in front of town hall.

            The entire cast did a brilliant job. Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck have incredible chemistry. They had made two films together before this and were best friends outside the movies (when Gardner died Peck took her dog). You could tell both of them were tortured over what was going to happen that Moira did not want to be alone and that Dwight could not think of anything but his wife and that his relationship with Moira was nothing more than a short romance. Gardner was very good. It was kind of sad to see her playing a drunk because she had become one herself in real life. You can see the toll of her hard drinking and staying up all night partying on her face but she still looked beautiful especially in one close up of her when Moira is talking to Dwight about wanting to walk the streets of Rivoli. Peck was perfect in his part you can believe he would be a naval captain and look like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. I was very surprised that I actually enjoyed Anthony Perkins in this film because usually he gets on my nerves so bad. I felt terrible for his character the most since he had a wife and baby. Fred Astaire as a drunk was odd at first but he was great the man really did have acting talent besides his musicals.

            On the Beach is an apocalyptic film but it is not bad. Nothing scary is shown like dead bodies all over the place nor the men and women suffering from radiation poisoning. It was a film and story about how a group of people are reacting to the knowledge that their time on earth is coming to an end. Some are lonely, some are suffering from guilt, some are dealing with the thought of taking their own lives to be spared an awful pain. On the Beach is a very well made film all around and one of the most heartbreaking I have ever seen. It is definitely worth seeing.  

The Valley of Decision (1945)

The story of wealth vs. poverty is as old as time. Mixed in with this battle is love and as they say love conquers all. The Valley of Decision is one of those tried stories of wealth vs. poverty and love.

            Mary Rafferty (Garson) is an Irish immigrant living in the shadows of the Scott Steel Mill with her father Pat (Lionel Barrymore) and sister. Pat has been crippled in an accident at the mill and has had a grudge against the Scott family for several years because of it. He calls them all devils and evil people. Mary gets a job as a maid for the Scott family. Pat of course is not thrilled but it is a job and Mary must take it.

            Mary’s first day on the job is also the day Paul (Peck) gets back from a two year trip in England to see how their steel mills operate. From the moment they lock eyes on each other you can see it is love at first sight. Mary meets Mr. Scott the man whom her father calls the devil but she sees him as a nice kind man. She quickly has her hands full with the younger children Constance and Ted who both demand a lot of attention.

            Over time Mary becomes part of the family and could not simply function without her. She keeps Constance in line all the time. She becomes very close to Mrs. Scott who even invites her to join them in a trip to Boston for their son William’s wedding. On the boat back Paul grabs Mary and kisses her.

            Alone in the kitchen one night after Paul has been working at the mill nonstop, sits with Mary for some dinner. Paul asks Mary to marry him and kisses her. She loves Paul but knows she cannot because of class. When Mary goes upstairs Mrs. Scott stops her and talks to her. She sees that Mary is in love with her son. Constance comes home that night married to an English Earle and plans to leave that night to go back to England with him. Mrs. Scott suggests Mary goes with them and does for two years.

            Feeling alone for two years Mary becomes homesick for America and misses Paul. The whole time she has been away she has not answered one of his letters. Constance sees that she misses Paul and suggests Mary go back home to see him. In the states, Mrs. Scott tells her husband that Paul will marry no one he is and has been in love with Mary. Mr. Scott asks why they have not gotten married already! Mr. Scott picks up Mary from the train station and on the way back says that he agrees to her and his son getting married.

            Unfortunately, the happiness is cut short for the couple. A strike at the mill occurs. Mary tries to help out since her friend Jim is head of the union. She arranges them all to meet on a bridge symbolizes both sides are meeting halfway. Mr. Scott sends Ted to deliver a message to William to bring his strike breakers back to Detroit they will not need them but Ted has been drinking heavily for some time now and misses his older brother. The negotiations were going fine until the strike breakers came. Pat shoots Mr. Scott and Jim is shot dead along with Pat. Mary feels terrible and guilty. She never wanted to see Paul again but he still wanted to marry her regardless. Mary tells Paul they cannot marry there is too much between them.

            Years go by. Paul is married to a woman named Louise who was always determined to marry him and has a young son. He comes home one day and Louise has a fit that their son was playing with the steel workers. Paul does not care since they are his friends but Louise does not want their son to associate with them she hates the mill and hates living in the town. The older Mrs. Scott has not been doing well but she goes to see Mary at the dress shop they have put together. The mother tells Mary that when she dies she is leaving her share of the mill to her. Mrs. Scott eventually dies. William wants to sell it and has a proxy for Ted to vote for him to sell the mill. Each shareholder will earn two million dollars each. Paul of course will not sell it the place is his life and Mary promised Mrs. Scott she would not sell her share. Mary talks Constance into not selling and the mill remains in the family.

            Paul has had enough of Louise. He is and always has been in love with Mary and Louise knew it. He tells his wife to leave and brings Mary back to her place.

            So as you can see love conquers in the end even if it did take the main characters years to finally be together.

            Greer Garson was wonderful. She put on a fantastic Irish brogue that makes you never want to hear her stop talking. Garson was a great actress and was rightly nominated for an Academy Award. Gregory Peck was a perfect screen partner for Garson. To me in the films I have seen of Greer Garson she always seemed to make her male costars look better. I mean not that Gregory Peck was not good actor he was incredible but Greer Garson just brought out more in him because she was so good herself. I loved it at the end where Paul yells at Louise and basically tells her to shove off. His voiced is what I would expect God to sound like if God were to tell the world to shove it! Lionel Barrymore was awesome but that begs the question when is he not an awesome actor? I liked seeing him as a cranky old Irish man with a huge grudge telling his daughter he curses her marriage to a Scott. Gladys Cooper played Mrs. Scott. I love seeing her in films. She was a very good dramatic actress but could be funny too like in The Pirate as Judy Garland’s aunt. I liked her character very much and Cooper in the role made the character all that much better. Jessica Tandy played Louise. She was terrible! I seriously not only wanted to punch the character out for being a spoiled brat but I wanted to punch Tandy out for being horrendous!

            The Valley of Decision, as one review I read put it, a very underrated classic Hollywood film. Sure the plot had/has been used over and over again but because the acting and everything else about it worked so perfectly the film is excellent.  The Valley of Decision is very predictable but very watchable.

 

The Great Sinner (1949)

“When a man takes the trouble to be so rude to a woman, he is usually falling in love with her.”
“You're not a woman. You are a symptom.”
“Of what?”
“Of one of the world’s deadliest diseases, sophistication.”

            The Great Sinner is not one of the best classic films I have ever seen. If it had not been for Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck starring in the film I probably never would have sat through it. It is from the start depressing and nerve wracking and the subject of gambling and self ruin is not one of my favorite story devices. But the performances by the cast were great.

            Peck plays a writer named Fedja living in the year 1847. He is traveling from Russia to Paris by train when he meets the beautiful young woman named Pauline Ostrovsky (Gardner). They do not speak for the entire train trip to Wiesbaden, Germany. When Pauline gets off the train Fedja follows her.

            Fedja comes to find that Pauline and her father are compulsive gamblers. They win thousands of Marks a hand and then lose it all in a flash. Fedja is fascinated by all of this and decides to write a book about the characters he has met.

            He finds that Pauline and her father owe more money they can possibly ever get to a man named Armand (Melvyn Douglas). Armand is willing to forgive their debts if Pauline marries him but Fedja wants Pauline for himself since he has fallen in love with her. He goes to the gambling hall one afternoon and plays roulette. His luck is incredible and he just keeps winning. By the end of the night he want won enough money to pay Pauline’s debts and take her away. Armand tells Fedja to keep the money until morning hoping that Fedja will gamble the rest of his money away. The plan works and Fedja is left with virtually nothing.

            Fedja spirals out of control from the man he used to be. He does not even want to see Pauline who wants nothing more than to help him.

            The story got on my nerves after the first forty-five minutes mostly because I was getting nervous with Fedja losing all his money.

            Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner were wonderful together. They looked stunning paired together even in period costumes. Gardner played Pauline beautifully this along with My Forbidden Past, is one her best acted films. Peck was such a great actor the man could play any part given to him and just be perfect. He looked a little silly in period costume but his acting more than made up for that.

            The rest of the cast was alright. Melvyn Douglas played a slim (the second time I have seen him play a character like this and I did not like it!). He was good but he is like Peck, Douglas always gives a good performance. Frank Morgan plays a math professor who is a compulsive gambler. When he finally wins then loses a big sum of money he kills himself. Needless to say Morgan is in not in the film for that long. Agnes Moorehead and Ethel Barrymore are also credited above the main title but they are barely in the film. Moorehead pops up every now and again as a pawn shop owner and she is a creeper. Barrymore has like two scenes towards the end and her character croaks at the gambling table.

            Robert Siodmak is a well known Noir director. He brings that touch of Noir to this seedy story of gambling and debauchery. Siodmak’s touch was perfect for the type of story.

            The Great Sinner was very well made with a great cast but I could not get into the story at all. It is an attempt to bring a nineteenth century melodrama of gambling to the big screen and it just either did not translate well from the book or fell flat somehow in the process of the story cinematic telling. I will say that even in literary form I would not be attracted to a gambling story where the main character falls off the wagon hard let alone a film. But after all is said and done, with an excellent cast and director The Great Sinner is worth seeing at least once.

 

Roman Holiday (1953)

“Joe, we can't go running around town with a hot princess!” 

            One of my goals in life is to travel to Italy. My art history loving heart would DIE to visit Florence and Rome. I love Renaissance art and the art of the Vatican, they are where my love for art got its start. Whenever I watch the fabulous film Roman Holiday my dreaming of Rome takes flight. I would love to be able to spend the day like Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn do wandering around Rome to whatever places on a whim and not having a care in the world.

            Hepburn is Princess Ann of an unknown European country. She is in Italy as part of a good will tour. She is a proper beautiful young woman. At the end of her long tiring day Ann has a break down, she is sick of having a schedule and having to be nice to people and have others wait on her hand and foot. She wants to go out and live and see the sites that she wants to see.

 

            Ann makes her escape by jumping into a truck. She is excited by what she sees in the nighttime streets. But unfortunately she is feeling the effects of the medicine the doctor gave her to make her go to sleep and she lays down on a wall. A man named Joe Bradley (Peck) comes to her rescue. Joe thinks Ann is a little drunk because she is still high off the sleeping drug and cannot keep her eyes open. He gets her in a cab and asks her where she lives but she does not say. Joe wants to get out but the cab driver will not let him leave her alone seemingly drunk in the car. So now Joe takes her to his apartment, gives her his pajamas for the night, and she sleeps in his couch.

 

 

            The next morning in the paper there is an announcement sent out by Ann’s advisors that she has come down with a sudden illness and will not be greeting the press to cover up her disappearance. Joe realizes that the princess is sleeping on his couch in his pajamas. He is a reporter so he shoots down to his office telling his boss he has a way that he can get the best scoop of Princess Ann that no one else will be able to get. Joe does not tell his boss exactly how is going about to get this scoop but with some pay negotiations he tells Joe to go ahead.

            When he gets home Ann is now fast asleep on his bed. She wakes up and freaks out not knowing where she is and especially because there is a man in the room and a man has never seen her not in a dress. After she gets ready Ann leaves but Joe follows her. She walks down the street looking into store windows and stops in front of a barber shop. Ann comes out with much shorter hair and continues enjoying her freedom.

 

            Ann stops for a gelati and sits down on the Spanish Steps. Joe is still following her and pretends he just casually passes her by and recognizes her. From this time to the end of the film they spend the day together having a great time traveling on a Vespa, going out dancing, and even taking an impromptu dip in the Arno. Also along for the day is Joe’s photographer friend Irving (Eddie Albert) whom he has promised to split the money with.

 

 

            At the end of the film Joe does not write up the scoop because he loves Ann.

            Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck were wonderful together. This was Hepburn’s first leading role and her big break. Actresses should only wish they had a great break out role like Hepburn’s. She was adorable and so genuine as Ann. Peck was outrageously handsome and cute as Joe. They had great such great chemistry, it was not romantic chemistry it was just a nice lovable chemistry which makes their characters that much more enjoyable to watch. Peck told the producers that Hepburn was going to win an Oscar because she was so good and that they should put her name above his and he wound up being right.

 

            Roman Holiday is so much fun to watch. This is one film I can watch over and over and turn into a complete girl wishing I could find a man like Joe and just have a nice carefree time wandering around Rome for the day. I would love to get a gelati and go dancing on the Arno with a handsome man! One of the reasons I love Roman Holiday is because there is no drama between the characters it is just a fun, sweet, adorable film.

 

Designing Woman (1957)

“Liquor, I've found, makes me very smart sometimes.” 

I did not know what I was getting into when I watched Designing Woman with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall. Before I watched the film I did not even know what the plot was about, I figured it had to involve something with designing fashion and that the leads had to overcome their differences for them to love each other. All I really knew for sure was that I had to see it for Peck and Bacall since I love them both.

            The film is told as a flashback by several of the characters. Mike Hagen (Peck) and Marilla Brown (Bacall) meet while they are both working/vacationing in California. They met the night before after a big boxing match. Mike has no idea what he did that night all he knows is that he met a woman and that he has a screaming hangover. When he goes outside by the pool he sees the woman he had met. They sit down and she fills in his gaps of the night before: they had met and he was so drunk that he needed help writing an article for the newspaper he works so she helped him and he wanted to pay her seven hundred dollars. Mike still does want to pay her but she does not accept. After that day they spend all their spare time together and they decide to marry.

            Like all fairy tale times and stories the honeymoon does not last long after they return home. Mike wants them to live in his bachelor apartment but it is very small and very very messy. In that mess Marilla happens to find a torn up picture of a very pretty woman. She tells Mike that he can spend the night at her place and when he sees her place he cannot believe how big it is, he can clearly see that Marilla is very successful with her fashion designing. He has been hoping to show her the city and introduce her to people but then her friends spring a surprise for her and he sees that she already knows a lot of people. As the weeks roll on they come to find their lifestyles clash tremendously especially when Mike’s poker night is on the same night that Marilla has all outlandish theater friends over. The night does not go over well at all.

            To make matter incredibly worse between the new couple Mike’s ex-girlfriend and the one in the torn up picture is in the play Marilla is making the costumes for. For a while Marilla has her suspicions about this actress named Lori Shannon she feels she has seen the actress around before but cannot place her. Then one day at rehearsals Marilla finally puts two and two together and leaves right away. The day before Mike had lied about not knowing Lori and now she is ready to lay into her husband pretty thick. But before things are said and blow up Mike has to head out of town for a few weeks for his paper. He has been writing how racketeering in boxing and one of the heads of the racketeers is after him over his stories. This situation cannot have come at a worse time for him because now Marilla thinks he is off to stay with Lori.

            Things get crazy and out of hand but in the end Mike and Marilla are still together and love each other very much.

            Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall were fabulous. All I had seen Peck in up to this point was dramas I loved seeing him all flustered and silly. Mike never seemed like he was very comfortable with Marilla or being taken out of his element and Peck played that wonderfully he looked as if he really was uncomfortable around Bacall and out of his element. Lauren Bacall was fantastic with her comedy. She was so deadpan and spot on in some scenes you cannot help but fall to pieces laughing. Sometimes she was a little too much but mostly she was enjoyable. I loved all her clothes she looked great in all her outfits. These two actors were really night and day when it came to their styles of acting but they worked incredibly well together. Their parts were originally intended for Grace Kelly and James Stewart but Grace Kelly backed out once she became engaged to Prince Rainier. I could not in a million years see those two pulling this film off like Bacall and Peck did. Kelly was too stiff with her acting and Stewart would have just been terrible he would have played the character too dumb. Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall just went full force into their characters with excellence.

            My favorite parts of the film are when Mike goes out with Lori to tell her he’s married and when Mike takes Marilla to a boxing match and when he goes to one of her fashion shows. The scene when Mike goes out with Lori was hysterical. They go out to this Italian place that they always go to and he gets a plate of ravioli. Upon hearing his news Lori calmly almost out of nowhere tips the plate of ravioli onto Mike’s lap. He does not freak out he just as calmly takes what she gave him. She looks as if nothing ever happened (it is hard to explain the funniness of the scene unless you see it; it is so deadpan and wonderful). The two other scenes just show how different Mike and Marilla are: Marilla freaks out at the sight of so much blood she screams and runs out of the match and Mike feels like he has walked into hell when he sees the models modeling clothing and so many women gawking at the clothes.

            I loved how the story was told through flashbacks and narration. The movie Down to You was made in the same way and I love that movie whenever I watch it I think that way of telling the story is brilliant. Maybe the writers for Down to You got the idea from Designing Woman? I think the narration added to the chaos of the characters and the silliness of the story.

            Designing Woman was a very fun and amusing romantic comedy. As I was watching this it made me wish that more comedies were made like this where the main characters are real people with a real problem. The whole situation was not blown completely out of proportion to the point where it was unbearable to watch Lauren Bacall, Gregory Peck, and the entire cast played everything perfectly. I had a fun time watching Designing Woman and seeing just how versatile Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall were with their acting. I especially enjoyed seeing them in color. 

Spellbound (1945)

“My dear girl, you cannot keep bumping your head against reality and saying it is not there.”

            Psychoanalysis is a subject/plot device we often see in thrillers. There is nothing more thrilling and scary then getting into someone’s mind probably because they have either been some or all based on real cases. No other filmmaker was better at psychological thrillers than Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock was the master at creating mind bending stories that reached and took hold the minds of the audience. Hitchcock delves into the mind and psychoanalysis head first in one of my favorite films of his Spellbound.

            Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychologist at Green Manors. She is (apparently) the only female doctor in a facility dominated by male doctors. She is young, brilliant, and very attractive. One doctor tries to pull the moves on her but as he says “It is rather like embracing a textbook.” Looking at it Constance is very dedicated to her studies and her work that she has worked to earn.

            The head of Green Manors, Dr. Murchison, is about to be replaced by Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). When Edwardes arrives Constance is surprised to see a very handsome, young man and is taken with him the moment she meets him. Constance takes Edwardes around the grounds of the institution for the afternoon. The two doctors get along very well. Later that night at dinner the other doctors take great notice that Constance is very much taken with the new doctor by her demeanor and her appearance.

            Constance cannot stop thinking of Edwardes. She goes to his room in her nightclothes and robe. The two talk and while talking Edwardes walks up to Constance embracing her and kissing her. Her mind is now fully open to love as we see through the symbolization of the doors of her mind opening to the fact. A few seconds later something goes wrong with Edwardes when he sees the lines on Constance’s white robe. He gets an attack of nerves and backs away from her.

            After another incident with Edwardes where he passes out in an operating room Constance gets to thinking. She takes out a book by Edwardes that has been signed by him and compares it to a note written by the man she knows. The signatures are completely different the man she is watching over as he sleeps is not Dr. Anthony Edwardes but an imposter. When the man comes to, Constance asks him who is but he cannot remember he is suffering from amnesia. The man thinks he may be the one who could have killed the real Edwardes and taken his place. Taking out one of his belongings they see his initials are JB.

            The next morning JB has left leaving a note for Constance apologizing for what he has done and where he will be. Constance goes after him to help him overcome his condition. Now JB and Constance are on the run from the police and it becomes a race to find out his identity and what happened to the real Dr. Edwardes.

             The story of Spellbound was inspired by the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Francis Beeding. I have read the novel and the only thing Hitchcock took from the novel was JB taking over as Dr. Edwardes but even that is extremely loosely based on the character in the novel and even the character of Constance is as well. The novel is pretty extreme with portraying the insane people of a psychiatric home somewhere in Europe. Constance has just arrived as a new doctor to the home. Hitchcock most likely liked the idea of someone talking another’s identity but obviously, as he told Truffaut, he wanted “… to do something more sensible, to turn out the first picture on psychoanalysis.” He did make a sensible picture even if he and writer Ben Hecht took some liberties with the science. I am not about to explain all the psychological aspects of the film but if you have ever taken psych classes in your life you will understand most of what is going on since the film (like all films) has to cater to an audience and needs to be understandable. At this time the press was preaching how psychological counseling was a great advantage to returning GIs from World War II. This went perfectly with Hitchcock’s wanting a sensible story and Selznick and Hecht had been in psychoanalysis and added their own touches to the film.

            The most original, creative, and amazing dream sequence can be seen in Spellbound. Hitchcock did not want a “traditional way of handling dream sequences through a blurred and hazy screen” so he went to Selznick and asked to have famed Surrealist artist Salvador Dali create the sequence. Selznick thought it was a publicity ploy but it was not the director “…wanted to convey the dreams with great visual sharpness and clarity, sharper than the film itself. I wanted Dali because of the architectural sharpness of his work… the long shadows, the infinity of distance, and the converging lines of perspective.” As an Art History major I have studied Dali and the Surrealists and no one art movement or artists could have been better suited to help make a Hitchcock scene. From paintings to photography the Surrealists were interested in dreams and interpretation. The dream sequence in the film is incredible it was so well made and just fit so perfectly with the story. Whenever I see the film and this scene comes on I get so excited because I understand it and I can truly see why Hitchcock was such a genius he knew what would work. I will admit Surrealist art is a bit unsettling and the scene with the eyes is somewhat unsettling but it is just so cool.

 

            There are many other scenes in the film that were excellently filmed or created. One scene I really like is when Constance and JB first kiss. As I mentioned when they kiss the doors to Constance’s mind that had been closed to love open. This “unlocking” is very important to the film it could be the third point of the plot with JB’s mind needing to be unlocked to find out who is and what happened to the real Dr. Edwardes. At the end there is a hand with a gun that the person holding it turns on themselves. The hand is fake otherwise there would not have been a way to film it correctly but it is Hitchcock and fakeness of the hand does not matter. When the gun is fired the screen turns red. In the middle of the film Constance takes JB to the home of her former teacher Dr. Burlov. JB awakens in the middle of the night and goes into a delusional state after seeing white and parallel lines. He goes downstairs with a shaving razor in his hand and Dr. Burlov is awake, working at his desk. The doctor hands JB a glass of milk. The milk almost looks like the milk glass in Suspicion but instead of only seeing it on a tray or in a hand we get JB’s view of him drinking it. Burlov saw the razor in JB’s hand and gave him milk with bromide in it.

            Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck were perfection together they were both such amazing actors in their own right but together they just light the screen. Bergman no matter what she was in was perfection and she suited Hitchcock’s style of filming very well. She added warmth but this warmth gets taken advantage of and Hitchcock/Hecht make women look stupid when they are in love. Sure stupid things can be done when someone is in love and yes Constance can be seen as unprofessional but I think the director and writer took Constance’s love a little too far and depending on how you look at it she can seem like the dumbest character ever. I look at Constance as being really truly in love for the first time and she was willing to risk everything for it. Only Ingrid Bergman could play characters like this and not make the character look stupid. Hell she played this type of character to certain extents throughout her career. As much as I admire Peck in this film I will have to agree with Truffaut in his statement “Whereas Ingrid Bergman is an extraordinary actress, ideally suited to your (Hitchcock) style, Gregory Peck isn’t a Hitchcockian actor. He’s shallow for one, but the main thing is the lack of expression in his eyes.” I will absolutely agree with his lack of expression with his eyes. I find classic actresses were way better at expressing emotions through their eyes or facial expressions than the actors. If Peck does make any expressions it is not good. I feel that with Peck in this film he is holding back from something but I think that can be put down to Bergman giving her all like she did in all her films.

            Miklos Rosza created an amazing score. It has to be one of the most intense film scores that can be heard in a film. To create the paranoia of JB whenever he saw white and parallel lines Rosza had the theremin. This was the first time a theremin had been used in a film score supported by a full orchestra. Rosza won his first Academy Award for Spellbound and it is considered a landmark in film music. Unfortunately Rosza was not a fan of this score he preferred his score for The Lost Weekend (in which he also used the theremin) and I am sure that had a lot to do with the fact that he did not get along very well with Selznick or Hitchcock. Producer and director did not say very much in how they wanted the music to be. Also this happened: “Selznick’s office phoned after the premier of The Lost Weekend asking him if it were true that he had used the theremin in The Lost Weekend as well as Spellbound (as though Selznick had a monopoly on the use of the theremin). Rosza, not to be outdone by Selznick responded with, ‘Yes, I had used not only the theremin, but also the piccolo, the trumpet, the triangle, and the violin… Goodbye!’” Rosza’s score is perfect it fits the characters and the storyline so well.

            Truffaut and even Hitchcock did not particularly care for Spellbound. They say there are confusing moments and certain issues with the acting and filming but I cannot disagree more. Spellbound is such an original film from the story (even if it is based off a novel) to the way it was filmed. What truly makes this film so amazing is the way Hitchcock used sexual desire and love to create suspense (he did this in many of his films but never, in my opinion, did it work so well than here) No matter how many times I watch this film I am completely taken by it. As with most Hitchcock films I am always sitting on the edge of my seat.

            Spellbound is classic cinema and Hitchcock at their best. This is the original psychological thriller that set the precedent for all to come.

                             Watch it on Youtube