Spellbound 1945

     Renowned doctor Anthony Edwardes has been hired to be the head of Green Manors Psychiatric Hospital.  Soon after the arrival of Dr. Edwardes, he begins to act strangely and Dr. Constance Petersen determines that he must be ill.  He is demonstrating odd aversions and personality traits.  Dr. Petersen learns that this is not the real doctor but an imposter.  The real Dr. Petersen has been found dead and it is probably murder.  Dr. Petersen doesn’t believe this man is guilty of the murder and she determines to help him recover his memory.  Since Dr. Peterson and this man have quickly fallen in love, it’s possible that Dr. Peterson’s judgment is skewed?

      This is an Alfred Hitchcock film so there are many twists and turns.  John Ballantyne is the man posing as Dr. Edwardes.  Dr. Peterson and John Ballantyne are on the verge of being caught by the police many times.  There are a LOT of on the edge of your seat moments!!  Some of the psychoanalysis gets a little tedious?  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)    

111 min, Film-Noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, Rhonda Fleming, John Emery, Norman Lloyd, Bill Goodwin, Steven Geray, Donald Curtis, Wallace Ford.

Note:  Imdb 7.6 out of 10, 83% critic 82% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 203 reviews, TCM Leonard Maltin 3.5* out of 4*, average user review 4.2* out of 5*, Eye For Film 4* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Surrealist painter Salvador Dali designed one of the dream sequences experienced by John Ballantyne.  Director Alfred Hitchcock was an admirer of Dali’s work and he realized that no one understood dream imagery better than Dali.  Originally, Producer David O. Selznick was opposed to hiring Dali because of the expense.  Selznick and Hitchcock often had friction between each other.  Selznick was in the habit of hiring out Hitchcock because he was under contract.  Selznick charged other studios more for Hitchcock's work than he was paying him.  In a scene with snow falling on John Ballantyne and Dr. Peterson it was really cornflakes.  This is one of the first Hollywood films to deal with psychoanalysis.  There is another movie with the same title from 2002.