ANNIVERSARY TODAY:
ON RADIO: November 3, 1944 - Shirley appeared on the game show It Pays to Be Ignorant.
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For those readers that requested some of my earlier writings, here's one I dug out from 1985. This is my analysis of the film Spellbound, which appeared originally in Classic Images, No. 112 (April 1985).
As regards Spellbound, this film has been denigrated as not being a "true" Hitchcock film when comparing it to the typical Hitchcock scenario. Nevertheless, I liked it enough to write this defense of it. The extraordinary Ingrid Bergman shines in this complex plot involving psychoanalytic theory.
A response (2 issues later) from one of the paper's readers follows.
In Defense Of Hitchcock's Spellbound
by Jim Manago
Spellbound has been downgraded for many reasons. Some anti-Hitchcockians (those critical of Hitch) will say the director's shift to a film about psychoanalysis, which seems so un-Hitchcockian on the basis of previous films proves he is less of an artist for it shows the lack of a unified philosophy.
Also, the presence of audience manipulation via the larger-than-life trick gun shows this wise showmanship ability of maintaining his audience's attention - which a true artist would not be concerned with. I believe these are unfair charges.
Those critics that revere Hitchcock but exclude Spellbound as one of his triumphs usually charge the film with oversimplifying psychoanalysis. This and the pedagogic/didactic quality of the dialogue are what I consider the only fair accusations of any real substance. Yet I believe these accusations could be disregarded given Hitchcock's beautiful direction and careful development of the narrative via well-chosen visual effects.
Grossing around 8 million dollars by 1949, with only a one-and-half million dollar cost, Spellbound was a huge commercial triumph for Hitchcock. Yet he underestimated the film by calling it "just another manhunt story wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysis." He added surprisingly: "The whole thing's too complicated, and I found the explanation toward the end very confusing." To the contrary, I perceive the film as very logical and understandable. Unfortunately though for psychoanalysts, Spellbound tends to reduce psychoanalysis to simply detective work.
As the second of three films Hitchcock did for David O. Selznick (besides Rebecca and The Paradine Case) Spellbound bears no resemblance to it's inspiration, Francis Beeding's novel "The House of Dr. Edwardes." However, the novel did suggest the setting in a psychiatric hospital and the notion of the hospital director being mad. Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay because, as Hitchcock put it, he was "keen on psychoanalysis." Surrealist artist Salvador Dali was chosen to give the famous dream sequence what Hitchcock felt real dreams involve, namely the quality of "architectural sharpness," though have said Dali was invited to assist only for publicity reasons. Hitchcock had to compromise on the shooting of the dream sequence: he preferred doing it outdoors for the added sharpness but Selznick objected to this on the grounds of the added expense such a practice would incur.
Spellbound is basically a study of the process involved in solving the amnesiac's (Gregory Peck) guilt complex which cause him to assume the identity of a murdered Dr. Edwardes, the new hospital director. The ski trip Dr. Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) takes the amnesiac on helps to evoke a catharsis that reveals the origin of the guilt complex. The amnesiac assumed the role of Dr. Edwardes because witnessing the death at a ski resort (where there is snow and parallel lines created by the skis) reminded him of the accidental death of his brother in his childhood (caused by Peck's sliding him into a spiked fence). The previous guilt complex re-emerged and caused the amnesia when the Edwardes' murder occured. Later Dr. Petersen is able to piece together the meaning of the amnesiac's dream, thus discovering who murdered Dr. Edwardes with the help of a Freudian slip by Dr. Murchison. Undoubtedly this may sound confusing or undramatic when explained. Nonetheless, Spellbound is an engaging film to me despite what any critic has said.
Dr. Petersen is a woman of reason who becomes more emotionally mature when she stops repressing [her true self] with academic manners and attitudes. Her abnormal and almost absurd concern or belief in the innocence of the amnesiac when the latter believes he's guilty shows her new-found willingness to open up in her personality other avenues of knowledge. Reason is balanced by feeling.
Michael Chekhov as the old doctor, who is friend and previous instructor of Dr. Petersen, gives a marvelous performance full of humorous moments based on his somewhat eccentric behavior. He plays out perfectly the old adage that 'genius borders on insanity.' Ingrid Bergman's acting presence in Spellbound needs no explanation - she's inimitable. Gregory Peck most effectively portrays the bewilderment and fear of an amnesiac. Though not as sympathetic as other 'Hitchcock villains' Leo G. Carroll as Dr. Murchison gives us no real hint of his criminality.
Hitchcock was a master at integrating those visual tricks, techniques, or pieces of business (whatever you might call them) into the narrative which one will remember long after the film. Some of these effects include: the gun fired at the audience with a flash of color, the kissing scene between Bergman and Peck where doors are shown opening indicating the opening-up of Bergman's cold academic personality to the warm feelings of love, the recurring sharp radiant objects (a letter opener, razor, spiked fence, scissors in the dream sequence), the surrealistic dream sequence, the parallel lines motif in it's many manifestations (fork trails in a tablecloth, lines in a robe, train tracks, bedspread with lines, sled tracks, etc.) the color white motif in it's many manifestations (snow, light, a sink, chair, shaving soap, etc.), the camera's emphasis on the eyeglasses which when removed by Dr. Petersen indicates her experience of removing that cold intellectual facade to reveal another creature more human underneath.
Such 'Hitchcock touches' are not devices existing for their own sake like those anti-Hitchcockian critics contend. Instead these visual effects form the narrative and Hitchcock's unique perception of the way narrative must be advanced visually. They do not serve the function of being excess baggage, but are integral cinematic features of Spellbound.
Two other aspects of Spellbound that I particularly enjoyed are the music and the likening of psychiatric work to detective work. For a change, the score is not obtrusive or cloying as in earlier Hitchcock films. The composer, Miklos Rozsa, won an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture. The theremin, an oscillating instrument, was effectively played every time Peck experienced the psychotic state of confusion and anxiety. As for the overlapping of psychiatric and detective work: the house detective for the Empire State Hotel acts like a psychologist (and even admits his work requires it), Dr. Petersen acts like a detective in piecing together the various clues of the Dr. Edwardes' mystery.
Film scholar Andrew Sarris has recognized the problem with Hitchcock criticism, and his remark seems particularly applicable to Hitchcock's film Spellbound: "Certainly Hitchcock's reputation has suffered from the fact that he has given audiences more pleasure than is permissible for serious cinema. No one who is so entertaining could possibly seem profound to the intellectual puritans." Although some watching Spellbound may be disappointed for the fact that it's a less typical Hitchcock film. But consider its merit of being one the first American films to acquaint us with psychoanalysis besides serving as proof of Hitchcock's versatility.
NOTE: This article is an excerpt from the author's film notes to Spellbound, previously published for The St. John's Picture Show, St. John's University, Jamaica, NY (February, 1984).
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In response to my defense, there was an interesting letter from a reader two issues later (Classic Images, No. 120, June 1985). Here's that letter published originally in the "from the mailbag" column:
Spellbinding Ingrid
Jim Manago's "In Defense of Hitchcock's Spellbound" in the April 1985 Classic Images is the best analysis ever written of that engrossing film. His observations are astute, but not pedantic, which is a common fault that the critics of today exhibit frequently. His interpretation of the opening doors, which were enhanced immeasurably by Rozsa's romantic music and the meaning behind Ingrid's removing her eyeglasses, ring true. One might say that only when she took them off was she able to actually see.
Mr. Manago states that one aspect that he enjoyed was the likening of psychiatric and detective work. There is the strategic clue to appreciating this film. Ingrid Bergman portrays Mrs. Holmes, not Dr. Peterson.
She has to resolve two quandaries. First, what made Peck ill? The solution is brilliantly realized by Hitch and Ingrid in the scene when she glances questioningly out the window at the falling snow and murmurs knowingly: "Snow...snow." The look of discovery on Bergman's face is exquisite emoting. The other dilemma for her to probe is how to find the killer of Dr. Edwardes. She is assisted by a slip of the tongue. It is the scene immediately after this that is so compelling, depicting Ms.Bergman in her room alone as she incessantly hears the tell-tale words: "I only met him once."
Other fine moments linger in the mind, such as Bergman's artful acting in the final confrontation with her adversary when she accuses him of the crime. yet, the highlight occurs when Ingrid and Peck frolic during the country stroll. They reach a hilltop, and she says breathlessly: "Oh, isn't this lovely?" Peck, with his eyes fastened on her lustrous face replies: "Perfect!"
Then Peck asks her if she wants a ham or liverwurst sandwich. Ingrid, overwhelmed by the far-reaching prospect, sums up in one word as she inimitably could (remember her saying, "Delicieuse!" in Saratoga Trunk), how she feels about the incredible view, by declaring ecstatically: "Liverwurst!"
John J. Croft
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*****
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Love is the Reason for it All: The Shirley Booth Story
by Jim Manago
Radio Research by Donna Manago
Foreword by Ted Key
BearManor Media, 2008
http://bearmanormedia.bizland.com/
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