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Spellbound
Although Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Spellbound (1945) features the loveable pair of Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman, it is a first-class murder mystery, adapted by Angus MacPhail and Ben Hecht from Francis Beeding's novel The House Of Dr. Edwardes.
The story revolves around Dr Anthony Edwardes (Peck) and the beautiful and very much single psychiatrist Dr Constance Peterson (Bergman) who fall in love at first sight at the very beginning of the film. Things get nasty when all get to know that Edwardes is not what he claims to be as he is a paranoid amnesiac impostor who remembers only his initials J.B. He goes on the run with the gorgeous doctor who follows her heart instead of her brain and tries to solve the mystery of what happened to the real-yet-missing Dr Edwardes.
"Women make the best psychoanalysts, until they fall in love. After that, they make the best patients." Dr Alexander Brulov, who played mentor to Dr Peterson, uttered this dialogue jokingly but it proved to be more than true as the relationship of Edwardes-Peterson became more of man-woman than that of patient-doctor, as the film progresses at an unimaginable pace. Spellbound should be commended because of its twists and turns, considering it was produced 60 years back and features the legendary dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali, which plays an important part in the plot. Unlike other Hollywood dream sequences, this one actually makes sense by the climax, where the mystery unfolds explosively!
Spellbound might seem dated to many but managed to impress the Academy Awards jury in 1946 by winning an Academy Award for Best Music (for its orchestral score by Miklós Rózsa) and nominations for the categories of Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Michael Chekhov), Best Black-and-White Cinematography, Best Director (Alfred Hitchcock), Best Effects/Special Effects and even the Best Picture! It may not be Hitchcock's finest movie like Birds, North by Northwest, Psycho and Vertigo but it certainly is better than many others, in many, many ways!
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