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Spellbound (1945)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
1/14
1/14:
Don't be fooled by several aspects of Spellbound.
Salvador Dalí's name is mentioned during the opening credits, so his work should be easily identifiable. Well, it's
there all right: a lifelike replica of what could've been a painting.
Without doubt, the dream sequence is the best part of the film. Yet Salvador Dalí didn't have much of a say
because his creativity got shortchanged by the ever-myopic David O. Selznick who found the original sequence too
long and irrelevant. So there went Spellbound.
Instead, it's a laughable and awful film. Who can but the gullible believe the far-fetched psychobabble crap that's
spewed out? My eyes rolled often during many harebrained scenes that bordered between stupid and illogical. Speaking of
silly, Ingrid Bergman attempts to look cool while smoking a cigarette off the holder.
There's no way that a female psychoanalyst will risk her career for something so irrational and illegal considering
the era she lived in when no respect was paid to women's rights. During the time, the only viable careers for them were
schoolteacher, nun, and housewife. Even prostitution wasn't out of the question. On the other hand, Gregory Peck displays
the usual wooden acting, and therefore, he's not believable.
Notice in the movie poster that Gregory Peck is holding a razor blade knife behind Ingrid Bergman's back. Well, it
appears for a brief minute in the film which has nothing to do with the plot. During the latter half, a Sigmund
Freud look-alike shows up. That's just poor, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock.
All in all, haing relied too much on false advertising and psychobabble, Spellbound is a rare Hitchcockian misfire.