{"id":153,"date":"2013-02-20T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T06:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/?p=153"},"modified":"2024-10-17T07:15:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T06:15:04","slug":"capsule-spellbound-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Capsule: <em>Spellbound<\/em> (1945)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by NEIL SINYARD<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Sinyard_Spellbound-e1361289343579.png\" alt=\"Sinyard_Spellbound\" width=\"250\" height=\"188\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-156\" \/><br \/>\n\u2018Will he kiss me or kill me?\u2019 was the original poster tagline for <em>Spellbound<\/em>, showing an apprehensive Ingrid Bergman in the arms of a preoccupied Gregory Peck, who is holding Bergman with one hand and an open razor with the other. It is a familiar dilemma for a Hitchcock heroine. Here Bergman\u2019s psychiatrist has fallen for Peck\u2019s doctor, who is a suspected murderer and amnesiac with recurrent nightmares that hold the clue to his past and identity. Hollywood had at this time only recently discovered Freud, and although Hitchcock tended to dismiss the film as \u2018just another manhunt picture wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysis\u2019, it is a pointer to future Freudian themes and the proximity of film to dream in his work that will culminate in such masterpieces as <em>Vertigo<\/em> and <em>Marnie<\/em>. With a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali and a sumptuous Oscar-winning Miklos Rozsa score, this was Hitchcock\u2019s biggest hit of the 1940s and has many audacious visual flourishes: fork-lines on a linen table-cloth that will trigger Peck\u2019s trauma; a succession of opening doors as the couple first kiss; and a fine scene in a white bathroom where Peck, enacting the fear that roams Bergman\u2019s subconscious, discovers the terror that can lurk in everyday objects. As the love-smitten analyst who turns dream-detective, Ingrid Bergman contributes many lovely touches and she is finely supported by some eccentric characterisation, notably from Michael Chekhov (nephew of Anton) as her psychology professor. \u2018Good night and happy dreams,\u2019 he says to the honeymoon couple, before adding mischievously, \u2018which we will analyse at breakfast.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by NEIL SINYARD \u2018Will he kiss me or kill me?\u2019 was the original poster tagline for Spellbound, showing an apprehensive Ingrid Bergman in the arms of a preoccupied Gregory Peck, who is holding Bergman with one hand and an open &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/?p=153\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[86,45],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capsule-short-entry-on-a-film","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-spellbound"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/neilsinyard.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}