Spellbound

Alfred Hitchcock called this film, “just another manhunt wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysis.”  While that sums it up pretty well, adding in fun details like a murder-mystery, a love story to cloud judgement and a Salvador Dali inspired dream sequence sets Spellbound apart from Hitchcock’s other manhunt or psychoanalysis inspired films.

At Green Meadows mental institute, Dr. Edwards has just arrived to replace Dr. Murchinson (Leo G. Carroll).  Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) falls in love with the charming new arrival, but realizes inconsistencies in his present self and what she has read about him professionally.  She is the first to realize that this man, only known as JB (Gregory Peck), is an impostor suffering from paranoia and amnesia.  Constance takes it upon herself to treat him and attempt to outrun the authorities looking to charge him with the murder of the real Dr. Edwards.

Along the way, Constance and JB seek refuge in the house of her old mentor, Dr. Alexander Brulov (Michael Chekhov).  By this point in the story, Alex is the only person with a level head on his shoulders able to see the situation without getting personally involved.  He’s a quick thinking man, welcoming his old pupil with a fathering attitude, but sees through her lies and keeps the situation under control.  What I loved most about Alex is his ability to see the bitter truth and tell Constance that her judgement is clouded by her affections for JB.  “We both know that the mind of a woman in love is operating on the lowest level of the intellect,” he tells her.  Viewers who have been swept up in the love story have been brought back to Earth by Alex, who holds some important elements in understanding JB’s condition.  It’s this ability to be kind, charismatic and clear up the lovey-dovey nonsense that will only hinder their progress, that earned Michael Chekhov a supporting actor nomination.

One of the most unforgettable parts of the film is the dream sequence.  At Alex’s request, JB describes a dream he just awoke from, in an attempt to analyze it and see if they can uncover any clues to his true identity.  The images inspired from Dali’s work are stirring, surreal and very creepy.  There are curtains of eyes being cut with giant scissors, a card game won with blank cards and a man with no face dropping an odd shaped wheel.  Alex attempts to put these strange pieces of information together, but it isn’t until the end we find their true meaning.

Spellbound is one of the many Hitchcock movies every film fan should see.  It was one of the first films to deal with psychoanalysis, a theme Hitchcock would later work with often and the Dali dream sequence was ground breaking in film art direction.  With a stars like Bergman and Peck fueling a stirring plot with surprises until the very end, Spellbound is a film any classic film lover needs to see.

“Women make the best psychoanalysts until they fall in love. After that they make the best patients.”

Random Harvest

In Random Harvest Ronald Colman plays a soldier with amnesia.  On a foggy night, he breaks out of the asylum where people are celebrating the end of WWI in the streets.  He stumbles around for a while until he meets Paula (Greer Garson), a girl who sings and dances at a club who befriends him.  She calls him Smithy, takes him in like a stray puppy and Nightingale syndrome settles upon her.  Against better judgments that people with amnesia can become violent, Paula runs off with Smithy and they get married.  Everything is so ideally romantic, a tree is flowering in front of their new house as they stand fresh as daisies in their wedding clothes and a baby is born probably nine months to the day later.  Smithy is about to get a job as a full time writer and all their worries will be at an end.  He just needs to make a little weekend trip into the city, cross that busy street and–oh no!  He’s been hit by a car and can suddenly remember everything before the war, but nothing of his new life.

So Smithy (who’s real name is Charles Rainier) goes back to his family, inherits his father’s house and runs the family business.  Years later he hires Paula as his secretary, with no memory of their marriage.  Throughout her employment with Smithy, she tries to bring back their old life together and they grow closer.

The film explores what the same person is likely to do in different circumstances.  This case is quite fascinating.  As a man with no past memory, Smithy becomes a writer and a passionate family man.  Later, as a business man he hires his wife and absently says that he always wanted to write.  I guess it’s always the same person, just not aware of each side.

Ronald Colman was nominated for lead actor for pretending to be oblivious.  In his complete amnesia, Colman plays Smithy like a helpless kitten, quiet and unsure of nearly everything.  It isn’t until he’s married that he can strut around with confidence,by then he’s built a life.  Later, when we’re waiting for him to remember his married life, it seems like he’s just about to make that big connection.  His eyes stare, the gears in his head are on the verge of grinding and then something keeps him in the present.  The anticipation can kill us.

The visual imagery is key to this film.  Pay special attention to the blossoming tree, the foggy town, the beaded necklace, they’re all clues that come back to haunt you.  The only film I’ve seen to do this better is Hitchcock’s Vertigo, but here the reliance for those images isn’t as heavy.  I wonder now if Random Harvest was an inspiration for Vertigo.

All in all, I enjoyed this film.  There were some moments that felt a little stale but it never stayed very long.  Though I was able to predict the ultimate outcome, I enjoyed the ride and was hanging on every long mind churning stare Ronald Colman could push out.  Random Harvest is a love story, an amnesia story, a woman’s quest to win her oblivious man story.