Runtime: 111 minutes
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov, Leo G. Carroll, John Emery
From: Selznick International Pictures
This is not only another case of my clearing space from the DVR-this was recorded off TCM a little more than a week ago-I haven’t viewed any Hitchcock since this past May. This is a famous effort which can’t be streamed (well, not legally) so the TV broadcast was the way to go.
Gregory Peck is the new head of a Vermont hospital where Ingrid Bergman is the psychoanalyst. They fall in love, because they’re beautiful people & all. Hopefully this isn’t a spoiler but Peck isn’t who he says he is—he has amnesia and how convenient, he MAY have killed the guy he’s now impersonating. I certainly can nitpick certain aspects of the plot, it starts to drag at times, and not everyone will enjoy how Bergman was a strong, independent woman until she starts swooning over a guy, which doesn’t dissipate even after hearing he could be a murderer.
Regrettably, Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick (the guy who brought Hitch to America) feuded during production. They had an agreement to make films together but Selznick usually loaned out the director to other studios and it was a rather fractious relationship. The producer meddled w/ the production and that is a shame. Even then, the performances of the two leads were great assets for me accepting some of the nonsense present in the film, including what I presume is dated psychoanalysis which perhaps could always have been phony altogether, along with some dated attitudes Peck had towards women.
Another key asset is the score from Miklos Rozsa. At times it was mixed rather LOUD for the film but itself was quality, using the wacky instrument known as the theremin. According to hearsay, none other than Jerry Goldsmith was inspired to become a composer after hearing this music. And yes, there’s a dream sequence done by Salvador Dali, and it was as peculiar as you’d expect from Salvador Dali. That made this journey worth it despite my preference for plenty of other Hitch films.
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