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Spellbound

Play trailer Poster for Spellbound 1945 1h 51m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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86% Tomatometer 44 Reviews 82% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
When Dr. Anthony Edwards arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwards is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwards is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Spellbound

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Spellbound's exploration of the subconscious could have benefitted from more analysis, but Alfred Hitchcock's psychedelic flourishes elevate this heady thriller along with Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck's star power.

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Critics Reviews

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Marjory Adams Boston Globe 12/31/2020
A fascinating, grim, exciting motion picture, based on the currently popular interest in psychiatry, and illustrating a new method of crime detection. It is a "whodunit" (the current name for mystery dramas) raised to a de luxe intellectual plane. Go to Full Review
Dave Kehr Chicago Reader 10/05/2019
...beneath the facile trappings there is an intriguing Hitchcockian study of role reversal, with doctors and patients, men and women, mothers and sons inverting their assigned relationships with compelling, subversive results. Go to Full Review
Jake Wilson The Age (Australia) 09/27/2018
Today this seems above all a forward-thinking portrait of a woman battling for authority in a man's world. Go to Full Review
Sarah Boslaugh TheArtsStl Dec 20
6/10
You can feel the conflict between producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock from the opening credits... Go to Full Review
Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Nov 4
4/4
A commercial and critical hit in its day, this Best Picture Oscar nominee has seen its standing slip in the ensuing decades, as it's never mentioned on any list of Alfred Hitchcock's best works. That's a shame. Go to Full Review
Diana Tuova Spotlight on Film 08/13/2024
4.5/5
Those who love a good mystery, suspense...will...find many things to like in this film. Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck team-up to deliver a memorable romance, and the dedicated supporting cast...shine in their equally majestic roles. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Molly D @RT95902486 22h You don’t understand. I am 16 years old and when I say I saw this movie for the first time and i was appalled, I am NOT lying, this is genuinely one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. See more Leaburn O @RT35452347 Feb 3 Only Hitchcock could direct such a preposterous plot and still make it watchable. Has all his hallmarks and this time a deep Freudian fascination too. Peck is great and Bergman is too until the final laughable twenty minutes. Watched on DVD. See more A T. @AThompson Jan 26 Fascinating look into trauma and the subconscious mind. Loved the stellar cast with a such a great auteur director in Hitchcock! See more Kyle M @RT77296778 Nov 3 Delving into the psychoanalytical angle prompted mere glances like basic textbook whilst unfolding a crime is moderately engaging alongside the showcased chemistry of Peck and Bergman’s professionally humane performances towards a cheesy end, mindfully summing an average picture beneath a Hitchcockian manifestation. (B) See more Farah R @Farah 04/12/2025 Slightly confusing and overacted, Spellbound isn't among Hitchcock's best, but it's watchable because it's well-made. See more Sarfaraz A @RT40602226 12/06/2024 Alfred Hitchcock directed the film, which was based on Francis Beeding's novel "The House of Dr. Edwardes" and scripted by Ben Hecht and Angus MacPhail. Starring my favorites Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, but Miklos Rozsa won the Oscar for Best Music-Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. About a potentially murderous amnesiac imposter and the psychoanalyst who falls in love with him. Ingrid Bergman plays the role of Dr. Constance Peterson, who falls in love with Dr. Edwardes, played by Gregory Peck, the new administrator of the psychiatric institution where she works. She then discovers he is a fraud and may have actually murdered the real Dr. Edwardes and replaced him. Peterson attempts to help the nervous man, who is convinced of his own guilt, to uncover the secrets locked in his mind with the newly discovered science of dream analysis. Spellbound was one of the first Hollywood films to deal with psychoanalysis. This film features an extended surrealistic dream sequences designed by Spanish artist Salvador Dali. The surrealistic dream sequence designed by Dali was originally supposed to run for 20 minutes and included a scene in which Dr. Peterson was covered with ants. Only part of the scene was filmed, and only a portion of that footage ended up in the released version. The movie version that I watched did not have this scene. The film has a strong Gregory-Ingrid chemistry. In fact, the duo mesmerized me with their delivery of sardonic dialogues. See more Read all reviews
Spellbound

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis When Dr. Anthony Edwards arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwards is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwards is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Producer
David O. Selznick
Screenwriter
Frances Beeding, Angus MacPhail, Ben Hecht
Distributor
United Artists, Criterion Collection
Production Co
Vanguard Films Production, Selznick International Pictures
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 31, 1945, Original
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 3, 2004
Runtime
1h 51m
Sound Mix
Mono
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.37:1), 35mm
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