Spellbound | 1945
Updated April 6, 2021
Critical Consensus
Kenneth M. Chanko | Entertainment Weekly
Greg Klymkiw | Daily Film Dose
Matthew Lucas | From the Front Row
JP Roscoe | Basement Rejects
Yusuf Javed | Eye For Film
Christoph Hartung | christophhartung.de
Caio Bogoni | Cine Grandiose
Dave Kehr | Chicago Reader
Mike Massie | Gone With The Twins
John J. Puccio | Movie Metropolis
Nick Schager | Lessons of Darkness
Andy Webb | The Movie Scene
David Nusair | Reel Film Reviews
James Kendrick | Q Network
Walter Chaw | Film Freak Central
Greg Klymkiw | Daily Film Dose
Matthew Lucas | From the Front Row
JP Roscoe | Basement Rejects
Yusuf Javed | Eye For Film
Christoph Hartung | christophhartung.de
Caio Bogoni | Cine Grandiose
Dave Kehr | Chicago Reader
Mike Massie | Gone With The Twins
John J. Puccio | Movie Metropolis
Nick Schager | Lessons of Darkness
Andy Webb | The Movie Scene
David Nusair | Reel Film Reviews
James Kendrick | Q Network
Walter Chaw | Film Freak Central
Fix a critic’s review
Summary & Info
A psychoanalyst (Ingrid Bergman) starts to fall in love with the new, youthful director (Gregory Peck) of her Vermont mental hospital, but then realizes that he’s an amnesiac with an abnormal fear of parallel lines and a guilt complex. He may also be a murderer and an impostor. Cast: Michael Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. [1:58 – NR]
Dueling Critics
“Alfred Hitchcock said he wanted to ‘turn out the first picture on psychoanalysis,’ and this Freudian doozy has it all…The Salvador Dalí-designed dream sequence is still a dazzler, and deciphering it points to the real killer. Analysis the way it oughta be!”
“In a movie that’s essentially about an individual’s ability, or lack thereof, to banish his or her personal demons, ‘Spellbound’ gets a little credit just for being so damned ironic for the fact of it. It’s successful, in other words, if its intention was to be a disaster – a grenade offered up to a hated creative rival.”
Video
Spellbound | 1945
Updated April 6, 2021
Critical Consensus
Kenneth M. Chanko | Entertainment Weekly
Greg Klymkiw | Daily Film Dose
Matthew Lucas | From the Front Row
JP Roscoe | Basement Rejects
Yusuf Javed | Eye For Film
Christoph Hartung | christophhartung.de
Caio Bogoni | Cine Grandiose
Dave Kehr | Chicago Reader
Mike Massie | Gone With The Twins
John J. Puccio | Movie Metropolis
Nick Schager | Lessons of Darkness
Andy Webb | The Movie Scene
David Nusair | Reel Film Reviews
James Kendrick | Q Network
Walter Chaw | Film Freak Central
Greg Klymkiw | Daily Film Dose
Matthew Lucas | From the Front Row
JP Roscoe | Basement Rejects
Yusuf Javed | Eye For Film
Christoph Hartung | christophhartung.de
Caio Bogoni | Cine Grandiose
Dave Kehr | Chicago Reader
Mike Massie | Gone With The Twins
John J. Puccio | Movie Metropolis
Nick Schager | Lessons of Darkness
Andy Webb | The Movie Scene
David Nusair | Reel Film Reviews
James Kendrick | Q Network
Walter Chaw | Film Freak Central
Fix a critic’s review
Dueling Critics
“Alfred Hitchcock said he wanted to ‘turn out the first picture on psychoanalysis,’ and this Freudian doozy has it all…The Salvador Dalí-designed dream sequence is still a dazzler, and deciphering it points to the real killer. Analysis the way it oughta be!”
“In a movie that’s essentially about an individual’s ability, or lack thereof, to banish his or her personal demons, ‘Spellbound’ gets a little credit just for being so damned ironic for the fact of it. It’s successful, in other words, if its intention was to be a disaster – a grenade offered up to a hated creative rival.”
Summary & Info
A psychoanalyst (Ingrid Bergman) starts to fall in love with the new, youthful director (Gregory Peck) of her Vermont mental hospital, but then realizes that he’s an amnesiac with an abnormal fear of parallel lines and a guilt complex. He may also be a murderer and an impostor. Cast: Michael Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. [1:58 – NR]