8mm Forum: Spellbound

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 02, 2006, 03:08 PM:

Spellbound
Black &White , 110 mins, 2000ft
ABC Films

Spellbound was nominated for six Academy awards and won the Oscar for best original score. Based on Francis Bleeeding’s novel ’The House of Dr. Edwards', it is one of Hitchcock’s finest films, full of classic plot twists and featuring a riveting and scary dream sequence by Salvador Dali.
Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll) has recently resigned from his position as head of Green Manors Mental Asylum, and is replaced by the famous psychiatrist Dr. Edwards (Gregory Peck). Edwards almost immediately becomes attracted to the beautiful, but cold, Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman). Edwards starts getting episodes of intense anxiety and fear, and Petersen realizes that he is a paranoid amnesiac. She befriends Edwards, and together they set out to solve the mystery of what has happened to him.
Produced by David O’Selznick and directed by Hitchcock, this is a very tense movie, that scared the hell out of me when I first saw it as a youngster (what between this movie and ‘The Spiral Staircase’ I am beginning to conclude that my parents could not afford a baby sitter!) The Dali sequence haunted me for years, so much so that I could not bear to see the film a second time until much later in life. Peck is his usual intellectually intense self, and Bergman lights up the screen with her incredible beauty. The score by Miklos Rozsa, is one of the greatest ever film scores.
The Super 8 print is by ABC Films, and it is very good indeed. Nice and sharp, with excellent contrast, and no washed out highlights. The running time is 110 minutes, reduced by about 8 mins from the original feature film. This is annoying, and you have to wonder why they did it, unless it was to fit the film into a 2 hour time slot on TV with commercials. Fortunately, the plot twists are all still intact, although a little of the films impact is lost.

Print A
Sound A

Posted by Andrew Wilson (Member # 538) on November 09, 2006, 11:23 AM:

Great review asa always Paul.ROZSA's score is a classic of 40's cinema.Mind you Hitchcock hated it.Funny how things turned out.Andy.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 09, 2006, 12:22 PM:

Hi Andy,
Yes most of Hitchcock's films had really great scores, usually by the great Bernard Hermann. I think the best is 'Vertigo' - a masterly score to a movie masterpiece.

Posted by Timothy Ramzyk (Member # 718) on December 01, 2006, 02:07 AM:

The editing on ABC features always bugged me, Red Fox Films where I used to buy them always sated that B/W features weren't edited, but they all were. My friends and I were also always amused that they put "Alfred Hitchcock's" on the SPIRAL STAIRCASE. The only way that was his is if he owned the print before me.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 01, 2006, 07:42 PM:

It's all a matter of semantics. ABC films probably did use the edited for TV versions, (to fit into two hour time slots, as stated earlier), so, thought the films were edited for TV, ABC films didn't do the actual editing for super 8 release, so thier statement was accurate.

That's just the way it goes.

It is a great film, however.

Posted by Timothy Ramzyk (Member # 718) on December 03, 2006, 03:02 AM:

quote:
thought the films were edited for TV, ABC films didn't do the actual editing for super 8 release, so thier statement was accurate.

Really? I'm skeptical because I never saw a TV airing (at any time) of one of ABC features that was edited to the degree of the 8mm prints I owned, especially titles like They Shoot Horses Don't They? Spiral Staircase, and Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice? and Spellbound. You think you would have over the years.

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