Rent Spellbound (1945)

Film Blanc. - Spellbound review by Steve

There's the traditional hero of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller; the wrong man fleeing the law to clear his name. But the MacGuffin is an incident suppressed in the guilt complex of his psyche. It's among the first of the Freudian thrillers released after WWII. The authority of the subconsciousness became one of the Master's motifs.

Gregory Peck plays the doctor who must prove his innocence. When he and Ingrid Bergman (in her glasses and lab coat) appear as psychiatrists at the start of the film, they look so drop dead beautiful that it takes about 20 minutes to suspend disbelief. Rhonda Fleming maintains the glamour as a photogenic patient.

Made in peak period film noir, it is diverting to see a thriller which is preoccupied with whiteness. The frantic suspect reacts unpredictably to any memory of snow. There's a standard Hitchcock plot- adapted by Ben Hecht from a forgotten novel. It's the colour design with striking modernist touches which sets it apart.

The dream sequence featuring original artwork by Salvador Dali is crucial. But there are many startling and influential flourishes. When the camera tracks the disorientated suspect down a stairway and closes in on the cut throat razor in his hand, we could be watching '70s Italian Giallo. Realism isn't a priority, but this is still a stylish suspense classic.