Another of those movies where I'd seen the title show up on TCM on a number of occasions, but had never actually watched it, was The Seventh Veil. So the last time it showed up on TCM, I finally got around to putting it on my DVR and watching it before it expired, so that I could do a post on it now.
Ann Todd plays Francesca Cunningham. As the movie opens, she's in a hospital late one evening, looking for a way to escape the hospital, as she looks around rather furtively when she's out in the hallway. She does get out, and goes to a bridge, where she jumps in the river in an obvious attempt to commit suicide. She fails, thankfully, since if she had succeeded we wouldn't have a movie. But she winds up in some sort of catatonic state where she won't talk to anybody who can help her. So the hospital brings in a psychiatrist, Dr. Larsen (Herbert Lom), who proceeds to drug Francesca up and bring about a state of narcotic-induced hypnosis, because this sort of psychiatric mumbo-jumbo was the hotness especially in Hollywood. (The title of the movie makes sense here, as Dr. Larsen says the narcotics will make Francesca remove her seventh veil, the way Salome voluntarily did.)
At least Gregory Peck got a Salvador Dali-designed dream sequence in Spellbound. Here, Francesca Cunningham suddenly becomes clear enough to understand and is able to remember everything perfectly in her hypnotic flashback sequence that lasts for most of the movie. Well, actually, there are multiple such scenes since the damn drugs keep wearing off. Francesca begins to talk about when she was a young girl of 14, at an all girls' boarding school, and getting into trouble for collecting specimens from the pond. She's got some musical aptitude as a piano player, but for getting into trouble, she gets caned, which causes her to miss out on a possible music scholarship. It's tough to play with sore hands.
Francesca's dad dies, Mom already having been dead for some years. Her closest relative is one of Dad's cousins, Nicholas (James Mason), who is old enough for Francesca to consider an uncle, although he hates that. Indeed, he is for whatever reason someone who doesn't want to be around women that much. But he's a failed pianist himself and sees the talent inherent in Francesca, and decides to start training her himself. And indeed, Francesca gets to the point where perhaps she could perform in public. She's also got a mind of her own, and meets American Peter Gay (Hugh McDermott) who has an interest in swing music that absolutely pisses off Nicholas. Nicholas is so controlling of Francesca and so wants her to have a professional career in music that he takes Francesca off to the Continent lest she run off with Peter. After all, she is still just 17 and Nicholas' ward.
You can see, however, why she wound up with psychiatric problems. Things are about to get worse, however. She spends years on the Continent, returns to the UK and finds Peter's gotten married, and then falls in love with Max, an artist Nicholas hires to paint Francesca's portrait. She's finally grown up, and in theory can choose whomever she wants as a romantic partner. So when she chooses Max, this drives Nicholas around the bend and forces Max to try to elope with her, leading to a car crash as they race away from Nicholas' London mansion.
Ah, this is all melodramatic and psychological silliness, wrapped up in a stylish package. And I will say that all of the technical parts of the film as well as the acting are very well done. But in addition to the story (the screenplay surprisingly won an Oscar), for me there was another big issue, which was the politics of the time in which the movie was released. Its British premiere was October 1945, which is obviously just after the end of World War II. No biggie there, but then you see the flashbacks take place over a series of years, and the present seems to be in a time that hasn't been affected by the war at all! No Italian Fascism, no mention of the encroaching Nazi menace during the montage of Vienna, none of that. It made things tough to believe for me.
But there are a lot of people who are going to love a movie like The Seventh Veil, so watch and judge for yourself.
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