Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)

8/10
Last Sunday I saw a Hitchcock double-feature, The 39 Steps and Vertigo. An average Hitchcock followed by a much better one. On Friday it was Spellbound and Rear Window, one I'd never seen followed by my favorite (as a second viewing confirmed). Spellbound is better than The 39 Steps, and similarly features characters racing to unlock a secret. In Spellbound however, the secret is inside Gregory Peck's mind, and Ingrid Bergman is the psychiatrist trying to unravel it all. The plot has a built-in magnetism to it, and the brief-but-exquisite dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali is worth the price of admission alone. The ending too is something else. It's on a tier below Rear Window, Psycho and Vertigo but still very enjoyable.