Spellbound is a psychological

Psychological thriller

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...

 mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

 in 1945. It tells the story of the new head of a mental asylum who turns out not to be what he claims. The film stars Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...

, Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck

Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

, Michael Chekhov

Michael Chekhov

Michael Chekhov was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. His acting technique has been used by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, and Robert Stack. Constantin Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student...

 and Leo G. Carroll

Leo G. Carroll

Leo Gratten Carroll was an English-born actor. He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.-Early life:...

. It is an adaptation by Angus MacPhail

Angus MacPhail

Angus MacPhail was an English screenwriter, active from the late 1920s, who is best remembered for his work with Alfred Hitchcock....

 and Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...

 of the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes

The House Of Dr. Edwardes

The House of Dr. Edwardes is a psychological thriller novel written by John Palmer and Hilary A. Saunders, under the pseudonym "Francis Beeding"....

(1927) by Hilary Saint George Saunders

Hilary Saint George Saunders

Hilary Aidan Saint George Saunders was a British author. Saunders was born in Clifton, near Bristol. During World War I he served with the Welsh Guards....

 and John Palmer (writing as "Francis Beeding").


The film opens with Shakespeare's proverb, and words on the screen announcing that its purpose is to highlight the virtues of psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

 in banishing mental illness and restoring reason.

Dr.