Under Capricorn
Encyclopedia
Under Capricorn is an Alfred Hitchcock
historical feature film
.
by Helen Simpson
, with screenplay by James Bridie
, and adaptation by Hume Cronyn
. The movie was co-produced by Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein for their short-lived production company Transatlantic Pictures
and released through Warner Brothers. The film starred Michael Wilding
, Ingrid Bergman
, Joseph Cotten
, and Margaret Leighton.
The film was Hitchcock's second film in Technicolor
and uses ten-minute takes similar to those in Hitchcock's film Rope
(1948). It is believed that the audience thought Under Capricorn was going to be a thriller, which it was not—it was a domestic love triangle
with a few thriller elements thrown in—which apparently led to its box office failure. However, the public reception of the film may not have been helped by the revelation in 1949 of Bergman's illicit relationship with — and subsequent pregnancy by — Italian film director Roberto Rossellini
.
, New South Wales
, Australia
, Charles Adare (Wilding) arrives with his uncle, the new governor
(Cecil Parker
). Charles hopes to make his fortune. He is befriended by Samson Flusky (Cotten), a prosperous businessman who is a former transported convict
. Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Bergman), was a friend of Charles's sister in Ireland
. Sam hopes that Charles will cheer up his wife, who is an alcoholic. Meanwhile the housekeeper, Milly (Leighton), secretly loves Sam, and encourages Henrietta's drinking. Sam was transported after he confessed to a killing actually committed by Henrietta, who followed Sam and waited for his release.
Gallafent, professor of film at University of Warwick
, also explains these aspects of Under Capricorn:
Note: "Minyago Yugilla", according to one source, is not written in a real language; according to other sources, it is in Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay)
, a now moribund Australian aboriginal
language. See also this similar translation of the phrase "Minyilgo yugila".
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...
historical feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
.
Production
The film is based on the novel Under CapricornUnder Capricorn (novel)
Under Capricorn is a 1937 dramatic novel by Helen Simpson. A young man arrives in the colony of New South Wales during the 1830s.-Film adaptation:...
by Helen Simpson
Helen de Guerry Simpson
Helen de Guerry Simpson was an Australian novelist.-Life and career:Simpson was born in Sydney into a family that had been settled in New South Wales for over 100 years...
, with screenplay by James Bridie
James Bridie
James Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor....
, and adaptation by Hume Cronyn
Hume Cronyn
Hume Blake Cronyn, OC was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.-Early life:...
. The movie was co-produced by Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein for their short-lived production company Transatlantic Pictures
Transatlantic Pictures
Transatlantic Pictures was founded by Alfred Hitchcock and longtime associate Sidney Bernstein at the end of World War II in preparation for the end of Hitchcock's contract with David O. Selznick in 1947...
and released through Warner Brothers. The film starred Michael Wilding
Michael Wilding (actor)
-Early life:Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London film studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career.-Career:...
, 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...
, Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
, and Margaret Leighton.
The film was Hitchcock's second film in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
and uses ten-minute takes similar to those in Hitchcock's film Rope
Rope (film)
Rope is a 1948 American thriller film based on the play Rope by Patrick Hamilton and adapted by Hume Cronyn and Arthur Laurents, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by Sidney Bernstein and Hitchcock as the first of their Transatlantic Pictures productions...
(1948). It is believed that the audience thought Under Capricorn was going to be a thriller, which it was not—it was a domestic love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
with a few thriller elements thrown in—which apparently led to its box office failure. However, the public reception of the film may not have been helped by the revelation in 1949 of Bergman's illicit relationship with — and subsequent pregnancy by — Italian film director Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
.
Plot
In 1831 SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Charles Adare (Wilding) arrives with his uncle, the new governor
Governors of the Australian states
The Governors of the Australian states are the representatives of the Queen of Australia in each of that country's six states. The Governors perform the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the Governor-General of Australia at the national level...
(Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker
Cecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....
). Charles hopes to make his fortune. He is befriended by Samson Flusky (Cotten), a prosperous businessman who is a former transported convict
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
. Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Bergman), was a friend of Charles's sister in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Sam hopes that Charles will cheer up his wife, who is an alcoholic. Meanwhile the housekeeper, Milly (Leighton), secretly loves Sam, and encourages Henrietta's drinking. Sam was transported after he confessed to a killing actually committed by Henrietta, who followed Sam and waited for his release.
Cast
- Michael WildingMichael Wilding (actor)-Early life:Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London film studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career.-Career:...
as Hon. Charles Adare, cousin of the governor - Ingrid BergmanIngrid BergmanIngrid 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...
as Lady Henrietta Flusky, old friend of Charles' sister - Joseph CottenJoseph CottenJoseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
as Samson "Sam" Flusky, businessman and Henrietta's husband - Margaret Leighton as Milly, Flusky's housekeeper
- Cecil ParkerCecil ParkerCecil Parker was an English character and comedy actor with a distinctive husky voice, who usually played supporting roles in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969....
as The Governor of New South Wales - Denis O'DeaDenis O'DeaDenis O'Dea was an Irish stage and film actor.O'Dea was a leading member of Dublin's Abbey Theatre, where his work led to a number of notable film roles, including two mid-1930s John Ford films, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars , and the part of the police inspector in pursuit of IRA man...
as Mr. Corrigan, bureaucrat - Jack WatlingJack WatlingJack Watling was a British actor.-Early life:Watling trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts as a child and made his stage debut in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire in 1936...
as Winter - Harcourt WilliamsHarcourt WilliamsHarcourt Williams was an English character actor.-Selected filmography:* Henry V * Brighton Rock * Hamlet * No Room at the Inn * The Lost People...
as the coachman - John Ruddock as Mr. Cedric Potter, bank manager
- Bill ShineBill ShineBill Shine, born Wilfred William Dennis Shine, was a British theatre, film and television actor. Shine was born into a family of theatre actors; among others, Shine's father, mother, grandmother, two uncles and an aunt had worked in theatre. His father Wilfred Shine was a theatre actor who also...
as Mr. Banks - Victor Lucas as the Rev. Smiley
- Ronald AdamRonald Adam (actor)Ronald Adam OBE , born Ronald George Hinings Adams, was a British RAF officer, an actor on stage and screen and a successful theatre manager.-Early life:...
as Mr. Riggs - Martin BensonMartin Benson (actor)Martin Benjamin Benson was an English character actor, who appeared in films, theatre and television. He appeared in both British and Hollywood productions.-Career:...
as the man carrying a shrunken head (uncredited)
The long take
In Style and Meaning: Studies in the Detailed Analysis of Film, Ed Gallafent says:
The use of the long take in Under Capricorn relates to three elements of film's meaning.
- Ideas of accessible and inaccessible space as expressed in the gothic house.
- The form in which character inhabit their past
- The divergence or convergence of eyelines – the gaze that cannot, or must meet another’s.
All of these three elements can be linked to concepts of Guilt and Shame. In 1 and 2, the question is how something is felt to be present. In 3, it is difference between representation or sharing, of the past as flashback, and of the past as spoken narrative, where part of what is being articulated is precisely the inaccessibility of the past, its experience being locked inside the speaker. As for 3, the avoided gaze is determining physical sign of shame.
Gallafent, professor of film at University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
, also explains these aspects of Under Capricorn:
The inscription on the Flusky's mansionMansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
-- Minyago Yugilla –- means "Why weepest thou?"
St. Mary MagdaleneMary MagdaleneMary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
(the patron saint of penitent sinners) in religious iconography: the bare feet, skull, the flail, the looking glass in which beholder’s is not always reflected, the jewels cast down to floor. All of these images are in the film. Sources for the imagery that Hitchcock might have had in mind are the paintings St. Mary Magdalene With a Candle (1630-1635) and St. Mary Magdalene With a Mirror (1635-1645), both by Georges de la TourGeorges de La TourGeorges de La Tour was a French Baroque painter, who spent most of his working life in the Duchy of Lorraine, which was temporarily absorbed into France between 1641 and 1648...
.
Note: "Minyago Yugilla", according to one source, is not written in a real language; according to other sources, it is in Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay)
Gamilaraay language
The Gamilaraay or Kamilaroi language is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup found mostly in South East Australia. It was the traditional language of the Kamilaroi people, but is now moribund—according to Ethnologue, there were only 3 speakers left in 1997...
, a now moribund Australian aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
language. See also this similar translation of the phrase "Minyilgo yugila".
Background
- Alfred Hitchcock cameo: A signature occurrence in three-quarters of Hitchcock's films, he can be seen in the town square during a parade, wearing a blue coat and brown hat at the beginning of the film. He is also one of three men on the steps of the Government House 10 minutes later.
- In Truffaut/Hitchcock, Hitchcock told François TruffautFrançois TruffautFrançois Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
that Under Capricorn was such a failure that Bankers Trust CompanyBankers TrustBankers Trust was an historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1998.-History:A consortium of banks created Bankers Trust to perform trust company services for their clients....
, which had financed the film, repossessed the film, which then was unavailable until the first US network television screening in 1968. In the Truffaut interview, Hitchcock also mentioned the New York Times reviewer, who wrote that the viewer had to wait almost 100 minutes for the first suspenseful moment. - In Peter BogdanovichPeter BogdanovichPeter Bogdanovich is an American film historian, director, writer, actor, producer, and critic. He was part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, which included William Friedkin, Brian De Palma, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino, and Francis Ford Coppola...
's interview with Alfred Hitchcock, Bogdanovich mentions that French critics writing for Cahiers du cinémaCahiers du cinémaCahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
in the 1950s considered Under Capricorn one of Hitchcock's finest films. - Playwright James BridieJames BridieJames Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor....
, who wrote the screenplay for Under Capricorn, is famous for his Biblical plays, such as his Jonah and the Whale. Other Christian references in Under Capricorn include a moment near the end of the film, where Milly says "The Lord works in mysterious ways", and Samson Flusky says "What is it they say in the Bible? Great Gulf Fixed." - Cecil Parker's character is possibly a representation of General Richard BourkeRichard BourkeGeneral Sir Richard Bourke, KCB was Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, Australia between 1831 and 1837.-Early life and career:...
, who served as the Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837.
External links
- Under Capricorn Eyegate Gallery