FILM · 1945 · USA
Spellbound
38 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (38)
- #001
During the skiing scene, the snow that falls on John Ballantyne and Dr. Petersen was actually cornflakes.
- #002
Sir Alfred Hitchcock was frustrated by the limitations of Gregory Peck's facial expressions. According to Peck, "I couldn't produce the facial expressions Hitch wanted me to open up. I didn't have that talent. He already had a preconception of what expression should be on the face, and he planned it as carefully as the camera angles. Hitchcock was an outsider and I had Stanislavski training at the Neighbourhood Playhouse, which means you work from the inside."
- #003
Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a great admirer of Salvador Dalí's work and felt that no one understood dream imagery better. Producer David O. Selznick was against using Dalí because of the expense, until he realized the marketing mileage such a hire could generate.
- #004
The shot in which the audience sees the killer's point of view beneath a gun barrel pointed at Petersen was filmed using a giant hand holding a giant gun to capture the correct perspective.
- #005
Early versions of the screenplay used the words "sex menace," "frustrations," "libido" and "tomcat" to describe the character Mary Carmichael at the clinic. These were removed when Joseph Breen, director of the Production Code Administration (Hays Office), objected strongly.
- #006
In several scenes, Gregory Peck can faintly be seen silently moving his lips while Ingrid Bergman delivers her lines and just before he delivers his own (as if he appears to be reading her lines, something young actors do under pressure or when they do not want to forget their own lines).
- #007
Salvador Dalí's dream sequence was initially shot to run 20 minutes, but it ended up only two minutes long. Sir Alfred Hitchcock initially wanted Josef von Sternberg to direct the film, but it was ultimately directed by William Cameron Menzies.
- #008
In a 1987 interview with People Magazine, Gregory Peck claimed he had an affair with Ingrid Bergman during the making of this film. Both Bergman and Peck were married to others at the time — Bergman to Petter Lindström and Peck to Greta Kukkonen — but they had a brief affair during shooting. Their secret relationship became public knowledge when Peck admitted it in a 1987 interview with Brad Darrach of People, five years after Bergman's death. "The only thing I can say is that I had a fiery love for her and I think I should stop there… I was young. She was young. We were in close and intense work for weeks."
- #009
According to Sir Alfred Hitchcock's biographer Donald Spoto, reshoot director William Cameron Menzies was frustrated by the dream sequence, which he regarded as unattractive, and wanted to remain uncredited. When the sequence won praise from critics and audiences, Hitchcock was happy to take the credit.
- #010
Screenwriter Ben Hecht consulted many of the leading psychoanalysts of the day.
- #011
After Sir Alfred Hitchcock suggested "Hidden Impulse" as a title, studio secretary Ruth Rickman came up with the title that was ultimately used, and it tested well in a pre-release poll.
- #012
Sir Alfred Hitchcock's first choice for the role of John Ballantyne was Cary Grant. His second choice was Joseph Cotten.
- #013
The first preview took place on 27 September 1944, after which producer David O. Selznick cut an opening montage showing the treatment of mental cases. After principal photography was completed, Selznick removed about 14 minutes of the film and oversaw the re-recording of dialogue and the editing.
- #014
Producer David O. Selznick asked Miklós Rózsa to increase the orchestra from 14 violins to 28 because he liked the effect Franz Waxman had created while scoring Rebecca (1940). In addition, Selznick was unhappy with Rózsa's musical cue for the skiing scene and replaced it with a cue from Waxman's score for Suspicion (1941). In the end Selznick cut the Overture and Exit Music, and Rózsa said he hated working with the producer.
- #015
Producer David O. Selznick contributed very little to the actual production because he was preoccupied with the Second World War family drama Since You Went Away (1944). One thing that contributed to Selznick not interfering with the film was Sir Alfred Hitchcock's habit of experiencing camera problems whenever the producer visited the set. Yet as soon as the producer left, the camera miraculously started working again.
- #016
Producer David O. Selznick initially wanted Joseph Cotten, Dorothy McGuire and Paul Lukas in the roles played by Ingrid Bergman and Leo G. Carroll. After casting Cotten in another of his films, Since You Went Away (1944), Selznick hired rising star Gregory Peck, whom he had signed in 1943, for the role of "J. B." (which turned out to be named "John Ballantyne"). He also briefly considered bringing Greta Garbo out of retirement to play Dr. Constance Petersen. Selznick also wanted Jennifer Jones to play Dr. Petersen, but Hitchcock objected.
- #017
Sir Alfred Hitchcock persuaded producer David O. Selznick to buy the rights to the novel for $40,000.
- #018
With Norman Lloyd's death in 2021, all of the credited cast members had died.
- #019
Sir Alfred Hitchcock directed two one-hour radio versions of the film: on 8 March 1948 for Lux Radio Theatre, starring Joseph Cotten and Alida Valli; and on 25 January 1951 for NBC's Screen Directors Playhouse, starring Cotten and Mercedes McCambridge, with short introductions by Hitchcock.
- #020
The film received positive reviews from critics and was a major box-office success, grossing about $8 million on a $1.7 million budget and setting ticket-sales records in London. It was the third highest-grossing film of 1945.
- #021
Sir Alfred Hitchcock's salary for the film was $150,000.
- #022
Spellbound (1945) was shot in black and white except for two bright red frames at the end, when Dr. Murchison's gun is fired at the camera. This detail was erased in most 16 mm and video formats but was restored for the film's DVD release and its broadcasts on Turner Classic Movies.
- #023
Salvador Dalí was paid $4,000 for his contributions and submitted many ideas that were not used in the final film. Dalí hoped to work more in American films and volunteered to do extra work on the film for free.
- #024
Filming began in the summer of 1944, at the height of the Second World War, but the film's first screening was not held until December 1945, after the war had ended. Location scenes at the railway depot show many men and women in uniform and a large banner reading "Buy more war bonds," while the only reference to the war in the film is a brief flashback explanation of Gregory Peck's scar.
- #025
Ruth Roman, then relatively unknown, sought a role in the film. Roman went on to play the female lead in Sir Alfred Hitchcock's later film Strangers on a Train (1951).
- #026
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.
- #027
Spellbound (1945) is the third of six Sir Alfred Hitchcock films to feature Leo G. Carroll. The others are Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Paradine Case (1947), Strangers on a Train (1951) and North by Northwest (1959).
- #028
The film received six Oscar® nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Michael Chekhov), Best Cinematography (black-and-white) and Best Special Effects. Miklós Rózsa won the Oscar® for Best Music (Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture).
- #029
Filming took place in the summer of 1944 in Vermont, Utah and Los Angeles. Some parts of the film were shot at Alta Lodge and Wasatch Ranch in Alta, Utah. The picnic scene between Gregory Peck's and Ingrid Bergman's characters was shot at Cooper Farm in Northridge, Los Angeles, while other scenes, such as the train depot scene, were shot at Universal Studios. The exterior shots were filmed silent. Stunt doubles were used for Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck, who could not ski, in the skiing sequence. Bergman was to perform a scene from the film on Rudy Vallee's radio program.
- #030
It was the only Best Picture Oscar® nominee that year also nominated for Best Special Effects.
- #031
Rhonda Fleming was borrowed from 20th Century-Fox for this film.
- #032
James Flavin appears in the studio records and cast list for this film but does not appear on screen or could not be identified.
- #033
A television version of Ben Hecht's screenplay, Spellbound (1962), directed by Paul Bogart and starring Hugh O'Brian, Oscar Homolka and Maureen O'Hara, aired on 11 February 1962 on NBC's Theatre '62 (1961).
- #034
Spellbound (1945) had its premiere in New York on Halloween 1945.
- #035
In December 1943, Sir Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville began working on the treatment of the novel and consulted leading British psychologists and psychoanalysts to represent the story's psychological elements accurately. The following month, however, in January 1944, Hitchcock hired Angus MacPhail, with whom he had worked on many war-related short films, to co-write the treatment. MacPhail ultimately received the adaptation credit, and the extent of Reville's involvement in the final product is unknown. After the treatment was completed, screenwriter Ben Hecht began writing the screenplay.
- #036
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2002 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Greatest American Love Stories.
- #037
The dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali was mostly shot by William Cameron Menzies while Hitchcock was on vacation. Menzies disliked it so much that he asked for his name to be removed from the credits. Hitchcock accepted the applause gratefully.
- #038
The film was included on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of 250 films nominated for AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.
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