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The Seventh Veil

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The Seventh Veil
The Seventh Veil film poster
Directed byCompton Bennett
Written bySydney Box
Muriel Box
Produced bySydney Box
StarringJames Mason
Ann Todd
CinematographyReginald Wyer
Edited byGordon Hales
Music byBenjamin Frankel
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Universal Pictures (US)
Release dates
18 October 1945 (UK)
15 February 1946 (US)
DVD 2012 (UK)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£92,000[1][2]
Box office£2 million (by Feb 1948)[1]

The Seventh Veil is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring James Mason and Ann Todd. It was made by Ortus Films (a company established by producer Sydney Box) and released through General Film Distributors in the UK and Universal Pictures in the United States. The screenplay concerns Francesca (Todd), a brilliant concert pianist who attempts suicide while she is being treated for a disabling delusional disorder centered on her hands that makes it impossible for her to play. A psychiatrist uses hypnosis to uncover the source of her crippling fear and to reveal, one by one, the relationships that have enriched and troubled her life. When the last “veil” is removed, her mind is clear. She regains the ability to play and knows whom she loves best. The film's title comes from the metaphor, attributed to the fictional psychiatrist, that while Salome removed all her veils willingly, human beings fiercely protect the seventh and last veil that hides their deepest secrets, and will only reveal themselves completely under narcosis.

Plot

Francesca Cunningham is a brilliant concert pianist suffering from a delusion that she has lost the use of her hands. Despairing, she slips out of the nursing home where she is staying and jumps into the river. She survives, but is unresponsive. Dr. Larsen, a psychiatrist specializing in hypnosis, leads Francesca to describe events in her life, that appear as flashbacks.

When she is 14, and at boarding school, music is “everything”. Following a transgression, a teacher canes Francesca on her hands, causing her fingers to swell and thus ruining her chances of winning a piano scholarship that afternoon.

After the sudden death of her father, Francesca is placed in the care of his second cousin, Nicholas, a misogynistic bachelor who walks with a cane. Nicholas ignores her until a school report reveals that she is a gifted pianist. Nicholas does not play well, but he is a brilliant and inspiring teacher. They work for hours every day and he arranges for Francesca to become a pupil at the Royal College of Music; but he violently rejects her demonstration of gratitude.

At the college, Francesca meets Peter, a brash American musician studying in London, who charms her and opens a new world to her, including music (in particular a waltz) that Nicholas scorns as “suburban shop girl trash”. Francesca proposes to Peter, who accepts, but when Nicholas hears the news he calmly orders her to pack a bag because they are leaving for Paris the following morning to continue her studies. When Francesca tries to defy him he reminds her that she is only 17, and under his control until she is 21.

Francesca tells Larsen that for the next seven years Nicholas never let her out of his sight as they prepared for her future as a concert pianist. Over and over again, he reminded her to take care of her precious hands. Prior to Francesca's debut concert in Venice, an old school friend visits her dressing room and tactlessly reminds her of the failed music exam; the stress is so great that, although the concert is a success, Francesca faints on stage at its completion. “I could almost feel my fingers swelling …” she tells Larsen.

Francesca’s career progresses and eventually she performs at the Royal Albert Hall, to an overwhelming audience response. Nicholas presents her with flowers after her performance, but she brushes past him to go out to find Peter. She finds him by chance, after seeing a poster outside the elegant nightclub where he leads the band. The band plays “their” waltz and they dance; but Francesca refuses to tell the doctor what happened next.

Instead, she tells him about Maxwell Leyden, an artist whom Nicholas commissions to do her portrait. Francesca and Max soon fall in love and decide to go to live in Max's villa in Italy. Nicholas is outraged. Francesca tells him she is grateful for many things, but will never forgive him for others. As he rants loudly that she belongs to him, Francesca plays the second movement (adagio cantabile) of the Piano Sonata No. 8 by Beethoven, louder and louder, drowning him out. Furious, he slams his cane down on the keyboard, just missing her hands. She screams and runs to Max who whisks her away in his car. But there is an accident and Francesca wakes in the nursing home with bandages on her slightly burned hands, irrationally convinced she will never play again. The story has come full circle.

While she is still under hypnosis, Larsen gets her to play the adagio, but the memory of Nicholas intrudes, and she faints.

Max removes her from the nursing home and refuses to let Larsen continue treatment. Larsen goes to Nicholas and plays a recording of the adagio, but Nicholas breaks the record. Larsen thanks him for revealing what Francesca means to him. Nicholas goes to Max's house and convinces Francesca that Larsen can help her.

Meanwhile, Larsen sees Peter, who tells him that the night Francesca returned, he told her he was married. However, he is now divorced. Larsen brings Peter to Nicholas's home, where Max also waits, and they go upstairs. We hear Peter's waltz, and then the adagio. Larsen descends while Francesca plays. He warns the three men that she is a new Francesca, no longer afraid, who will want to be with the one she loves, trusts, has been happiest with, and cannot live without. Nicholas withdraws to another room. Smiling, Francesca runs downstairs, through the door and into his arms.

Cast

Production

Sydney and Muriel Box were commissioned to film a documentary about shell-shocked soldiers being treated with the help of hypnosis. Muriel then began to think there was dramatic potential in the premise of hypnotherapy.[3] The couple wrote the screenplay, and Sydney went on to produce the movie.

According to Mason, the original script concluded with Francesca choosing Peter as the one she loves. Mason and wife Pamela Kellino believed such an ending to be "wrong" and "rather dull."[4]

The film score was written by Benjamin Frankel (credited as Ben Frankel) with original piano works by Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as parts of the Grieg and Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concertos.

Eileen Joyce, whose name does not appear in the credits, was the pianist who substituted for Todd on the soundtrack. She also made a short film for Todd to practise to, and even coached Todd personally in her arm movements. It is Joyce's hands that are seen in all the close-ups.[5]

Reception

Box Office

The film being shown at a Stockholm cinema.

Filmed on a relatively low budget of under £100,000,[6] the film was the biggest British box-office success of its year. According to Kinematograph Weekly the "biggest winners" at the box office in 1945 Britain were The Seventh Veil, with Madonna of the Seven Moons, Arsenic and Old Lace and Meet Me in St Louis among the runner-ups.[7] In South America it grossed $363,000 by May 1947.[8] By February 1948, its box-office receipts were over £2 million worldwide.[9]

In 2004, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 biggest UK cinematic hits of all time based on audience figures, as opposed to gross takings. The Seventh Veil placed 10th in this list[10] with an estimated attendance of 17.9 million people.[11]

Critical

The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.[12] It won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (for Sydney and Muriel Box) that same year.

Pauline Kael called The Seventh Veil "a rich, portentous mixture of Beethoven, Chopin, kitsch, and Freud," adding that "[a]ll this nonsense is highly entertaining: maybe, with a few veils stripped away, most of us have a fantasist inside who gobbles up this sadomasochistic sundae, with its culture sauce."[13]

Looking back at the movie and its reception, Todd said, "It was the film that had everything — a bit of Pygmalion, a bit of Trilby, a bit of Cinderella. Apart from all that it's an intriguing psychological drama and was one of the first films to have a hero who was cruel. Most male stars up to then had been honest, kind, upstanding, good-looking men that the female star was supposed to feel safe and secure with for the rest of her life when they finally got together at the end of the film. Not so with our smash hit. The men saw me as a victim and the women thrilled to Mason's power and cruelty, as women have thrilled to this since the world began, however much they deny it..."[14]

Adaptations

On 5 October 1946, This Is Hollywood presented The Seventh Veil. Ray Milland and Ann Todd starred in the adaptation.[15]

The Seventh Veil was also presented by the Lux Radio Theatre on September 15, 1947,[16] starring Joseph Cotten and Ida Lupino; and then on December 13, 1948,[17] now starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery.

Another version was broadcast by Philip Morris Playhouse on 3 February 1952. The 30-minute adaptation starred David Niven and University of Oklahoma student Edrita Pokorny.[18]

In 1951, Ann Todd, Leo Genn (playing the Mason role), and Herbert Lom appeared in a stage adaptation of the same title in London.[19]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Sarah Street, Transatlantic Crossings: British Feature Films in the USA, Continuum, 2002 p 114
  2. ^ Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210
  3. ^ Morley, Sheridan (1989). James Mason: Odd Man Out (1st U.S. ed.). New York: Harper & Row. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0060159839.
  4. ^ Healey, Mike (1984). James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate (TV documentary).
  5. ^ Richard Davis, Eileen Joyce: A Portrait, p. 120
  6. ^ Michael Brooke. "Seventh Veil, The (1945)". BFI Screenonline.
  7. ^ Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  8. ^ "Rank's $1,000,000,000 a Yr from SA". Variety. 21 May 1947. p. 5.
  9. ^ Spicer, Andrew (2006). Sydney Box. Manchester University Press. p. 54. ISBN 0719059992.
  10. ^ "Gone with the Wind tops film list". BBC News Online. 28 November 2004. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  11. ^ James, Nick. "Everything you knew about cinema is probably wrong; BFI releases definitive list of the top 100 most-seen films". Reel Classics. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  12. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The Seventh Veil". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  13. ^ Kael, Pauline (2011). 5001 Nights at the Movies ([New ed.] ed.). New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 669. ISBN 9781250033574.
  14. ^ Morley, Sheridan (1989). James Mason: Odd Man Out (1st U.S. ed.). New York: Harper & Row. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0060159839.
  15. ^ "Ray Milland, Ann Todd, Co-Star on 'This Is Hollywood' Premiere Tonight". Harrisburg Telegraph. 5 October 1946. p. 17. Retrieved 2 October 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  16. ^ "Lux Radio Theater - Single Episodes". 13 August 2015.
  17. ^ "The Lux Radio Theatre, the Seventh Veil starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery". Spotify. January 2008.
  18. ^ Kirby, Walter (3 February 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 40. Retrieved 3 June 2015 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  19. ^ Fleming, Peter (30 March 1951). ""The Seventh Veil." By Muriel and Sydney Box. (Princes)". The Spectator. Retrieved 19 July 2021.

Bibliography

  • The Great British Films, pp 88–90, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 0-8065-0661-X
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