Spellbound Synopsis & Movie Info

The staff of a posh mental asylum eagerly awaits the arrival of the new director. When the man in question shows up, it turns out to be handsome psychiatrist Gregory Peck. But something's wrong, here: Peck seems much too young for so important a position; his answers to the staff's questions are vague and detached; and he seems unusually distressed by the parallel marks, left by a fork, on a white tablecloth. Doctor Peterson Ingrid Bergman comes to the correct conclusion that Peck is not the new director, but a profoundly disturbed amnesiac--and, possibly, the murderer of the real director. Gradually falling in love with Peck, Bergman begins fearing for his well-being; she and Peck leave the asylum, hiding out in the home of her mentor, psychoanalyst Michael Chekhov. Though Chekhov warns that she might be protecting a killer, Bergman believes in Peck's innocence, and attempts throughout the remaining reels to get to the root of his emotional problems. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide