10: The SEVENTH VEIL
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(Year refers to British release)
Running Time: 94 minutes
Black/White
Estimated Attendance: 17.9 million
What they said at the time...
Synopsis
Psychological drama. Franceses Cunningham is a celebrated pianist whose hands have been burned in a car accident and who is suffering from acute depression. She attempts suicide, and afterwards becomes silent and lifeless. A psychiatrist, Dr. Lassen, places her under narco-hypnosis, during which she reveals the truth of her past life, episode by episode. Each stage in her life has led to her depression: the headmistress who canes her on the hands the day before an important music examination, the guardian who tyrannises over her in order to force the pace of her training and career, the collapse of her adolescent and mature love affairs.
Review
James Mason plays his usual role, sardonic, brooding, the man to whom wealth and a mysterious past permit a romantic licence for ill-manners and egocentric behaviour. Yet the film has distinct virtues and distinct cinematic power; the opening is beautifully and brilliantly handled, haunting and tense. The music is a delight to hear (Chopin, Mozart, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven). The psychological theme, the neurosis of a talented girl whose thwarted emotional life culminates in an acute regard for her hands, which she wrongly believes injured beyond healing, seems correctly conceived, and the psychiatrist is well played by Herbert Lom. James Mason is an excellent actor with a fine face for screen-work. Why must he always play a Victorian maidservant's conception of a rich, romantically overbearing lord? Ann Todd's performance is sensitive and true to the character. She performs the difficult task of being completely satisfying and convincing in her portrayal of a great artist in another sphere of art. One went through the artist's agony of initial public appearance at concerts which demand the highest standards of discipline and execution. The pity is that all this fine work should have been given to what is only, after all is said, another rather obvious story of luxury and the romantic yearnings of the poor little rich girl.
Synopsis and Review from Monthly Film Bulletin Vol.12 No.142 October 1945 p.118
The Monthly Film Bulletin was published by the BFI between 1934 and 1991. Initially aimed at distributors and exhibitors as well as filmgoers, it carried reviews and details of all UK film releases. In 1991, the Bulletin was incoporated into Sight and Sound magazine.
