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- Title
Still Spellbound by Spellbound.
- Authors
King, Elliott H.
- Abstract
For decades questions have circulated concerning the degree of Salvador Dalí's involvement in the famous dream sequence included as part of Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 thriller, Spellbound. Although Dalí worked directly with Hitchcock on the production, it is well known that the episode was largely reshot by art director William Cameron Menzies after both Dalí and Hitchcock were off the set. Co-star Ingrid Bergman further fanned speculation when she described in an interview that the dream sequence originally lasted over twenty minutes. While nearly all the footage on which Dalí worked directly was cut from the finished picture, based on my examination of Spellbound's early working scripts and drawing heavily upon producer David O. Selznick's archives at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, it appears that Dalí's prop designs and backdrops were left relatively intact despite extensive edits and reshooting. This investigation has also revealed, however, that contrary to popular lore, most of the dream sequence's content--including certain "surrealistic" elements widely ascribed to Dalí--originated with Hitchcock's screenwriters and were a part of the script before Hitchcock brought the artist aboard the production.
- Subjects
HITCHCOCK, Alfred, 1899-1980; MENZIES, William Cameron, 1896-1957; BERGMAN, Ingmar, 1918-2007; SURREALISM; SCREENWRITERS
- Publication
Space Between: Literature & Culture, 1914-1945, 2018, Vol 14, Issue 2018, p1
- ISSN
1551-9309
- Publication type
Article