UNDER CAPRICORN (1949)

Ingrid Bergman, two flop films past her long-running contract with producer David O. Selznick.  Alfred Hitchcock, one flop film out of his.  Joseph Cotten still under contract.  All three getting together on, what else, imitation Selznick . . . bad imitation Selznick.  A bit like REBECCA’s faux Gothic romance, but with gender-reversed story beats & its very own evil housekeeper in Margaret Leighton’s transparently hissable villain.  Set in a handsome, if matte-painted Australia, Cotten’s self-made man is an ex-convict with a dipsomaniac wife slowly coming out of her shell thanks to scapegrace Old World childhood acquaintance Michael Wilding, her once-and -future supporter.  To his credit, Hitchcock chalked up this failure to personal hubris: triumphant return to the U.K.; nabbing film’s top female star; his new film company; all blinding him to script problems and lack of comfort in period pieces.  He’s not wrong, but underestimates the problem: miscast leads, meandering story, overstuffed production/underdeveloped action (so much happens off screen), endless dialogue, showy ultra-long takes; plenty of blame to go around.  To her credit, Bergman goes all in, a messy, depressed drunk, only giving off the usual radiance in the third-act ball where she ravishes like a portrait by British painter George Romney.*  While Wilding, charmingly effective next year for Hitchcock in STAGE FRIGHT, is weirdly supercilious.  Along with TORN CURTAIN/’66, the rare Hitchcock dud no one’s tried to critically reevaluate into the canon.  (ADDENDUM:  As of 03/27/23 New Yorker’s auteur absolutist film squib man Richard Brody boldly picks up the challenge by offering the usual thematic defense in lieu of decent execution.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Typically, Bergman, conforming to an old Hollywood tradition, tended to grow more beautiful the sicker she got.  Under poison in NOTORIOUS; suffering with TB in THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S/’45.  Not here!  Looking downright rotten when she's ‘under the weather.’

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: For Hitchcock & Cotten: SHADOW OF A DOUBT/’43.  For Hitch & Bergman: NOTORIOUS/’46.  And Wilding, as noted, much better in STAGE FRIGHT/’50.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/notorious-1946.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/stage-fright-1950.html