Bewitched

A woman on death row is discovered to have a split personality in "Bewitched," a 1945 film starring Phyllis Thaxter, Edmund Gwenn, and Stephen McNally. Thaxter is a young, soon to be wed woman who has blackouts, walks around at night, and hears voices. She runs away from her parents' home and her husband to be and goes to New York, gets a job, and meets an attorney (McNally) who falls for her. Her fiancé finds her, and, under orders from her other personality (voiced by Audrey Totter), she kills him.

Now we're brought back to death row where Edmund Gwenn suspects her problem and wants to hypnotize her.

Boring film with a good cast nonetheless, psychiatric disorders being a fashionable subject during and after World War II. What made Three Faces of Eve interesting was that the main character was a woman with a dull affect, but her personalities had lots of spark. Just hearing the voice of Totter here isn't enough. If Thaxter had actually been taken over by her alternate personality and, say, lived as her in New York, the film would have been a lot more interesting.

Not very good.

No need to repeat the plot. The force behind the movie is Arch Oboler, an established radio heavyweight at the time. From his credits, it looks like he kept searching for a handle in Hollywood but never quite found it. Certainly, it wasn't from lack of imagination—his 1951 film "Five" dealt with nuclear post-apocalypse in a resourceful and compelling way at a time when no studio would touch the subject. That same bold imagination is evident in this movie as well. The professionals dismiss the film as "heavy-handed", which it is. However, there are compensations that are too easily overlooked.

Aside from Thaxter's fine performance, the movie contains several profoundly imaginative touches. Catch that moody dollying shot down the deserted city street that finally fixes on a cringing Thaxter hiding behind an open doorway. Not only is it great atmosphere, but it also sort of sums up Thaxter's predicament. She's afraid to come out into the world for risk of immediate exposure, so she clings fearfully to a hidden world where only she exists. It's a well-conceived and artfully executed passage. Then there's that darn-near sublime set-up with Thaxter huddled in a concert hallway while we see a long-shot of a vocalist pinpointed by a thin beam of light. The woman intones a mournful version of My Old Kentucky Home, like the proverbial voice in the darkened wilderness. It may be the only glimpse we get of Thaxter's true inner self, summed up poetically.

But the overly literal side does unfortunately predominate, and I wish someone had more confidence in audience imagination. For one thing, that would have eliminated the two hokey doppelgangers in the exorcism scene. Also, the conventional happy ending is much too pat for the problem being dealt with, but is indicative of the time. And if I'm not mistaken, there's a quick reference from Gwenn to Thaxter's problem as being genetic, as if a multiple personality trait can be passed along in the genes. I'm no clinical psychologist, but I doubt seriously this is the prevailing view. Anyway, it's too bad Oboler couldn't get a better handle on Hollywood. I think his credits showed genuine promise. This movie may be unfortunately flawed (perhaps because of studio dictates), but the very real compensations should not be overlooked.

Prototype Film-Noir from Stylist Arch Oboler who made His Name on the Radio with His Ultra-Popular "Lights Out" Program. Here He Adopts His Own Story "Alter-Ego" and brings it to the Screen for MGM.

This is One of the Few MGM Noirs of the First Wave. It would Take Years before the Haughty Studio would lend its Name Seriously to a Style so Dark.

Phyllis Thaxter gives a Good Performance in a Soul-Baring Role. Steve McNally is Miscast but manages to look Desperate and Edmund Gwenn as the Psychiatrist trying to Exorcise Thaxter's other Personality, the Evil One, is a Good Try.

With its Roots in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the only Reference Point at this Point for Multiple Personalities On Screen, Oboler delivers and Ultra-Stylish Descent into Schizophrenia.

The Film is Guilty of way too Much Verbiage, a Radio Drama influence, but it Balances it with Film Flourishes that are Atmospheric and Stunning.

The Movie Grips the Audience as it tries to Explain and Expose Psychiatric Methods and Procedures. But the Truth is that Not Much was Known at the Time and the Little that was Known was constantly Up for Debate in the Medical Community.

So it was No Easy Task Transferring this to the Movies. For Years Hollywood gave it a go with Extremely Inconsistent Results. It Was a Staple in Film-Noir and the Horror of Val Lewton but Main Stream and "A" Pictures were Reluctant to take it on for quite Some Time.

Overall, this is a Great Early Effort and a Striking Example of Film-Noir and the Psychological Pictures that Started a Run After the War and Never Stopped, and actually becoming a Genre of its own (The Psychological Thriller).

Average yet enteraining story about a young girl being plagued with a voice inside telling her what to do. The girl breaks down and listens to the voice, moving across country leaving her family and fiancée behind to make a new start. The film then has a new man come into the girl's life when old wounds are re-opened and tragedy strikes. While nothing particularly inventive takes place, I rather liked the mood created throughout the film. The film opens with the female protagonist in jail for a crime she didn't yet did commit. Phyllis Thaxter as Joan, the troubled young lady with multiple personalities living inside her, gives a more than competent portrayal of this tortured woman, yet the film's story is rather weak and completely falls apart in the last third when some ridiculous scientific explanation is given for her aberrant behaviour. Edmund Gwenn plays a psychiatrist/family friend and gives the film a bit of credibility with his performance. The rest of the cast is adequate and the film is mildly entertaining. Hypnosis, the gas chamber, and playing with scissors are all explored.

When I saw this excellent little B thriller, I could not prevent me to think of THREE FACES OF EVE, the Nunnaly Johnson's masterpiece. Very close plot, topic, but this one is unfortunately unknown, underrated, except maybe for the die hard moviegoers. It is a Metro Goldwyn Mayer's movie - at least for the release - and the lead character played by Phillis Thaxter is absolutely perfect in this very difficult role of this young woman suffering of a multiple personality disorder. But both features are quite different though, this one is more eerie and less complex in the psychological, psychoanalytic than the movie starring Joanne Woodward. Arch Oboler leaves here his trade mark, making something different, offbeat. A cute little gem.