Alfred Hitchcock Week - Under Capricorn
It’s Day Five of Alfred Hitchcock Week here at iMovieCinema. Today’s feature is a 1949 film, Under Capricorn. The film stars Michael Wilding, Joseph Cotten, Ingrid Bergman, and Margaret Leighton. Hitchcock makes a couple of cameo appearances in this film.
The screenplay was written by Hume Cronyn and James Bridie, and is based on a novel by Helen Simpson.
The film is set in 1831 Australia, where Charles Adare (Wilding) arrives with his uncle, the new governor, and is befriended by an ex-convict (Cotten).
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Learn more about Under Capricorn at Wikipedia. Our Movie Store is stocked with Hitchcock movies, books about Hitchcock films, and more. Our Movie Finder and Memorabilia Finder are useful tools for locating information about Hitchcock films online.
Comments
One Response to “Alfred Hitchcock Week - Under Capricorn”
Leave a Reply
A Brilliant Drama from Alfred Hitchcock. Its really surprising that Critics ignore this brilliant Hitchcock films. Its not a thriller. But a brilliant Drama.
Hitchcock’s friend Hume Cronyn did the adaptation. Hitchcock called Scottish Playwright James Bridie to write the screenplay for the film. James Bridie was famous for his biblical plays like Jonah and the Whale, Tobias and Angel, and other biblical plays. And there are lots of biblical references in the film.
Hitchcock and James Bridie connects Charles Adare to Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. They both have shameful emptiness. Charles Adare says about his past like this “I spent most of my life warding off Boredom.” Both Charles Adare and Sydney Carton sacrifice for the women they love. And they both become Honorable Heroes in the end.
According to Ed Gallafent’s article about Under Capricorn, Charles Adare wanting to recreate Hattie as if she were still young Hattie Considine, he desires his own form of second chance, to return to the point in the past where he might start afresh, without the shameful emptiness of his adventures so far.
Psychology of the characters are brilliant. There are psychological connections between the characters. Lady Henrietta and Charles Adare are connected through shame. Lady Henrietta’s alcoholism is a sign of shame.
Its simply brilliant how Hitchcock and James Bridie arranged the symbolisms.
Sadly, this American version isn’t close to real Hitchcock Version, because the color is completely washed out in this version. Italian Version is closest to Hitchcock’s original version.