British films of the forties, such as the well-known "Brief Encounter", were often characterised by emotional reserve, but occasionally the British film industry could go to the opposite extreme and produce full-blown melodramas, marked by an excess of emotion rather than by a lack of it. BBC2, as part of a season of famous British films, has recently shown two examples from 1945, "Madonna of the Seven Moons" and "The Seventh Veil". (It is interesting that both titles feature the number seven, often thought to have some mystical significance).
"The Seventh Veil" begins with Francesca Cunningham, a well-known concert pianist, attempting suicide by jumping from a bridge. A psychiatrist, Dr Larsen, is brought in to treat her, and under hypnosis he begins to explore her past. The title refers to a theory of Larsen's about the human mind which he compares to the body of a dancer performing the dance of the seven veils. The "veils" which protect the mind are the layers of concealment with which we try to protect our emotional privacy; we may discard some of these in the company of a friend or lover, but never all seven. Only psychiatric treatment can remove the seventh veil and reveal the truth underneath.
Francesca, it appears, was a gifted musician as a child, but failed an important piano examination after being beaten on the hands by a strict headmistress as a punishment. She was orphaned as a teenager and brought up by her guardian Nicholas, her father's second cousin, a wealthy but deeply unhappy and reclusive man, a cripple and a confirmed bachelor. Nicholas encourages Francesca's talent for music, but proves a hard taskmaster, forcing her to practise and study until she achieves perfection. Francesca achieves success as a pianist, but at the cost of her happiness, feeling lonely and neglected. A romance with Peter, a young American band-leader, ends when Nicholas insists that Francesca must travel abroad to pursue her musical studies.
Later, Francesca falls in love with Max Leyden, a painter who paints her portrait. (Max's nationality is something of a mystery. His surname sounds Dutch, and he was played by the German-born Albert Lieven. He speaks with a foreign accent, but we learn that his Christian name is short for the British-sounding Maxwell rather than Maxim or Maximilian). While attempting to elope with Max, Francesca is involved in a car accident. Although she is only slightly injured, she is convinced that her hands have been irreparably damaged and that she will never play the piano again. It is this that leads her to attempt suicide.
Ann Todd was miscast in the role of Francesca; she was thirty-six at the time the film was made, considerably older than her character who is first seen as a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl and who in later scenes is probably in her twenties. Nicholas, of course, is supposed to be a generation older than Francesca, but in reality Todd was slightly older than James Mason.
At the heart of the film is the love-hate relationship between Nicholas and Francesca. Although she is the patient on the psychiatrist's couch, the film psychoanalyses him as much as it does her. He resents her intrusion into his bachelor existence, but also finds himself falling in love with her. (When Larsen's treatment reveals that it is he, and not Peter or Max, who is the true love of her life, this comes as no surprise). His outbursts of anger may stem from his inability to express his love, and possibly from a sense of guilt. Although his feelings for his ward are not actually incestuous- in Britain there is no legal bar to the marriage of second, or even first, cousins- he is, in a practical if not a legal sense, her adoptive father, so he may well experience a sense of guilt at his feelings for her.
During the forties the cinema, both in Britain and America, seemed to be in love with the science of psychiatry, and there was a cycle of films in which psychiatrists play an important role. Hitchcock's "Spellbound", for example, also dates from 1945, and John Brahm's "The Locket" from the following year. "The Seventh Veil" is not quite in the same class as "The Locket", and certainly not in the same league as Hitchcock's film, but it is nevertheless watchable, and the main reason is Mason's Nicholas. He was an actor whose performances could vary in quality, but here he is very good, bringing out the conflicts at the heart of his character's existence. Despite its melodramatic storyline and its miscast heroine, this is a film worth watching even today. 6/10
"The Seventh Veil" begins with Francesca Cunningham, a well-known concert pianist, attempting suicide by jumping from a bridge. A psychiatrist, Dr Larsen, is brought in to treat her, and under hypnosis he begins to explore her past. The title refers to a theory of Larsen's about the human mind which he compares to the body of a dancer performing the dance of the seven veils. The "veils" which protect the mind are the layers of concealment with which we try to protect our emotional privacy; we may discard some of these in the company of a friend or lover, but never all seven. Only psychiatric treatment can remove the seventh veil and reveal the truth underneath.
Francesca, it appears, was a gifted musician as a child, but failed an important piano examination after being beaten on the hands by a strict headmistress as a punishment. She was orphaned as a teenager and brought up by her guardian Nicholas, her father's second cousin, a wealthy but deeply unhappy and reclusive man, a cripple and a confirmed bachelor. Nicholas encourages Francesca's talent for music, but proves a hard taskmaster, forcing her to practise and study until she achieves perfection. Francesca achieves success as a pianist, but at the cost of her happiness, feeling lonely and neglected. A romance with Peter, a young American band-leader, ends when Nicholas insists that Francesca must travel abroad to pursue her musical studies.
Later, Francesca falls in love with Max Leyden, a painter who paints her portrait. (Max's nationality is something of a mystery. His surname sounds Dutch, and he was played by the German-born Albert Lieven. He speaks with a foreign accent, but we learn that his Christian name is short for the British-sounding Maxwell rather than Maxim or Maximilian). While attempting to elope with Max, Francesca is involved in a car accident. Although she is only slightly injured, she is convinced that her hands have been irreparably damaged and that she will never play the piano again. It is this that leads her to attempt suicide.
Ann Todd was miscast in the role of Francesca; she was thirty-six at the time the film was made, considerably older than her character who is first seen as a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl and who in later scenes is probably in her twenties. Nicholas, of course, is supposed to be a generation older than Francesca, but in reality Todd was slightly older than James Mason.
At the heart of the film is the love-hate relationship between Nicholas and Francesca. Although she is the patient on the psychiatrist's couch, the film psychoanalyses him as much as it does her. He resents her intrusion into his bachelor existence, but also finds himself falling in love with her. (When Larsen's treatment reveals that it is he, and not Peter or Max, who is the true love of her life, this comes as no surprise). His outbursts of anger may stem from his inability to express his love, and possibly from a sense of guilt. Although his feelings for his ward are not actually incestuous- in Britain there is no legal bar to the marriage of second, or even first, cousins- he is, in a practical if not a legal sense, her adoptive father, so he may well experience a sense of guilt at his feelings for her.
During the forties the cinema, both in Britain and America, seemed to be in love with the science of psychiatry, and there was a cycle of films in which psychiatrists play an important role. Hitchcock's "Spellbound", for example, also dates from 1945, and John Brahm's "The Locket" from the following year. "The Seventh Veil" is not quite in the same class as "The Locket", and certainly not in the same league as Hitchcock's film, but it is nevertheless watchable, and the main reason is Mason's Nicholas. He was an actor whose performances could vary in quality, but here he is very good, bringing out the conflicts at the heart of his character's existence. Despite its melodramatic storyline and its miscast heroine, this is a film worth watching even today. 6/10