The Seventh Veil **** (1945, James Mason, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom, Hugh McDermott, Albert Lieven) – Classic Movie Review 3780

Ann Todd and Herbert Lom are outstanding in director Compton Bennett’s rousing Oscar-winning 1945 British psychiatry drama The Seventh Veil but it is James Mason who steals the show.

‘If you won’t play for me, Francesca, you won’t play for anybody,’ shouts the deliriously wicked, unhinged Nicholas (James Mason) as he slams the piano lid down on Francesca (Ann Todd)’s fingers! He’s really not a good piano teacher!

Psychiatrist Dr Larsen (Herbert Lom) treats acutely depressed and tormented concert pianist Francesca Cunningham (Todd), who unveils her unhappy past life under hypnosis.

Todd and Lom are outstanding in director Compton Bennett’s rousing Oscar-winning 1945 British psychiatry drama The Seventh Veil. But it is James Mason who steals the show as Nicholas, the Svengali-like guardian the heroine really loves, who forces her to practise the piano five or six hours a day. How Forties Britain loved Mason playing bad.

Hugh McDermott plays the band leader Peter Gay, and Albert Lieven plays Maxwell Leyden, the artist whom Todd falls for, incensing the jealous Nicholas (Mason).

Muriel Box and Sydney Box’s Oscar-winning Best Original Screenplay gives great opportunities for these five fine actors to show off their skills and quality in this landmark British film. The idea for the film started after the Box couple were commissioned to film a documentary about shell-shocked WW2 soldiers being treated with the help of hypnosis. Muriel Box thought there was dramatic potential in the hypnotherapy idea and the pair wrote the screenplay, with Sydney producing the film.

Filmed for less than £100,000, the film was the biggest British box-office success of its year. Nearly 18 million people paid to see it in the cinema and by February 1948 its box-office receipts were more than £2 million worldwide.

The music score is written by Benjamin Frankel with piano works by Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven, and parts of the Grieg and Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concertos. It is played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Muir Mathieson, with piano solos by Eileen Joyce, the  pianist who substitutes for Todd on the soundtrack. She also made a short film for Todd to practise to, and coached her in her arm movements. Joyce’s hands are seen in all the close-ups. Yet her name does not appear in the credits.

Also in the cast are John Slater, Yvonne Owen, David Horne, Manning Whiley, Ernest Davies, Beatrice Varley and Margaret Withers.

It is made by producer Sydney Box’s company Ortus Films and released by General Film Distributors in the UK and Universal Pictures in the US.

The Seventh Veil was 10th in a 2004 list of the 100 biggest UK cinema hits of all time based on audience figures, with an estimated attendance of 17.9 million.

Ann Todd, Leo Genn (in Mason’s role) and Herbert Lom appeared in a London stage adaptation in 1951.

The Seventh Veil title comes from the idea that, while Salome removed all her veils willingly, people protect the seventh and last veil that hides their deepest secrets, and will reveal themselves completely only under narcosis.

Ann Todd recalled: ‘It was the film that had everything – a bit of Pygmalion, a bit of Trilby, a bit of Cinderella. Apart from all that it’s an intriguing psychological drama and was one of the first films to have a hero who was cruel. The men saw me as a victim and the women thrilled to Mason’s power and cruelty.’

The cast are James Mason as Nicholas, Ann Todd as Francesca, Herbert Lom as Dr. Larsen, Hugh McDermott as Peter Gay, Albert Lieven as Maxwell Leyden, Yvonne Owen as Susan Brook, David Horne as Dr. Kendall, Manning Whiley as Dr. Irving, Grace Allardyce as Nurse, Ernest Davies as Parker, John Slater as James, Beatrice Varley and Margaret Withers.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3780

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