Under Capricorn **** (1949, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton, Cecil Parker) – Classic Movie Review 452

‘Mystery, murder and passion from the master of suspense’. Yes, the 1949 British historical thriller Under Capricorn is business as usual from Alfred Hitchcock, but with a little bit of a twist. It is not a murder mystery this time, though there is mystery involving a love triangle, an earlier killing, a wrong man plot, a sinister housekeeper, class conflict, and, yes, passion.

After World War Two was over, Alfred Hitchcock returned to England from America in 1949 for this brooding period romantic melodrama about an 1830s Australian household riddled with dark secrets. Overlong and shaky though it is at times, Under Capricorn is still an enjoyable and underrated movie.

Hitchcock miscasts his favourite (and very Swedish) actress Ingrid Bergman as Lady Henrietta Flusky, an unhappy Irish wife, tormented and turned into an alcoholic by her wicked husband Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten). Lady Henrietta’s breezy, upper-class Irish old-time friend the Honourable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) arrives in Australia from England in 1831 to make a fresh start in life with the help of his second cousin, Sir Richard (Cecil Parker), the new Governor of New South Wales.

Adare meets the powerful landowner and ex-convict Flusky, who plans a business deal with him. Invited to a dinner party at Flusky’s house, Adare meets Flusky’s wife Henrietta whom he had known as a child in Ireland. He is shocked to find that she is constantly sozzled and on the verge of madness, and sets about to investigate the meaning of her plight.

It is an intriguing setup, with some interesting characters and a reasonably teasing mystery. But Hitchcock’s unusually unsure hand produces an un-dynamic film with many longueurs, and its running time at nearly two hours is way too long for the material.

Part of the problem is that the screenplay is based on a play version (by John Colton and Margaret Linden) of a novel and it is unfortunately very static and stagey as a movie. Somehow it has clearly defied Hitchcock’s usual adept ways with stage material. The nine and ten-minute-long takes do not help.

However, even miscast, Bergman, Cotten and Wilding are all so geared up, charismatic and personable that they manage to make something special out of their peculiar roles. And the story (based on the 1937 novel by Helen Simpson) and the dialogue (by James Bridie and Hume Cronyn) eventually get cracking and do finally take a grip and become involving.

This is Hitchcock’s second film in Technicolor, after Rope (1948), and Jack Cardiff and Paul Beeson’s Technicolor cinematography is magnificent. It is a very handsome looking movie.

Margaret Leighton’s performance helps a lot, clearly enjoying herself enormously as the domineering housekeeper Milly, a terrifyingly tyrannical woman who emerges as the Mrs Danvers of Down Under. And that’s the big clue, for this turns out clearly to be Hitchcock’s attempt to re-create the magic of his 1940 film of Rebecca story, with elements of Notorious too.

The costly ($2.5 million) movie was originally poorly received and such a financial failure that the bank (Bankers Trust Company) that financed it reclaimed it, and it put an end to Hitchcock’s production company Transatlantic Pictures. But, once again with Hitchcock, it appears Under Capricorn has evidently improved with age and its re-evaluation started when the French Cahiers du Cinema critics admired it. The film’s repossession meant it was unavailable from 1949 until the first US network television screening in 1968.

Bergman was unhappy with Hitchcock’s filming method, with long takes running six to eight or ten minutes, like in Rope. There were rows on set and she was angry with him. But because he abhorred arguments he would say to her: ‘Ingrid, it’s only a movie!’ One time when she was shouting, Hitchcock walked out of the room while her back was turned but she hadn’t noticed and was still complaining 20 minutes after he’d gone.

It was one of Hitchcock’s few flops. It cost $3 million and earned $1.21 million in the US and $1.46 million in foreign territories. Hitchcock judged it harshly as one of his worst films and a disaster. Part of the box office failure might have been down to the revelation in 1949 of the married Bergman’s adulterous relationship with the married Italian film director Roberto Rossellini and her subsequent pregnancy by him.

‘I had no special admiration for the novel,’ said Hitchcock, ‘and I don’t think I would have made the picture if it hadn’t been for Ingrid Bergman. I made the mistake of thinking that to get Bergman would be a tremendous feat. It made the whole thing so costly that there was no point in it. Joseph Cotten wasn’t the right type. Burt Lancaster would have been better. If I’d been thinking clearly I’d never have tackled a costume picture. You’ll notice I’ve never done any since. Besides, there wasn’t enough humour in the film.’

Hitchcock has two cameos: first about five minutes into the movie in the town square wearing a coat and a brown hat, and second ten minutes later he is one of three men on the steps of government house.

As clues to the title, Under Capricorn refers to the Tropic of Capricorn that bisects Australia. Capricornus is a constellation. And Capricorn is an astrological sign dominated by the goat, a symbol of sexual desire.

It was shot mostly in London, at MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, but had final retakes and overdubs filmed in Hollywood.

Hitchcock then cast Wilding again in Stage Fright (1950).

The cast are Ingrid Bergman as Lady Henrietta Flusky, Joseph Cotten as Sam Flusky, Michael Wilding as the Hon Charles Adare, Margaret Leighton as Milly, Flusky’s scheming housekeeper, Cecil Parker as Sir Richard, the new Governor of New South Wales, Denis O’Dea as Attorney General Mr Corrigan, Jack Watling as Winter, Flusky’s paroled butler, Harcourt Williams as the Coachman, John Ruddock as bank manager Mr Cedric Potter Bill Shine as Mr Banks, Victor Lucas as the Rev Smiley, Ronald Adam as Mr Riggs, Francis de Wolff as Major Wilkins, G H Mulcaster as Dr Macallister, Olive Sloane as Sal, Maureen Delany as Flo, Julia Lang as Susan, Betty McDermott as Martha, Martin Benson as Man Carrying Shrunken Head and Lloyd Pearson as Land Agent.

Under Capricorn is directed by Alfred Hitchcock, runs 117 minutes, is made by Transatlantic Pictures, is released by Warner Bros, is written James Bridie (screenplay) and Hume Cronyn (adaptation), shot by Jack Cardiff (director of photography), is produced by Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein, is designed by Thomas N Morahan (production design) and Philip Stockford (set dresser), and scored by Richard Addinsell (musical score), Louis Levy (musical director).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 452

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