Under Capricorn

Last updated

Under Capricorn
Under Capricorn poster.jpg
Australian theatrical poster
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Hume Cronyn (adaptation)
James Bridie (screenplay)
Based on Under Capricorn
by Helen Simpson
Under Capricorn
by John Colton and Margaret Linden
Produced byAlfred Hitchcock
Sidney Bernstein
Starring Michael Wilding
Ingrid Bergman
Joseph Cotten
Margaret Leighton
Narrated by Edmond O'Brien
Cinematography Jack Cardiff
Edited by Bert Bates
Music by Richard Addinsell
Louis Levy
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • 8 September 1949 (1949-09-08)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3 million, [1] $275,000 [2] or $2,500,000 [3]
Box office$1.5 million [4] or $2,668,000 [3]

Under Capricorn is a 1949 British historical drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock about a couple in Australia who started out as lady and stable boy in Ireland, and who are now bound together by a horrible secret. The film is based on the play by John Colton and Margaret Linden, which in turn is based on the novel Under Capricorn (1937) by Helen Simpson. The screenplay was written by James Bridie from an adaptation by Hume Cronyn. This was Hitchcock's second film in Technicolor, and like his preceding color film Rope (1948), it features 9- and 10-minute long takes.

Contents

The film is set in colonial Sydney, New South Wales, Australia during the early 19th century. Under Capricorn is one of several Hitchcock films that are not typical thrillers: instead it is a mystery involving a love triangle. Although the film is not exactly a murder mystery, it does feature a previous killing, a "wrong man" scenario, a sinister housekeeper, class conflict, and very high levels of emotional tension, both on the surface and underneath.

The title Under Capricorn refers to the Tropic of Capricorn, which bisects Australia. Capricornus is a constellation; Capricorn is an astrological sign associated with the goat.

Plot

In 1831, Sydney is a frontier town, full of rough ex-convicts from the British Isles. The new Governor, Sir Richard, arrives with his charming and cheery but indolent second cousin, the Honourable Charles Adare.

Charles, who is hoping to make his fortune, is befriended by gruff Samson Flusky, a prosperous businessman who was previously a transported convict, apparently a murderer. Sam says that, because he has bought the legal limit of land, he wants Charles to buy land and then sell it to him for a profit so that Sam can accumulate more frontier territory. Though the Governor orders him not to go, Charles is invited to dinner at Sam's house.

Charles discovers that he already knows Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta, an aristocrat who was a good friend of Charles's sister when they were all children in Ireland. Lady Henrietta is now an alcoholic who is socially shunned.

Sam invites Charles to stay at his house, hoping it will cheer up his wife, who is on the verge of madness. The housekeeper, Milly, has completely taken over the running of the household, and is the one who secretly supplies Lady Henrietta with alcohol, hoping to destroy her and win Sam's affections.

Gradually, Charles restores Henrietta's self-confidence. They become closer and closer, and eventually they share a passionate kiss. But Henrietta explains that she and Sam are bound together most profoundly: when she was young, Sam was the handsome stable boy. Overcome with desire, they ran away and married at Gretna Green.

Henrietta's brother, furious that aristocratic Henrietta had paired up with a lowly servant, confronted them. Her brother shot at them and missed; she then shot her brother fatally. Sam made a false confession to save her and was sent to the penal colony in Australia. She followed him and waited seven years in abject poverty for his release.

After listening to Milly's greatly exaggerated stories of what Charles did in Lady Henrietta's bedroom, Sam becomes furious and orders Charles to leave. Taking Sam's favourite mare in the dark, Charles has a fall and the horse breaks a leg. Sam has to shoot her dead and, in a subsequent struggle over the gun, seriously wounds Charles. Sam will now be prosecuted again for attempted murder. At the hospital, Henrietta confesses to the Governor that Sam was wrongly accused of the first crime of murder; she was the one who shot and killed her brother. By law she should be deported back to Ireland to stand trial.

Milly, still plying Henrietta with drink, is using a real shrunken head to fake hallucinations. Milly then attempts to kill Henrietta with an overdose of sedatives. She is caught in the act, and ordered out in disgrace.

The Governor, Sir Richard, has Sam arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Charles. Sir Richard ignores Henrietta's claim that Sam is innocent of both crimes. However, Charles decides to bend the truth; he says, on his word as a gentleman, that there was no confrontation, and no struggle over the gun. It was all an accident.

Finally we see Sam and Henrietta together smiling at the dock. Charles is going back to Ireland, and they bid him a fond farewell.

Cast

Production

The film was co-produced by Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein for their short-lived production company, Transatlantic Pictures, and released through Warner Bros.

The film was Hitchcock's second film in Technicolor, and uses ten-minute takes similar to those in Hitchcock's previous film Rope (1948).

The long take

In Style and Meaning: Studies in the Detailed Analysis of Film, Ed Gallafent says: [5]

The use of the long take in Under Capricorn relates to three elements of film's meaning.

  1. Ideas of accessible and inaccessible space as expressed in the gothic house.
  2. The form in which characters inhabit their past
  3. The divergence or convergence of eyelines – the gaze that cannot, or must meet another’s.

All of these three elements can be linked to concepts of Guilt and Shame. In 1 and 2, the question is how something is felt to be present. In 3, it is difference between representation or sharing, of the past as flashback, and of the past as spoken narrative, where part of what is being articulated is precisely the inaccessibility of the past, its experience being locked inside the speaker. As for 3, the avoided gaze is determining physical sign of shame.

Gallafent, professor of film at University of Warwick, also explains these aspects of Under Capricorn:

The inscription on the Flusky's mansion – Minyago Yugilla – means "Why weepest thou?"

St. Mary Magdalene (the patron saint of penitent sinners) in religious iconography: the bare feet, skull, the flail, the looking glass in which the beholder’s face is not always reflected, the jewels cast down to floor. All of these images are in the film. Sources for the imagery that Hitchcock might have had in mind are the paintings St. Mary Magdalene With a Candle (1630–1635) and St. Mary Magdalene With a Mirror (1635–1645), both by Georges de La Tour.

Note: "Minyago Yugilla", according to one source, [6] is not written in a real language. However, according to other sources, [7] [8] it is in Kamilaroi (Gamilaraay), a now moribund Australian aboriginal language. See also this similar translation [9] of the phrase "Minyilgo yugila."   Further to be noted may be that "Woman, why weepest thou?" can be found in the Holy Bible in the Gospel of St John, 20:15.

Production credits

The production credits on the film were as follows:

Background

Reception

Box-office

According to Warners' records, the film earned $1.21 million domestically and $1.46 million in foreign territories. [3]

It is thought that the audience had imagined Under Capricorn was going to be a thriller, which it was not – the plot was a domestic love triangle with a few thriller elements thrown in – and this ultimately led to its box-office failure. However, the public reception of the film may have been damaged by the revelation in 1949 of the married Bergman's adulterous relationship with, and subsequent pregnancy by, the married Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. [11]

Critical response

The film was not well received by critics. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that "it seems that neither Miss Bergman nor Mr. Hitchcock has tangled here with stuff of any better than penny-dreadful substance and superficial demands." [12] Variety called it "overlong and talky, with scant measure of the Hitchcock thriller tricks that could have sharpened general reception," [13] while John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote that "this picture simultaneously succeeds in insulting the Australians, the Irish, and the average intelligence." [14] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote: "The triangle performances are splendid, but the lines and situations the three principals are called upon to face are trite indeed ... Jame's Bridie's script, from a Helen Simpson novel adapted by Hume Cronyn, has little to be proud of, is indeed unintentionally hilarious at times." [15] The Monthly Film Bulletin was also negative, writing: "The story is not enlivened by any qualities in the dialogue, which is crude and frequently stilted, or in the direction, which surely represents the nadir of Hitchcock's present period. It is extraordinary that this director, responsible for some of the most brilliant British films of the thirties—lively, fast, and full of incident—should return to this country from Hollywood for the sake of a ponderous novelette, which even more than Rope shows a preoccupation with complicated camera movements of no dramatic value whatsoever." [16]

Harrison's Reports printed a mostly positive review, praising Bergman for "another striking performance" and adding, "The story is not without its weak points, particularly in that much of the footage is given more to talk than to movement, but Alfred Hitchcock's directorial skill manages to overcome most of the script's deficiencies by building up situations that thrill and hold the spectator in tense suspense." [17] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times was also positive, calling it "a film of great class. It may fall short of Hitchcock's greatest in some respects because it lacks their vital suspense and intense interest. Yet its values are so noteworthy that it may definitely be recommended to all film-viewers." [18]

In Peter Bogdanovich's interview with Alfred Hitchcock, Bogdanovich mentions that French critics writing for Cahiers du cinéma in the 1950s considered Under Capricorn one of Hitchcock's finest films. [19] [20]

A September 2019 two-day symposium in London has renewed attention to the film. [ citation needed ]

The novel was filmed as an Australian mini-series. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Hitchcock</span> English film director (1899–1980)

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", Hitchcock became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo appearances in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director, despite five nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingrid Bergman</span> Swedish actress (1915–1982)

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cinematic history. She won numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, four Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA Award, and a Volpi Cup. She is one of only four actresses to have received at least three acting Academy Awards. In 1999, the American Film Institute recognised Bergman as the fourth greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

<i>Spellbound</i> (1945 film) Psychological thriller by Alfred Hitchcock

Spellbound is a 1945 American psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Michael Chekhov. It follows a psychoanalyst who falls in love with the new head of the Vermont hospital in which she works, only to find that he is an imposter suffering dissociative amnesia, and potentially, a murderer. The film is based on the 1927 novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hume Cronyn</span> Canadian actor and writer (1911–2003)

Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. was a Canadian-American actor and writer. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Seventh Cross (1944).

<i>Notorious</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation.

<i>Lifeboat</i> (1944 film) 1944 American survival film by Alfred Hitchcock

Lifeboat is a 1944 American survival film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story by John Steinbeck. It stars Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix, alongside Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee. The film is set entirely on a lifeboat launched from a freighter torpedoed and sunk by a Nazi U-boat.

<i>The Paradine Case</i> 1947 American courtroom drama film, set in England directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The Paradine Case is a 1947 courtroom drama with elements of film noir set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the 1933 novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Wilding</span> English actor (1912–1979)

Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950); and he guest starred on Hitchcock's TV show in 1963. He was married four times, including to Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he had two sons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Parker</span> English actor (1897–1971)

Cecil Parker was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969.

<i>Joan of Arc</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by Victor Fleming

Joan of Arc is a 1948 American hagiographic epic film directed by Victor Fleming, and starring Ingrid Bergman as the eponymous French religious icon and war heroine. It was produced by Walter Wanger and is based on Maxwell Anderson's successful Broadway play Joan of Lorraine, which also starred Bergman, and was adapted for the screen by Anderson himself, in collaboration with Andrew Solt. It is the only film of an Anderson play for which the author wrote the film script. It is the last film Fleming directed before his death in 1949.

<i>Murder!</i> 1930 film

Murder! is a 1930 British thriller film co-written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring and Edward Chapman. Written by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville and Walter C. Mycroft, it is based on the 1928 novel Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. It was Hitchcock's third all-talkie film, after Blackmail (1929) and Juno and the Paycock (1930).

Transatlantic Pictures was founded by Alfred Hitchcock and longtime associate Sidney Bernstein at the end of World War II in preparation for the end of Hitchcock's contract with David O. Selznick in 1947. In 1945, Hitchcock and Bernstein were involved with a planned 80-minute documentary on Nazi concentration camps which was eventually shown on television in the US and UK as Memory of the Camps (1985). They planned to produce feature films in both Hollywood and London.

Rope, retitled Rope's End for its American release, is a 1929 English play by Patrick Hamilton. It was said to be inspired by the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Hitchcock filmography</span>

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) was an English director and filmmaker. Popularly known as the "Master of Suspense" for his use of innovative film techniques in thrillers, Hitchcock started his career in the British film industry as a title designer and art director for a number of silent films during the early 1920s. His directorial debut was the 1925 release The Pleasure Garden. Hitchcock followed this with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, his first commercial and critical success. It featured many of the thematic elements his films would be known for, such as an innocent man on the run. It also featured the first of his famous cameo appearances. Two years later he directed Blackmail (1929) which was his first sound film. In 1935, Hitchcock directed The 39 Steps; three years later, he directed The Lady Vanishes, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.

<i>Thirst</i> (1949 film) 1950 film

Thirst is a 1949 Swedish drama film directed by Ingmar Bergman. It was released as Three Strange Loves in the United Kingdom.

Alfred Hitchcock's films show an interesting tendency towards recurring themes and plot devices throughout his life as a director.

<i>Rope</i> (film) 1948 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Rope is a 1948 American psychological crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1929 play of the same title by Patrick Hamilton. The film was adapted by Hume Cronyn with a screenplay by Arthur Laurents.

<i>Under Capricorn</i> (novel)

Under Capricorn is a 1937 historical novel by Helen Simpson.

<i>Under Capricorn</i> (miniseries) Australian TV series or program

Under Capricorn is a 1983 Australian miniseries based on the novel by Helen Simpson. This had been filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1949.

Margaret Robertson was a British script supervisor and personal assistant to Alfred Hitchcock from the 1940s to the 1970s during which time she worked on his films Under Capricorn (1948) and Stage Fright (1950), before joining his team permanently on Vertigo (1958), working thereafter on all of the director's remaining films.

References

  1. "109-Million Techni Sked". Variety. 18 February 1948. p. 14 via Internet Archive.
  2. "Hitchcock Bernstein Unit Reported quitting independent production". Variety. 12 January 1949. p. 3. Retrieved 9 August 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 29 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  4. "Top Grossers of 1949". Variety. 4 January 1950. p. 59 via Internet Archive.
  5. Ed Gallafent's article "The Dandy and Magdalene: Interpreting the Long Take in Hitchcock’s Under Capricorn". Style and Meaning: Studies in the Detailed Analysis of Film. 2005. Manchester University Press.
  6. Hitchcock's Ireland: The Performance of Irish Identity in Juno and the Paycock and Under Capricorn, by James Morrison, North Carolina State University, §20
  7. Tinted Glasses: Gobblydook blog, retrieved 12/10/09
  8. Jacobs, Steven (2007). "Tropical Classicism: Minyago Yugilla". The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. p. 251. ISBN   978-9064506376.
  9. Kamilaroi, and other Australian languages, by William Hilley
  10. Trauffaut, François (1966). Hitchcock/Truffaut . New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-3828450219.
  11. "About Ingrid – Biography, page 3". The Official Ingrid Bergman Web Site. Archived from the original on 27 August 2013. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  12. Crowther, Bosley (9 September 1949). "The Screen in Review; ' Under Capricorn,' With Ingrid Bergman, at Music Hall -- Directed by Hitchcock". The New York Times. p. 28.
  13. "Under Capricorn (Color)". Variety. 14 September 1949. p. 8 via Internet Archive.
  14. McCarten, John (10 September 1949). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker . p. 62.
  15. Coe, Richard L. (7 October 1949). "Bergman Sobers Up Down Under". The Washington Post. p. C12.
  16. "Under Capricorn". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 16 (190): 178–179. October 1949.
  17. "'Under Capricorn' with Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Michael Wilding". Harrison's Reports. 10 September 1949. p. 147.
  18. Schallert, Edwin (13 October 1949). "'Capricorn' Rates High in Quality". Los Angeles Times. p. B11.
  19. "Under Capricorn (1949) – Trivia". IMDb. Retrieved 10 August 2013.
  20. Hillier, Jim (1985). Cahiers du Cinéma The 1950s. RKP/BFI. pp. 138, 200, 288. ISBN   0-7100-9620-8.
  21. Vagg, Stephen (25 March 2023). "A Brief History of Hitchcock Remakes". Filmink.