User Reviews

This unusual little film, featuring James Mason, Ann Todd and Herbert Lom, is a strangely haunting study of a tortured relationship. In the opening scene, a lovely young woman attempts suicide by leaping from a bridge. She is rescued, and a worried doctor named Larsen tries to ascertain what drove her to try to end her life. Her story is revealed; when fourteen, an orphaned Francesca Cunningham is sent to live with her only relative, a second cousin named Nicholas Cunningham. He is a bachelor with no use for females, and makes it clear to her that the only way they'll get along is for her to stay out of his way as much as possible. Francesca is intimidated by his forceful personality and meekly appears to obey, while actually practicing passive-aggressive rebellion. She is lonely and unhappy in his house and he ignores her until a letter from her former teacher---a letter she tries to hide from him---reveals that Francesca has a real talent for music, particularly playing the piano. Nicholas compels her to play for him and is delighted at her ability. Francesca is pleased that at last she has found a way to garner his attention.

Her pleasure changes to sorrow and frustration as time passes and he drives her to practice for hours upon hours, day after day. It seems that due to his ugly and dysfunctional relationship to his mother, Nicholas cannot grow intimate with women beyond a certain point. He evidently adores and cherishes his lovely ward as she grows into a beautiful and accomplished woman. Unfortunately, his affection is expressed poorly as he bullies and intimidates his sensitive second cousin. Francesca eventually rebels more openly by seeking romantic relationships with other men, first with popular musician Peter Gay and then with bohemian artist Max Leyden. Nicholas puts a stop to the first relationship and tries to end the second; he explodes violently and lashes at her hands with his cane. Francesca tries to run off with Leyden but then is involved in a car accident that slightly injures her hands. She awakens and is convinced she can no longer play the piano, though her hands are not permanently damaged, and then tries to end her life. The whole mess swirls around a hauntingly lovely piano piece by Beethoven. Larsen correctly deduces that this music is crucial to healing not only Francesca but also her guardian. When he plays the record for Nicholas, the tortured man flies into an inexplicable rage, shattering the record and dropping his cane, then stomping on the stick when Larsen bends to retrieve it. Larsen realizes at that moment that Nicholas loves Francesca beyond words and has always, despite his cruel bullying of her, wanted whatever is best for her. And oddly enough, on some level, Francesca loves him equally, though she's afraid of the harsh front he wears to hide his true emotions from her. The final scene is fraught with tension when Larsen appears to tell the three men who love her that Francesca is cured. When she appears at the top of the stairway, she runs not to Peter or Max, but straight into the arms of the man who turns away in despair that she couldn't possibly want him. At last, Francesca and Nicholas can love each other without disorder getting in the way. (Since they're second cousins, the relationship is not incestuous; sorry to disappoint those who believe it is.)

The story is hopelessly dated, and the Freudian treatment ludicrous to untangle this tormented relationship, but the bizarre plot is saved by the acting. James Mason is perfect as the wounded and flawed man who cannot openly offer his heart to the woman he loves. Herbert Lom does well with his potentially clichéd role as the psychiatrist. Ann Todd is actually a bit weaker than her co-stars at conveying her inner turmoil and conflicting feelings for Nicholas; she seems to lack the range necessary for such a demanding role. This is a strange yet compelling tale, and a fine example of British genre cinema for its time frame. Great movie for a rainy afternoon or a bout of insomnia.

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

Just kept watching because I couldn't believe what would happen at the end - even though it was obvious - a woman is 'cured of fear' and then chooses her emotional and physical abuser for her life partner! (As the music swells for a happy ending!). Hopelessly outdated - though I think even then it was a bit iffy. The really, really iffy bit is that her psychiatrist seems very happy with himself!

Psychiatrist Herbert Lom is trying to reach into the lost soul of a suicidal pianist (Ann Todd). Under hypnosis, he learns of how as a young girl she was taken in by a distant relative (James Mason), a brooding man whose mother ran off years ago, leaving him distrustful of all women. Mason soon realizes what a talent Todd has as a piano player and begins to mentor her, softening up, but still remaining a possessive Svengali. When Todd falls in love with Hugh McDermott, Mason does everything he can to end the relationship so he can continue to possess her, but she runs off only to find tragedy that threatens to destroy all of her dreams. It is her inability to play the piano that draws psychiatrist Lom to visit Mason in hopes of snapping her out of her manic depression.

This Gothic drama features some great classical music and is mesmerizing from start to finish. I don't know if I see a romantic potential between Todd and Mason because of his possessiveness, but like Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, they are without meaning when apart. It's nice to see a very Herbert Lom, best known as the harassed Inspector Dreyfeuss (who later went bonkers) in "The Pink Panther" movies. Still years from his Hollywood success, Mason was one of England's brightest actors, and his voice is always refreshing to hear. Todd is perfect as the fragile heroine, a combination Jane Eyre/Mrs. DeWinter ("Rebecca") that makes me wonder how Joan Fontaine would have played this part in an American version. Definitely not to be missed!

I just saw this movie for the first time and am no doubt transposing current standards onto 1945-era sensibilities. But what sane woman would choose the guy who battered her fingers with a cane, thereby not only hurting her physically but potentially ending her career as a pianist?

She chooses that loser over the two other guys who may have wanted to marry her? And this is considered to be a great psychological breakthrough in her journey towards sanity and wellness?

Talk about being a victim of the Stockholm syndrome! That is where a kidnapped individual begins to identify with the kidnapper as a friend or as a lover.

That poor woman clearly never got well and the movie ended probably at the point where her life was really going to become a nightmare.

THE SEVENTH VEIL is a dear film favourite of mine. I find the film semi-addictive, very enjoyable and strangely hypnotic, even haunting. This surprise little hit of 1945 (made on a small budget)did wonders at the box office and picked up an Oscar.

I won't summarise the plot here, but I will offer an interesting discussion on the film for those who like to enjoy yet also ponder the meaning behind THE SEVENTH VEIL....

It's a film that attracts a lot of divisive opinion. To many, it's enjoyable romantic kitsch- harmless fun. Some (my mother would fall into this category)find it mildly disturbing that our heroine, the lovely, brilliant yet tortured concert pianist Francesa (Ann Todd), runs straight into the arms of the guardian, Nicholas (an excellent James Mason in his best early role) who cut her off from having a normal life and also attempted to smash her fingers with his ever-present (some Freudian fun?) cane. Others call it a fine little film, a classic even. Still others (critic Pauline Kael) refer to it as a "sadomasochist's sundae", and point out that Nicholas and Francesca are clearly going to need years of "couples counselling" to achieve a normal, functioning relationship.

One of the main criticisms levelled at it is it's now-dated psychiatry theme. However, the theme pleasingly does not meander in too much psychobabble (unlike the same year's SPELLBOUND), and Herbert Lom, in a role that is now cliché, is very good indeed. I like the flashback structure (again, now a standard cliché of the Hollywood film)and I think it, along with the Freudian overtones, would have seemed fresh in the 1940's.

Other criticisms that seem to frequently appear are the casting of Ann Todd and her appearance as fourteen year old girl in school dress. Some ask why the did not simply get a teen actress who resembles Todd to play Francesca as a girl? Budget constraints have often been cited as a reason for this. However, I think it's more to do with the film-makers idea that having Todd voice-over narrate and then play Francesa all through childhood, adolescence and womanhood would build her character and establish narrative flow. I personally don't mind the schoolgirl scenes (even if Todd, at 36, looks far too old and is trying just a little too hard to be an earnest adolescent)-they certainly don't lessen the film for me.

As for casting Todd, she of the alabaster Garbo-like face, well, I don't mind that either. I thinks she's fine in the role. Never an emotive or even an expressive actress, Todd does suggest Francesca's austerity, guarded repression and shyness well. Her eyes in the scene where she receives a caning from the headmistress do a lot more for me than words could. She certainly does a good job faking the piano-playing scenes.

I think the film is weakest in the "Max" scenes. I feel he is just there as a plot convenience (three suitors instead of two), his part is rather poorly written (and rather blandly acted)and he just seems to be a filler to get Mason really cranky and send Todd into a breakdown. Peter would probably be the most "normal" choice for Francesca...yet does he really want her anymore?

The ending is probably the major quibble folks have with the film. Why, after copping seemingly nothing more than abuse, should our heroine run to Mason? I think the implication is that she has, unconsciously, loved him along yet needed to have Lom take off those "veils" for her to realise it. Or maybe she knows she really does love him all along ("he has a strange power over me"..."I don't think I can help myself") but is afraid of the harsh front he wears to mask his own true feelings. Yes, Mason does love her- and, as we see in that very revealing scene (and Todd doesn't see it...)where Nicholas slowly softens and smiles as Francesca is giving a concert, he treasures her. The way he gets the flowers ready and quickly plucks one off (presumably to present to her), makes him seem like an uncertain, yet besotted suitor. Then she walks straight past him in search of Peter- does anyone else feel really sorry for poor Nicholas at this point in the film? I know I sure do! He wants to be with her all the time...obsessive, yes, yet oddly natural given his great love for her...

Mason, of course, is the key to the film. His Nicholas, sitting dourly in his chair and stroking a cat, seems at first, to be another cranky, sardonic (yet delicious!) villain in the vein of Lord Rohan (The Man In Grey) or Lord Manderstoke (Fanny By Gaslight), two of his most famous Gainsborough roles. Yet his character arc becomes something quite different entirely. There is something very saddening about Nicholas- and I'm not making excuses for the cane-beating or emotional abuse-that draws the viewer to Mason's character (and, indeed, it's a wonderful performance from Mason, and does he look darkly handsome!). Before Francesca comes into his life (and, as we, the audience know all along and receive official confirmation at the end)he has lived a lonely life as both a physical and emotional cripple. Very rich, but very sad. Sounds strange, but I hate the thought of Nicholas limping around his mansion, without Francesca and only her portrait to comfort-or further emotionally cripple him?-him, hiding his thoughts to himself. Ah, maybe it's the unabashed romantic in me, but Nicholas needs Francesa with him- as he says, in that desperate attempt to make her stay that ends with her hands being beaten, he "can't live without her". It's certainly an interesting relationship!

James Mason dressed to the nines sitting in a hideous high back chair chain smoking and brow beating his pathetic second cousin to play until he turn her into a concert pianist then whisks her off to Europe against her will to endlessly play then she comes back to London and then she is depressed and then she plays some more and then she is still depressed and then she has her portrait painted but gets in a car crash and is paranoid her hands are destroyed but they aren't so they cart her off to the nut house and a psychiatrist opens her up with hypos, hypnosis, records and suddenly she is cured and she loves her cousin who has been mean to her and never makes her smile. This poor thing is a poster child for the psychotic, neurotic, paranoid, weak, sniveling and morose. I kept waiting for a plot and wanted to hit the stop button so many times, but kept in there hoping one would develop. The whole thing is a sloppy melodrama and all gussied up to look intellectual. Its rubbish. I want the wasted time watching this clap trap back.

One of the most delicious thrills for many British and American moviegoers in 1946 was the unexpected sight of James Mason thwacking down his cane on the fingers of Ann Todd as she played the piano. This one scene is probably better remembered than the movie itself. The Seventh Veil was one of the first British movies to deal with psychiatry; it made a lot of money in both countries; it helped propel Mason to Hollywood; and it undoubtedly is one of the great women's melodramas in movies. Surprisingly, after more than 60 years the movie still holds up reasonably well, thanks to Mason and Todd. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed

Women's melodrama? Just hear the names of the two leads...Nicholas and Francesca. If those names don't sound like characters in a steamy Regency romance, what would? But the movie actually is a modern (from the Forties) study of a severely shy young woman's repressed need for love, and her guardian's overbearing need to live his life's dream through her and her talent as a pianist. Francesca's mother had died when she was a child. Her father placed her in a boarding school. When he died, she was 15 and was sent to live with her wealthy guardian in a large London mansion. Francesca was timid, talented at the piano, so unsure of herself at times that she could barely speak. Nicholas, probably 20 years older, was her second cousin. He lived alone in his mansion with only male servants. He was lame, brooding, controlling and a misogynist. One afternoon he learns Francesca can play the piano and slowly entices her to play for him by playing himself. As he listens to her we can see that he is recognizing a rare talent that he most likely, however competent he might be, can never equal. "He was a wonderful teacher," she later says. "He used to say rather bitterly, 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.'" He drives her mercilessly for years to train her to excel, and he succeeds. "He never let me out of his sight for seven years," she tells us, "It was seven years of music...of Nicholas turning me into his dream."

We learn all this in a series of flashbacks because we first meet Francesca in a hospital after she has attempted to kill herself. She lies mute in bed, seemingly unaware of anything around her. When finally a psychiatrist, Dr. Larsen (Herbert Lom, wearing a scholarly pince- nez), is brought into the case, he slowly encourages her to speak and tell her story. He tells a colleague that the process is much like the removal of the seven veils, with each dropped veil revealing a bit more, and that the removal of the seventh veil will let us know the patient's truest feelings and desires. And so Francesca tells us in flashback how Nicholas drove her to become a gifted, recognized pianist, how he controlled every aspect of her life, how she thought she had fallen in love with two men and how Nicholas had reacted each time. Finally, Dr. Larsen is able to help Francesca through this. At the conclusion, as she walks down the grand staircase in Nicholas' mansion with Dr. Larsen and the three men waiting below, we know that, as Larsen has warned them, Francesca has become a new woman who will go to the man among them whom she loves and trusts. And as she goes down those stairs, smiling and confident, Nicholas knows that the man Larsen described cannot be him. He quietly limps away and closes the door to his study behind him. Care to guess what Francesca does next?

The movie still works, despite the now clunky approach to psychiatry, repressed love and inner-most feelings, because of James Mason and Ann Todd. Todd was a cool, finely- sculpted blonde who, at 36, had to convincingly play a young woman between the ages of 15 and about 24. She just about carries it off. She also has to carry the narrative weight of the movie, since all we know is largely from her flashback monologues and her scenes in the film. Mason, however, dark and handsome, dominates the movie. He isn't just glowering, brooding and tormented. There is an element of sadistic insistence in his portrayal of Nicholas that keeps us off balance. If Nicholas had ever reached the point of doing some bodice ripping, there would have been a lot of females in the audience sighing in anticipation.

This is a good film EXCEPT for the same complaint I often have about British films of that era -- the pace is too slow. And, there are places where it seems a bit melodramatic, but I could over look that if the pacing was better. The other BIG complaint I have are the scenes where Ann Todd is playing her character as a teenager. Just making your legs awkward doesn't work. It would have been MUCH better had a young actress played the part of her character as a teen.

What did I like best about the film. Frankly, seeing Herbert Lom in a serious role long before "The Pink Panther" series. And, Ann Todd does a remarkable job of faking playing the piano. While I am certain that was not her playing, I would guess she had some talent in the area, because I have never seen it done so well on screen.

What you have here is a story of a young woman who has been boxed into a life not of her own making. She is emotionally abused by her guardian (James Mason)...although you know from the beginning...well, I'd better let you figure out what happens there. Abused by an American band leader who was married. And damaged by a painter who involves her in a car crash (although we really can't blame him for that circumstance). Well, okay...all of that works.

The 5 main characters here are: 1. James Mason as the guardian -- excellent performance, although his character is not very likable. 2. Ann Todd as the pianist -- other than the teen scenes, a good performance, although it seemed a tad bit stiff to me. 3. Herbert Lom as the psychiatrist -- a good performance, although the streak of gray in his hair was a little silly. 4. Hugh McDermott as the band leader -- good performance. 5. Albert Lieven as the painter -- good performance. To be honest, it's difficult to criticize the acting here, but Mason does best.

The pace here really got to me. It took me several sittings to get through this film, but I was still glad I watched it.