When young psychiatrist Dr. Edwardes (Peck) arrives to helm a posh new mental asylum, icy colleague Dr. Constance Peterson (Bergman) notices right away that this man does not appear to be who he says he is. Suspecting that he's not a psychiatrist at all, but an amnesiac named J.B., she sets out to discover the truth about his mysterious, possibly murderous, past.
Intriguing and mystifying, this "manhunt story" (as the director described it) is pickled in a heady dose of psychoanalytic dialogue, thanks in part to producer David O. Selznick, an ardent Freudian. Aside from Hitchcock's peerless handling of both the suspense surrounding J.B.'s identity and the love tryst that develops between Peck and Bergman, "Spellbound" remains celebrated because of the unforgettable dream sequence designed by Surrealist artist Salvador Dali (and directed by William Cameron Menzies). For sheer thrills and hypnotic weirdness, all enhanced by Miklos Rozsa's unsettling, Oscar-winning theremin score, "Spellbound" is hard to beat.