The Seventh Veil (1945) on Netflix
A concert pianist convinced her hands are ruined lies unresponsive. A psychiatrist hypnotizes her to uncover her training under her guardian Nicholas and Peter, whom she meets at college.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/102,666 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Taken from the river, Francesca Cunningham lies unresponsive in a nursing home, certain that her hands are ruined. Dr. Larsen, a psychiatrist who works with hypnosis, draws her into describing her past, and her life returns in flashbacks: a boarding school where music was everything to her, and a teacher who caned her hands after a transgression. After her father's death she passes into the care of Nicholas, a bachelor with a cane, who ignores her until a school report shows her gift. He teaches her for hours each day and arranges her place at the Royal College of Music, where she meets Peter, an American musician who is studying in London.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Seventh Veil (1945)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Eileen Joyce, whose name does not appear in the credits, was the pianist who substituted for Ann Todd on the soundtrack, made a short film for Todd to practice to, coached her in her arm movements, and supplied the hands seen in all the close-ups.
- James Mason said the original script ended with Francesca choosing Peter as the man she loves, an ending he and his wife Pamela Kellino considered "wrong" and "rather dull."
- The Seventh Veil grew out of a commission for Sydney and Muriel Box to film a documentary about shell-shocked soldiers treated with hypnosis; Muriel saw dramatic potential in hypnotherapy, so the couple wrote the screenplay instead and Sydney produced it.
- Ann Todd said The Seventh Veil was one of the first films to have a cruel hero, at a time when male stars were "honest, kind, upstanding" men the female lead was supposed to end up safe with.
