Spellbound (1945) was Ingrid Bergman’s first film with Alfred Hitchcock, as Dr. Constance Petersen, a psychiatrist who falls in love with a man suffering from amnesia.
Opposite Gregory Peck, Bergman played Constance with a calm intelligence that anchors the film’s mystery. As she tries to uncover the truth about her patient’s past, the film moves through dream sequences designed by Salvador Dalí.
The role showed Bergman’s range in a new genre. Constance is professional, compassionate and determined, and Bergman made her the emotional centre of a story that could easily have become merely clever.
Image: Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bergman_%26_Bogart_Casablanca_still.jpg