Under Capricorn (1949)

Under Capricorn (1949)

In director Alfred Hitchcock's historical, mystery-crime and lurid costume (melo)-drama - it was the director's second Technicolor film following after Rope (1948) with a similar structure consisting of stitched-together 9-10 minute segments, although only a few sequences were shot using that technique.

The script by James Bridie and adaptation by Hume Cronyn were based upon Helen de Guerry Simpson's 1937 novel of the same name, that was derived from John Colton and Margaret Linden's unpublished and unproduced play. The period drama's plot involved a love-triangle (of sorts) with a hidden past secret (involving a death and a false confession) looming above the overheated atmosphere. The tagline announced star Ingrid Bergman's role as a repressed wife:

"Ingrid Bergman shows you the heights and the depths to which a woman like this can go!"

The film's confusing title referred to the "Tropic of Capricorn" latitude in the Southern Hemisphere that bisected the continent of Australia - the location of the film's plot. Capricorn also referred to the 10th sign of the Zodiac (symbolized by a mythological sea goat hybrid creature), and the astronomical constellation. Most of the film's locale was in London, England and the surrounding area, although some of it was shot at the Warner Bros' ranch in the LA area.

This dialogue-heavy and unexciting film was most similar to his earlier films Rebecca (1940) , Suspicion (1941) and Notorious (1946), and Bergman's performance in Gaslight (1944). It was very atypical of Hitchcock's reputation for suspenseful thrillers, and one of Hitchcock's lesser works - and it was a major box-office failure.

This was a period in the director's career with a long string of critical and box-office flops, including: The Paradine Case (1947) , Rope (1948) , and Stage Fright (1950) . One reason for the film's poor reception was thought to be that in 1949, his married Swedish star Ingrid Bergman (in her third Hitchcock film) was revealed to be in an adulterous relationship (followed by a pregnancy) with married Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, when she ventured to Italy to make Rossellini's film Stromboli (1950, It.).

• as the film opened in December of 1831, Sydney - the capital of New South Wales in colonial Australia, was a rough frontier town with lots of unexplored land, mostly populated by convicted prisoners from England; British King William IV had just appointed a new Governor to be sent to the prison colony of Sydney - Irishman Sir Richard Bourke (Cecil Parker) accompanied by his charming and cheery but indolent second cousin from Western Ireland - the Honorable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding) - a dandyish aristocrat who was planning to "make his fortune" on the new continent

• before the Governor's speech ended during his arrival ceremony, Adare was approached by banker Cedric Potter (John Ruddock), the manager of the New South Wales bank, and they set up a meeting for the following day; the proceedings were slightly marred by a rowdy and rough crowd (some ex-convicts) who had been transported there from the British Isles

• the next morning inside the Bank of New South Wales, banker Potter mentioned the name of another well-to-do bank customer nearby named Samson "Sam" Flusky (Joseph Cotten), and Adare claimed that the name sounded familiar to him; Potter described how Flusky was an "admirable citizen" - a powerful, hard-working, prosperous and wealthy landowner ("a financial genius") who owned a stud horse; when Adare questioned Potter about Flusky's past, he was reminded that in Australia, no one talked about the past; Flusky was presumably an emancipated prisoner - one who had made his fortune there as an ex-convict who was considered to have paid his debt to society by time served: ("a man's past is his own business")
  • [Note: Later, it was remarked that Flusky was possibly a murderer in his past.]
• Adare was introduced to gruff Sam Flusky, who dismissed the fact that he had some familiarity with West Ireland and Adare's father Lord Killale; as an aside, banker Potter warned Adare against accepting any invitations to Flusky's home ("a gentleman in your position can't be too careful")
• outside the bank, Flusky offered Adare a business deal to purchase a plot of land for 1,000ドル pounds; he proposed that Potter could finance Adare's loan, and after the purchase, Adare would make a profit by selling the land over to Plusky (in a private deal) for more than he paid for it; Flusky described how he had already bought the Crown's legal limit of land that he was allowed, and wanted to continue accumulating more frontier territory; Flusky invited Adare to dine at his house the next evening at 6:30 pm and would provide a driver, and then he handed over 100ドル pounds to assist him
• Adare told his uncle the Governor about his newfound association with the town's wealthy magnate Flusky, and it was ordered that Adare not accept a dinner invitation at Flusky's house, due to his criminal past and unsavory character:
  • "Get out of that dinner Charles, you can't be too careful..It might be awkward for me."
• Charles accepted the dinner invitation nonetheless, even though many in the society shunned the Fluskys; as Adare was brought to the elegant home in a carriage, the coachman was spooked by the sight of the mansion, and commented on the motto or name of the mansion posted at its gates: "Minyago Yugilla?" ("Why Weepest Thou?"); once he arrived in front of the elegant home, Adare observed the housekeeper Milly (Margaret Leighton) and butler Winter (Jack Watling) meeting with Flusky about the dinner arrangements; he also witnessed an unexplained disturbance in the kitchen settled by the tyrannical, iron-fisted Milly wielding a whip
• as the first guests arrived, Flusky seemed upset that only the husbands showed up; it was clear, after many of the husbands made excuses about their wives' absences, that the Fluskys were often deliberately snubbed by the refined society; Flusky also apologized to some of the guests that his wife, Lady "Hattie" Henrietta Considine (Ingrid Bergman), was also ill and confined to the upstairs, and would not be attending the dinner
• after the men were seated and grace was recited by Rev. Smiley (Victor Lucas), the barefooted, pale but beautiful, drunken, and inappropriately-dressed "Hattie" unexpectedly joined the men in the dining room and sat at the opposite end of the table; Adare sat next to her and introduced himself
• during a private conversation between them, Adare realized that he recognized Sam's wife - she was an upper-crust, aristocratic neighbor who was a good friend of young Charlie's sister Diana when they were all children in Ireland: ("You were the only Adare who was a bad horseman")
• "Hattie" was too ill to remain at the table for very long, and returned to her upstairs room; downstairs, her hysterical screams were heard when she claimed to have seen a rat, and she called for Adare to assist; although it was obvious that she was suffering from a delusional hallucination, Adare took her seriously and fired a gun into her upstairs fireplace after which "Hattie" seemed comforted and turned calmer
• after dinner on the terrace, the brooding Flusky and Adare reminisced about their past youths in Ireland, when "Hattie" was young and lived on her Considine family's landed gentry estate, and Sam Flusky was the handsome stable boy (groom and riding instructor) who taught her to ride; he remembered how she had a "reckless strain" in her, and he had "a bit of the devil" in himself - and they ended up in "trouble," but he didn't explain any further except to say: "I was lucky to escape the gallows"
• he was given a 7-year sentence and transported to Australia; Hattie sold all of her things and followed Sam to Australia, and waited seven years in abject poverty for his release; once they were rejoined together, their marital relationship never recovered: ("We weren't the same people, the two of us, after all those years"), and Hattie turned to drinking (helped by Milly plying her with alcohol), while Sam concentrated on materialistic advancement to make it up to her
• Flusky admitted that he had invited Adare for dinner in the hopes that his presence might entice the local, opinionated wives to meet him; there were many rumors, hearsay and gossip about Flusky's wife and her scandalous behavior - she appeared to be a traumatized and delusional alcoholic - a possible reason for her being shunned by the polite society, and he was still hoping that Henrietta "might pull herself together"
• Sam invited Adare to return frequently to the house to see Hattie, realizing that his short visit had cheered up his wife who was on the verge of madness, and that maybe more visits would make her more stable ("Maybe there's some hope after all") - and get her talking about "old times"
• Adare was scolded by the Governor for deliberately disobeying his orders regarding the Flusky dinner, to "take part in an unsavory debauch with the scum of the convict colony"; Adare defended himself, mentioning how the Governor's own Attorney General Corrigan (Denis O'Dea) was also in attendance; the Governor strongly ordered Adare from making any business deals with the "shady" Flusky, even though the land purchase deal was legal
• the Governor spoke about the "hushed up" case of how the "blackard" young stable boy Flusky had eloped with Hattie, and admitted to murdering her brother Dermot "in cold blood" - but because it was determined that the crime was "culpable homicide" (both shooters were armed), Sam was not sentenced to hang, but was transported to the penal colony in Australia; however, he still believed that Flusky had the reputation of being a "violent brute"
• when Adare refused to reneg on his land deal, the angered Governor expelled his cousin from the Government House; without any money of his own, Adare accepted Sam's offer to move into the Flusky household
• on the porch during a long discussion with Adare, Henrietta confirmed that her marriage to Sam deteriorated after he was released from his 7-year prison term; she told him: "We lost each other. I'm no good now, Charles, no good at all...I'm finished!"; Adare encouraged her to attempt to restore her self-confidence and interests and rehabilitate her exhausted will and condition, including resuming her horse-riding, travel, and other activities; most importantly, he wanted her to take care of herself so that she would recover, and reestablish her authority in the house
• Milly became suspicious of Adare and spied on him during future visits; she watched him carefully and was fearful of her power being usurped, as they became closer and closer
• as he had promised, Adare's efforts to have Henrietta 'reincarnated' including having her increase her self-reliance and lucid thinking by costuming her in beautiful dresses, and having her look at herself in a mirror; Adare also realized that the housekeeper Milly had completely taken over the running of the Flusky household; he insisted that Henrietta, as the "mistress" of the house, should retain control of the keys and the kitchen:
  • "You must give all of the orders!"
• in a dramatic sequence before the kitchen staff, Henrietta challenged Milly's control and authority by giving her an order: "I want you to consult me about everything, everything. I have left too much on your shoulders"; Milly would now have to obey her instructions delivered every morning; the disdainful Milly embarrassed Henrietta by having Winter disclose the many hidden, empty bottles of alcohol from her bedroom cabinet, causing her to flee to her bedroom and bolt the door; later that evening, Flusky advised Adare to give up on his efforts to rehabilitate his wife, but Adare vowed: "I'm not done yet"
• Adare climbed up to the terrace of Henrietta's bedroom and found her drunk and in bed, and feeling defeated: ("I don't want to see you ever again. I couldn't do what you told me. Go back home and tell them I died...Go back to Ireland...I am no good to any living soul"); he encouraged her to always stand on her own two feet, and seriously insisted: "You must have courage" - and they shared a passionate kiss together; Henrietta cautioned him: "This is all wrong...I'll do my best, but this is not the way," and she sobbed: "I can't do anything anymore"; however, he vowed to continue helping her and suggested that she go to bed

• when Milly was called to the bolted bedroom door to enter and help Henrietta get ready for bed, Milly snidely commented to Adare about her suspicions of romance between them: ("It looks like it's your job")
• then, the next day, Milly attempted to undermine Adare and complained to Flusky about his efforts to "meddle" and usurp her authority by helping Hattie to rehabilitate herself and recover; Adare confronted Milly in Flusky's presence, and accused her of "calculated and brutal rudeness" in the kitchen the previous day; Milly counter-accused Adare of being in Henrietta's locked bedroom with romantic intentions: "The two of them alone and half their clothes off - that's rudeness for you!"; Milly then sabotaged Winter by blaming him for embarrassing Henrietta by displaying her many alcohol bottles
• Flusky told long-time, gossipy Milly that she could resign if she was dissatisfied - and she decided to leave: "I'm getting out. I wouldn't stay another hour in this house. If you can put up with such goings-on, that's your business"; as she entered a carriage to depart, Milly told Sam: "I'll pray to the Lord that your eyes may be opened"
• at first, Hattie was devastated that Milly was ousted: ("I can't do without her!"), but with Adare's previous encouragement, she was determined to take charge of the house and exhibit her authority over the unruly and disrespectful household kitchen staff; her first official act was to burn Milly's whip as she vowed: "After today, nobody will be beaten in this house," and then she demanded respect by being referred to as "My Lady"; she also specified three rules for the staff: no noise, fighting, or stealing; any offense would result in being sent back to prison; she proposed a contest between them to cook breakfast, in order to judge who was the best cook for the house; Charles' efforts to reform her were paying off
• during breakfast, Adare showed off a blank invite to the Subscription Ball (for the Honorable Irish Society of Sydney) held at Government House in Sydney, claiming that it invited them to attend; although Sam declined to attend due to his ex-convict past, he gave his permission to Adare to escort Hattie to the event, so she could show off a beautiful dress and the new waltz dance style; Sam also showed his confidence in Hattie's restored health, by clipping Milly's key-ring onto her waist
• the night of the Ball, as Charles and Hattie were leaving, Sam proposed how a "collar of rubies" might enhance her dress; then, he hesitated and ultimately decided to not present Hattie with a ruby necklace that he was holding behind his back and tucked it back into his pants; he had purchased it for her (as a symbol of his love), but became dejected and changed his mind after Charles joked that she would look like a Christmas tree, and Hattie had mentioned that the ruby color didn't match well with her ball gown (she also added: "Besides, I haven't any rubies")
• just after they departed, the manipulative Milly entered the Flusky house and remarked on the "handsome couple"; she had come back to stay the night in her old room to retrieve her "chest" before starting her new job with the Attorney General early the next day; she deliberately planted jealous suspicions in Sam's mind about a growing relationship between Adare and his wife - it was a remarkable monologue with a very sinister motive - to edge Henrietta out of Sam's life; her plan all along was to destroy Henrietta and win Sam's affections for herself: ("She looked lovely tonight, like as if something new had come into her life")
• in a masterful speech, Milly underhandedly insinuated that Adare was humiliating him in public by entertaining his wife socially, and that their lower social-class sensibilities were allowing them to behave shamefully:
  • "There she is, going to the Governor's Ball. Wonders will never cease. The whole town talking about her Ball dress and how beautiful it was...They're gentry, you see. They don't have the same rules as us, Mr. Flusky. They take everything for granted. But here, I'm talking on and on. It's the loneliness. I think it's right that her ladyship should have a bit of pleasure, so long as she doesn't lose her head. It's none of my business at all. And you wouldn't have let them go if there had been any of that sort of thing. You're not the sort to let a young spark play fast and loose with his wife. You're a man that respects himself, Mr. Flusky. That's why we all respect you, least-ways nearly all of us. But it's, it's wonderful that her ladyship should be out there driving in a carriage through the darkness, and then into the lights and the music. They tell me there's a new kind of dance very fashionable these days. Men and women dance around in each other's arms till they're giddy - a waltz they call it. Humph, they wouldn't have that at the Governor's Ball. No decent woman would let a strange man be hugging her, and her half-naked and everybody looking on"
• Flusky continued to listen to Milly's convincing yet greatly-exaggerated stories of what Adare had done in Lady Henrietta's bedroom:
  • "And oh, oh Mr. Flusky, I've been worried to death. I hope you haven't been giving too much thought to what I said about Mr. Adare and her ladyship in her bedroom. I'm sure it wasn't her fault. Well, she wasn't what you call responsible at the time. I know she wasn't, because she had half her clothes off and didn't seem to notice. It was their taking so long to open the door that made me suspicious. But I may have been wrong. I pray that I was wrong"
• the film transitioned to the Governor's Ball, where as they arrived, Adare and Henrietta were told that their invitation was illegitimate, and that they weren't listed on the guest register; Adare had forged the handwriting on their invitation
• the Governor was exceedingly impressed by Hattie's stunning presence however, and asked: ("Who is that exquisite creature?") before he was introduced to her; there was a short period of embarrassment for everyone when the Governor realized that Adare's invitation was fraudulent; the Governor admitted he had specifically taken Adare off the invite list as punishment for disobeying him and for keeping "bad company" with Sam Flusky; the decision to immediately expel him was reversed now that it was evident that the Governor realized that he knew Henrietta from his past in Ireland, and that she was Flusky's wife who was accompanying Charles for the evening
• an enraged and furious Flusky appeared at the ball, and created a disturbance with the Governor by inappropriately mentioning how Henrietta "married beneath her" since he was only a stable boy, and that they were in the company of upper-class "swells"; embarrassed and upset by the scene, Henrietta returned home, devastated and crying
• she was joined by Adare who tried to calm her; he stated how Sam was jealous of Henrietta's superior gentry status: ("He knows he's inferior to you and it fills him with black hatred. He's jealous of your shadow, jealous of your world"); when Adare suggested that she return to Ireland ("You owe him nothing"), she responded by telling him about her earlier, honor-bound love for Sam, and her steadfast indebtedness to him due to the many "wrongs" she had done to him; Henrietta explained how she and Sam were still bound together with a terrible secret:
  • "Sam is part of me and I am part of Sam for ever and ever."

• she happily described how in the past, after she and her stable groom Sam became overcome with love for each other, that they eloped, run away and were married at Gretna Green in Scotland by a blacksmith, breaking society's taboos; afterwards, her family was furious that their aristocratic daughter Henrietta had paired up with a lowly servant
• the couple was confronted by her angry brother Dermot ("with murder in his eyes"), who aimed his pistol at her; Sam jumped in front of Henrietta to shield her; she grabbed Sam's horse gun and in self-defense, fatally shot her brother; the fact that Dermot had wildly fired his own pistol saved Sam's "neck" from hanging; Sam made a false confession - and took the blame; he claimed that he had murdered Hattie's brother to save her; during the proceedings, Henrietta became delirious and ill for weeks, and was kept from knowing anything to avoid a scandal; when she revived, Sam was already "in chains" on a convict ship bound for Australia; they vowed to keep a pact of secrecy about what had happened
• Adare asked how she had survived for seven years awaiting his release, but Henrietta deflected his question: "What does that matter now?"; her dream to start afresh in the new country had been marred by her memory of "so many hideous things" that occurred in a little hut down by the docks (she called it a time of "hot misery"); she had never fully recovered her mental health, even after Sam was freed:
  • "Even now, I sometimes long to go down, down, down to where I can go no further, down, where nothing can hurt me anymore"
• Adare responded to her depression and suicidal urges that she was only hurting herself: ("No man alive is worth that sacrifice"), and pressured her to get away: ("You still have some life to live. Come away, come away from all this"), but she remained steadfast and loyal
• after Sam arrived back at the house, he ordered Adare to leave permanently; as Henrietta was calling Sam a "madman" and he countered by calling her "trash," Adare took off on Sam's favorite mare in the dark, but since he was not an accomplished horseman, the horse fell and broke its leg; Flusky was forced to shoot the horse dead (off-screen), and as he reentered the house, he chastised Adare as a "bloody murdering gentleman"; Flusky's gun went off accidentally and seriously wounded Adare
• the next morning, Milly was still lingering in the Flusky household, as Henrietta attended to Adare at a hospital where he was hovering between life and death
• the Governor threatened that the "violent brute" Sam would be prosecuted for his assault upon Adare; as an ex-convict committing a second offense of further violence (attempted murder), he could be sent back to prison and possibly executed if Adare died; the Governor also speculated that if Adare lived, he would be sent back to Ireland in disgrace
• to save Sam again, Henrietta confessed to the Governor that Sam was wrongly accused of his first crime of murder: ("He should never have been a convict"); she was the one who shot and killed her brother ("Sam took the blame"); of course, her confession brought further complications; the Governor (and his Attorney General) stated that if her assertion about a capital crime was true, by law she should be deported back to Ireland to stand trial and be sent to jail; but alternately, if Sam didn't corroborate her confession, he would be imprisoned; the Governor ignored Henrietta's claim that Sam was innocent of both crimes
• Henrietta returned home to Sam and expressed her "blessed Heavenly relief" that she had confessed to killing her own brother, to get him off the hook; initially, Sam misunderstood Henrietta's motivation and wrongly believed that she wanted to replace him and return to Ireland with Charles (if he lived), and that she didn't love him; he was insensitively angry: "You've been fool enough to spill your story, so you pay for it this time, not me"; Henrietta vowed she had unselfishly confessed for Sam's sake, but Sam denounced her: "I'm done with you!"
• once Adare recovered, the Governor told him that he and Henrietta (who had confessed to a crime) would have to be returned to Ireland, on separate ships; Milly, who was very much in love with Sam, was restored to her old position, and tried to further drive Hattie insane and claim Sam for herself; she was hoping that Hattie would soon vacate the home and bring peace to Sam: ("You've never known peace"); Milly was shocked when Sam told her that he would accompany Hattie to Ireland after selling everything, and she urged:
  • "It's madness to go, Mr. Flusky...Stay here with me, I'll look after you."
• meanwhile, Hattie had reverted to delusionary fears and madness in a retreat to her bedroom; Hattie fainted after seeing a real shrunken, decapitated head in her bed; after regaining consciousness, Hattie watched as Milly picked up the head and concealed it in a jewelry basket on her dresser, and then prepared a fatal overdose of her prescribed sleeping potion in a glass of wine; in her perverted mind, Milly loved Sam and wanted him all to herself:
  • "Take this, then you can go to bed and sleep. Drink it all down."

• Hattie called for Sam and reported on Milly's many wrong-doings and sabotage; Sam finally realized Milly's true nature: ("So this is the way of it, is it! You'd work to the death for me, eh? The death all right!"); Hattie asked: ("What kind of love drives you to make such horrible things?...Why do you want to kill me? Do you think he could love a murderess?") - as Milly was being dismissed permanently, she even denounced Sam:
  • "Mr. Flusky, I'm not good enough for you, I know that. I'm only good enough to work for you and slave for you and look after your - your drunken..."
• as Milly ran off, Flusky was approached by the Attorney General who asked him to corroborate Hattie's confessed statement; if he cooperated, he was promised a "free pardon" and as a "second offender" wouldn't be returned to prison (and a chain gang) for the attempted murder of Charles Adare; Sam refused, having finally realized that Hattie loved him:
  • "I must help you to hang my wife, eh?...It comes to this. You can do nothing to her without my evidence...You can take yourselves out of here!"
• Sam was threatened with an arrest warrant for the attempted murder of Charles Adare if he continued to persist in not cooperating; he knew that if he cooperated, however, that he was setting up Henrietta for a conviction and death sentence back in Ireland
• Sam acknowledged to Hattie that she had sacrificed herself for him: "You were determined to risk your neck for me, weren't you?", and that her brother's murder years ago had been "paid for" by his serving of a 7-year prison sentence: ("Why must they go on and on and on at it?"); she assured him:
  • "Nobody can touch you. Nobody can hurt you. I'm safe with you now. We should always be together"
• the next morning, Sam was arrested by the Governor for the attempted murder of Charles Adare, and he was brought to Sydney to be jailed before being returned to prison; Hattie took a carriage to Sydney to plead with the Governor, where she also saw that Charles had recovered from his injuries; she begged for Charles to help her and set Sam free: ("Give him back to me, Charles"); Charles testified that he was truly and accidentally shot in the shoulder by Sam - there was no confrontation, and no struggle over the gun; after his statement, Flusky was released

• in the final scene, Flusky and Hattie (smiling together at the dock and reconciled) bid a grateful farewell to Adare who, because of his love and respect for Hattie, was returning to Ireland alone