The Seventh Veil

The Seventh Veil is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring James Mason and Ann Todd. It was made by Ortus Films (a company established by producer Sydney Box) and released through General Film Distributors in the UK and Universal Pictures in the United States. The screenplay concerns a woman who attempts suicide to escape her cruel guardian.

The Seventh Veil
The Seventh Veil film poster
Directed byCompton Bennett
Produced bySydney Box
Written bySydney Box
Muriel Box
StarringJames Mason
Ann Todd
Music byBenjamin Frankel
CinematographyReginald Wyer
Edited byGordon Hales
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Universal Pictures (US)
Release date
18 October 1945 (UK)
15 February 1946 (US)
DVD 2012 (UK)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£92,000[1][2]
Box office£2 million (by Feb 1948)[1]

Plot

Francesca Cunningham is a suicidal mental patient under the care of Dr. Larsen. Under hypnosis, Larsen leads her to describe her life events that brought her to attempt suicide. The film largely consists of a series of flashbacks in which Francesca talks about her life, removing successive "veils" to recover memories.

Only her second cousin and guardian, Nicholas, a crippled musician, is interested in her. Nicholas, though, is a bitter man, faintly jealous of her talent and misogynistic, with a difficult relationship with his mother. However, he is a brilliant music teacher who encourages Francesca to excel, but also to avoid all emotional entanglements. At the Royal College of Music, Peter, an American studying in London, becomes romantically interested in Francesca. Although she is initially unresponsive, Francesca and Peter later become engaged, but she has not yet reached her maturity (then 21) and Nicholas, as her guardian, withholds his consent and insists she leave for Paris with him the next morning. She completes her education and begins her music career on the continent.

Years pass. Nicholas and Francesca return to Britain when she is invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, but she discovers Peter has married someone else. An artist, Maxwell Leyden, is invited by Nicholas to paint her portrait; they soon fall in love and agree to live together. Still apparently her guardian, Nicholas becomes angry at the news and strikes her hands with his cane while she plays. She flees from him, but, while with Max, is involved in a serious car accident and suffers burns to her hands. Francesca becomes convinced she will never play again.

After therapy—and now cured, according to Dr Larsen—Francesca realizes that Nicholas is her real love rather than Peter (now divorced) or Max.

Cast

Production

According to Mason, the original script concluded with Francesca choosing Peter. Mason and his then wife Pamela Kellino both believed that ending to be "wrong" and "rather dull."[3]

The film score was written by Benjamin Frankel (credited as Ben Frankel) with original piano works by Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as parts of the Grieg and Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concertos.

Eileen Joyce, whose name does not appear in the credits, was the pianist who substituted for Todd on the soundtrack. She also made a short film for Todd to practise to, and even coached Todd personally in her arm movements. It is Joyce's hands that are seen in all the close-ups.[4]

Reception
The film being shown at a Stockholm cinema.

Filmed on a relatively low budget of under £100,000,[5] the film was the biggest British box-office success of its year. According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1945 Britain were The Seventh Veil, with "runners up" being (in release order), Madonna of the Seven Moons, Old Acquaintance, Frenchman's Creek, Mrs Parkington, Arsenic and Old Lace, Meet Me in St Louis, A Song to Remember, Since You Went Away, Here Come the Waves, Tonight and Every Night, Hollywood Canteen, They Were Sisters, The Princess and the Pirate, The Adventures of Susan, National Velvet, Mr Skefflington, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Nob Hill, Perfect Strangers, Valley of Decision, Conflict and Duffy's Tavern. British "runners up" were They Were Sisters, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Perfect Strangers, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Waterloo Road, Blithe Spirit, The Way to the Stars, I'll Be Your Sweetheart, Dead of Night, Waltz Time and Henry V.[6]

The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival[7] and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (for Sydney and Muriel Box) in 1946. The film has the 10th top audience of all films, 17.9 million, placing it above most modern box-office successes.

The movie also earned over $1 million in rentals in North America.[8]

By July 1953, it had earned a reported £253,000 in the UK.[2]

In 1951, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom and Leo Genn appeared in a stage adaptation in London.

In 2004, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 biggest UK cinematic hits of all time based on audience figures, as opposed to gross takings. The Seventh Veil placed 10th in this list[9] with an estimated attendance of 17.9 million people.[10]

Radio adaptation

On 5 October 1946, This Is Hollywood presented The Seventh Veil. Ray Milland and Ann Todd starred in the adaptation.[11]
The Seventh Veil was also presented on the Lux Radio Theatre on September 15, 1947,[12] starring Joseph Cotten and Ida Lupino; and, on December 13, 1948,[13] starring Ingrid Bergman and Robert Montgomery.
The Seventh Veil was presented on Philip Morris Playhouse 3 February 1952. The 30-minute adaptation starred David Niven and University of Oklahoma student Edrita Pokorny.[14]

References

Notes
  1. Sarah Street, Transatlantic Crossings: British Feature Films in the USA, Continuum, 2002 p 114
  2. Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 210
  3. Healey, Mike (1984). James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate (TV documentary).
  4. Richard Davis, Eileen Joyce: A Portrait, p. 120
  5. Michael Brooke. "Seventh Veil, The (1945)". BFI Screenonline.
  6. Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  7. "Festival de Cannes: Blood and Fire". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  8. https://archive.org/stream/variety164-1946-11#page/n122/mode/1up/search/8%2C500%2C000
  9. "Gone with the Wind tops film list". BBC News Online. 28 November 2004. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  10. James, Nick. "Everything you knew about cinema is probably wrong; BFI releases definitive list of the top 100 most-seen films". Reel Classics. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  11. "Ray Milland, Ann Todd, Co-Star on 'This Is Hollywood' Premiere Tonight". Harrisburg Telegraph. 5 October 1946. p. 17. Retrieved 2 October 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Lux_Radio_Theater_Singles/Lux_Radio_Theatre_47-09-15_581_The_Seventh_Veil.mp3
  13. https://open.spotify.com/album/6QVY6GHtLYbmeaEIOculwt
  14. Kirby, Walter (3 February 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 40. Retrieved 3 June 2015 – via Newspapers.com.

Bibliography
  • The Great British Films, pp 88–90, Jerry Vermilye, 1978, Citadel Press, ISBN 0-8065-0661-X
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