Under Capricorn |  | Actors: Ronald Adam, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Francis De Wolff, Maureen Delaney
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
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Rating:  15 reviews
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 117 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D5443D
UPC: 014381544329
EAN: 0014381544329
Theatrical Release Date: October 8, 1949
Release Date: June 17, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
With the long-take experiment of Rope still fresh in his mind, Alfred Hitchcock turned his attention to romantic melodrama: Under Capricorn, a novel of 1830s Australia. Having little of the usual suspense to rely on, Hitchcock used the elegant long-take method to draw out Ingrid Bergman's harrowing performance. As a fallen aristocrat who married a former stable boy (Joseph Cotten) and moved Down Under, Bergman gives a fine portrayal of a woman hemmed in by a sour marriage and a guilty secret. The actress also felt hemmed in by Hitch's elaborate camera movements; she hated them. This expensive picture flopped on its first release, but it has a hypnotic flow despite a tendency toward talkiness. Hitchcock fans will recognize, beyond the details of plot, a couple of the director's key motifs: the jaundiced view of marriage, and the anxieties underlying social status. And, of course, the worship of an actress. --Robert Horton
Description
Screen legends Ingrid Bergman (Notorious) and Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane) star in this spellbinding melodrama from the screen's Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock! Banished for murder to Australia, Sam Flusky (Cotton) takes his victim's troubled sister, Henrietta (Bergman), as his wife. The arrival of a new governor also brings Henrietta's old friend, Adare (Michael Wilding), who tries to help her conquer the demons plaguing her life. But something mysterious is afoot; is Henrietta going insane, or is there a sinister plot at work? A gripping, atmospheric yarn in the style of Rebecca and Gaslight, this sumptuous production features some of Hitchcock's most audacious visual tricks and is now presented on DVD in a rich new Technicolor digital transfer!
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 Mellow. Drama. Hitchcock? February 2, 2008
A. Gammill (West Point, MS United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Although I have collected nearly all of Alfred Hitchcock's films on DVD, I put off watching this one for a long time. I suppose it was because of the mixed reviews I'd seen over the years, and the fact that the plot itself did not seem to resemble what I expect a "Hitchcock film" to be. It was, ultimately, my love for Ingrid Bergman, not the director himself, that bid me to give this one a chance.
And I'm glad I went into it with that mindset, because it's a little hard to think of Under Capricorn as a film made by the "master of suspense." First off, because there IS no suspense. OK, there's a bit of tension as the (SPOILERS AHEAD) romantic triangle of the film's lead players unfolds. And there are a handful of interesting shots, chiefly the long takes which Hitchcock used a year earlier in Rope and a year later in Dial M for Murder. But basically, this is a period melodrama which affords little opportunity for the director to show much flair.
Two things save Under Capricorn from being such a labor to watch, though. The first, not suprisingly, is Bergman. The makeup and wardrobe department deserve special mention for her initial appearance, in which one of the most beautiful actresses of all time (a pronouncement with which I'm certain Alfred Hitchcock himself would have agreed) look deathly ill. Hitch's camera always loved Ingrid Bergman, and she gets plenty of closeups here. The other redeeming factor the film has is lush Technicolor cinematography. The print used by Image, while perfectly acceptable, does occasionally suffer some saturation problems. This is also a "bare bones" release, meaning all you get is the film itself with no extras.
I think Under Capricorn might be more appreciated by viewers who enjoy these sort of period dramas than by fans of Hitchcock. Still, it's not a bad little movie. And it's certainly recommended for Bergman fans.
 Ponderous period drama from The Master June 5, 2007
Peter Hoogenboom (New Zealand)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
"Under Capricorn" was the second and last film (after "Rope") that Hitchcock completed under the ill-fated Transatlantic banner the vehicle has set up after release from his Selznick contract. Like "Rope", Hitchcock experimented with long takes and complicated camera movements.
Unlike "Rope", however, "Under Capricorn" is a talky bore. Hitchcock had little feel for this type of material - a period drama set in colonial Australia. The film is not helped by being entirely shot in a studio - a limitation of the shooting style and budget - so has no local flavour whatsoever which is what this type of film needs.
Even Hitchcock himself admitted this was a dud. For Hitchcock completists only.
 One of the unknown and nevertheless one of the best films of Hitchcock July 27, 2006
AFN
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
By some thoughtless prejudices "Under Capricorn" is rejected among the people who love violence and action as an "untypical" or "tedious" film of Hitchcock which lacks for suspense and goose-flesh (Hitchcock himself most cynically and deliberately contributed to similar prejudices by his commentaries towards the public and Truffaut). In fact this film is as deep and beautiful as "Vertigo" and as terrifying and psychologically subtil as "Psycho" (these latter films seem to be some kind of a scale in valuation of all other films of Hitchcock). "Under Capricorn" is full of symbols and motives which recur in the earliest and the latest films of Hitchcock. The theme of guilt and past ("Vertigo"), the motive of being addicted to alcohol (TV-film "Poison") and the motive of the deep love between the married couple ... all these themes are combined with each other to a wonderful masterpiece of cinematic and human art. Hitchcock shows Ingrid Bergman and her rival (Margaret Leighton) with a most empathising subtility, there is a strict and mirror-like duality among the characters, everybody seems to be the exact counterpart of the other (something like a photograph and the negative).
The visual quality of the film on this DVD (edited by "Image Entertainment") is, I have to admit, not as good as the quality of other well known films of Hitchcock which are on DVD (for example the editions by "Warner" or by "Criterion"), but it is at least much better than that terrible French edition by Universal ("Les Amants du Capricorn") and it is, so far as I can see, the only acceptable and obtainable edition (the German edition by "Kinowelt" is cut and therefore worthless); there is no bonus on the DVD but I am not missing it at all. The menue is very good and shows the chapters in detail. I like this edition.
You could hear a pin drop March 9, 2006
cvairag (Allan Hancock College)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The divergence of opinion among the reviewers regarding this film interests me - and reflects the changes the media itself has undergone, inspiring me to add my bit to the dialog here for what its worth. First, I confess to not having seen the DVD. I saw Under Capricorn about 20 years ago at the Nuart, a revival theatre in Los Angeles, where it played as the late night feature on a double-bill with Strangers on a Train to a packed house. The showing was memorable. By the middle of the film, the tension had absorbed the audience to the point where you could literally have heard a pin drop in there - as the cliche goes. The feeling was truly amazing - the energy was that of watching one of the great cinematic masterpieces - and Under Capricorn, great as it is - is hardly one of the greatest film masterpieces. Yet, many of the reviewers here would be surprised to know that a surprising number of the most respected critics consider this rather musty treasure from the golden age of Technicolor - 1945-55 - one of Hitchcock's greatest achievements!
Part of the problem is that the "action" in this "costume drama" hails from an age when the ne plus ultra in special effects was stuff like Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments (and that was several years after the 1949 release of this film). There really is no viable action to speak of in the film - which, if films had academic subtitles, could be called: Under Capricorn: Hitch meets Henry James. Really, it is the Jamesian novel of film, before movies of James' novels came into vogue, although The Heiress, one of the most lauded and popular films of 1949, was Hollywood's first major adaptation of a James novel. One can see flashes of Under Capricorn in the more droll moments of the French New Wave cinema of the 1960's - many of whose makers were nursed on Hitchcock. But, calling this rather serious film merely slow-paced would be euphemistic. The film bombed at the box office back in 1949, and would probably not fare much better, if as well, today.
Then what exactly has earned this glorified and rather messy soap plaudits from the some of the most selective critics, an enduring cult following, and standing ovations at revival showings? Not the storyline, trite even for the melodramatic 1940s. Not the visuals. There's not a whole lot to commend Under Capricorn in any technical category. What is great, making the film appear larger than perhaps it is, is a surfeit of that elusive combination of awesome acting and on-screen chemistry (could it be that Hitch really was as great a director of actors as some have claimed?).
These actors don't need script or props - and, in truth, they don't get much of either, and yet - they cast a big-time spell.
The other reviewers have concentrated on the performances of the central characters - the beautiful, strained couple - played by Joseph Cotten, and the gorgeous Ingrid Bergman in one of her most fetching screen appearances - if her character, played the hilt, is seemingly somewhat vapid at heart. These seasoned pros are brilliant,and the subtlety of their portrayals, in which their characters show a truly lifelike, complete unconsciousness of what is going on around them, and their bittersweet devotion to each other, catalyzes the dramatic tension.
But center stage in this film belongs without doubt, to the moral battle as it evolves between protagonist and antagonist of the drama, played respectively by the magnificent Michael Wilding, in what must simply be called a larger than life performance, as "Aunt Clary's boy" who comes to Australia "to make his fortune", and the great British heavy, Margaret Leighton. And the action here, which does unfold - is moral. Under Capricorn is, in essence, an old fashioned morality play, as Wilding's character, urbane, polished in the deeper sense, puts on the `shining armor' of altruism and engages in a furious, yet utterly muted combat, with Leighton's. The latter flawlessly projects in probably less twenty minutes of screen time one of the great evils of the age, a character fueled entirely by envy, a desperate, nasty have-not, of little or no formal education, utterly lost in the fury of her blindly narrow, furtive, conditioned scheming. The escalation of the this conflict gives the film its noted ballast. As the moral extremes in us are played out against the usual banal, superficial, and prosaic social contexts, the ponderously crafted sets, the costumes are finally retired, and our real faces are revealed for what they are. As Wilding's character says to Bergman's in his incredible farewell scene: "I suppose I'll be the first man who ever went to Australia, not to return with a fortune", and she never will know how much he loved her, and how much he'd sacrificed. Sublime.
Bergman and Hitch's Last Film February 16, 2006
Movie Mania (Southern Calfornia)
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
While Hitchcock was under contract to David O Selznick, he was loaned out more than used by Selznick. This was another loan out situation.
Prior to the American Revolution, the colonies were used to transport criminals from Great Britain. Afterwards, they were transported to Australia. This film takes place during the Australian transportation period. England has sent a new governor to Australia. With the governor is his shady cousin, Charles Adare (Michael Wilding). Adare is looking to make his fortune in Australia but has no money to get started. He falls into the company of Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotton). Flusky is a freed transportee (he murdered his wife's brother). Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman) and Sam's marriage is not the strongest but he cannot divorce her. A servant has her eye on Sam, so ala Gaslight, she tries to push Henrietta over the edge - with the help of the other servants. But Charles falls for Henrietta and gives her the support she needs.
This is the third and final pairing of Hitchcock and Bergman. Unfortunately it is not their best. Henrietta is similar to the role she played in Notorious but in Notorious had a more compelling story.
The good that came from this film was his continued association with Hume Cronyn. Cronyn did the adaptation of the book and would help Hitch on other films and continue to write on his own (Foxfire is one of the great plays of all time.) But he and his wife Jessica Tandy were both favorite character actors in a number of Hitch's future films.
This is not one of Hitchcock's great films but is still better than most other psychological dramas.
DVD EXTRAS: None
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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