The Seventh Veil

Compton Bennett's 1945 British film follows a concert pianist with amnesia recovering her past under hypnosis. Francesca's story opens layer by layer: Nicholas, the cousin who raised her and controlled her career, the choices in front of her, and her fear about her hands. The seventh veil of the title is the psychiatrist's metaphor for a person's most hidden layer. Nicholas, played by James Mason, is among the best-known controlling male figures of the period, and how the film resolves that relationship at the end sits badly now. The screenplay was written by Muriel and Sydney Box, who won the Academy Award for best original screenplay. It was the highest-grossing film in Britain in 1945 and returned extraordinary profit on a budget of ninety thousand pounds. Who it's for: viewers interested in classic British melodrama, the vogue for psychoanalysis and James Mason's work. Who it's not for: anyone who will find an ending that turns toward an abusive figure unacceptable, or the melodrama excessive.