Spellbound Scene 7 Summary

  • This scene is later at night. Constance is in bed, unable to sleep, probably because of the super loud love theme playing.
  • She gets up, puts on a robe, and goes upstairs to the library, where she pulls down a copy of Edwardes' book, The Labyrinth of the Guilt Complex (which he's signed; important detail).
  • That love theme is really ridiculously loud; it's like she's being pursued by elephants.
  • She pauses outside the door to Edwardes' room, and then opens it.
  • She sees Edwardes inside, reading.
  • She says she's there to discuss his book with him. Also to ask him if he can possibly get the love theme to stop.
  • She admits she didn't really want to come to discuss the book.
  • "It's quite remarkable to discover one isn't what one thought one was," she says. She doesn't know the half of it.
  • Edwardes may not know much about guilt complexes, but he's good at love talk.
  • There's a super close-up of their faces... and then one of the weirdest moments in the film happens.
  • You get a mega-super-close-up of Constance's eyes closing, and then an image of a long hallway with doors opening into the distance, as the love theme gets even louder, if that's possible.
  • It's a metaphor for Constance's emotional and sexual awakening (see our "Symbols and Tropes" section for more on those doors).
  • The scene cuts back to Constance and Edwardes kissing. Aww.
  • But wait, there's the theremin again, which means something weird is going to happen.
  • And sure enough Edwardes sees lines on Constance's white robe and gets all freaky and weird and looks like he's going to pass out.
  • Just then the phone rings and Edwardes goes to answer it.
  • It's about Mr. Garmes; he tried to murder Fleurot and kill himself.
  • You sort of wish he'd succeeded in killing Fleurot, but no such luck.
  • Anyway, Constance and Edwardes both rush out.
  • Cut to the surgery where the doctors are working on Garmes.
  • Edwardes bustles in in his hospital attire, and then the theremin comes up so you know he's going to do something weird.
  • He pulls aside his hospital mask and starts babbling about how they need to turn on the lights outside and unlock the doors.
  • Constance is maybe thinking, "Oh, geez, this is who I picked to fall in love with?"
  • Then he passes out.
  • Dr. Murchison pulls aside his mask and looks thoughtful and shocked. What's up with him, anyway? (You'll find out.)
  • Cut to Edwardes' room, where he's lying in bed with Constance watching him sleep.
  • She's got his guilt complex book in her lap, and also the note he sent to her about Garmes the day before.
  • The two signatures are different.
  • There's only one conclusion.
  • This… is not the real Dr. Edwardes.
  • The plot thickens.
  • Edwardes (or whoever he is) wakes up and apologizes.
  • Constance asks him who he is; he replies that Edwardes is dead and that he killed him and took his place.
  • He doesn't know who he is though.
  • He's got amnesia, believe it or not. What are the chances?
  • Constance seems remarkably composed to discover the love of her life is not a psychiatrist but an amnesiac and possible murderer.
  • She asks him who telephoned him the other day; he says it was Edwardes' office assistant. The assistant said he didn't sound like Dr. Edwardes (which makes sense, since he's not).
  • He also remembers that his cigarette case scared him earlier; it has the initials J.B., which Constance says must be his initials.
  • She says he should go back to sleep, and she tells him they can figure out everything before the police come.
  • Cut to him in his coat writing a note to her telling her he can't involve her and he's leaving for New York.
  • If you didn't want to involve her, maybe don't tell her where you're going, doofus?
  • But then again if he just disappeared, that would end the movie, and there's still an hour and a half to go.
  • He slips the note under the door of Constance's room. She's pacing back and forth and generally upset, but doesn't see the note come through.