The Seventh Veil

James Mason - Nicholas
Ann Todd - Francesca Cunningham
Herbert Lom - Doctor Larsen
Hugh McDermott - Peter Gay
Albert Lieven - Maxwell Leyden
Yvonne Owen - Susan Brook
David Horne - Dr. Kendall
Manning Whiley - Dr. Irving
Grace Allardyce - Nurse

Stylish yet unoriginal psychological melodrama that was a box-office smash and earned husband-and-wife writing team Sydney and Muriel Box an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Francesca (Ann Todd) is a concert pianist suffering from amnesia and depression; she enters a mental hospital and hopes that under the care of psychiatrist Doctor Larson (Herbert Lom) she can be induced into stripping away the seven veils concealing her traumatic private life.

Under hypnosis, Francesca’s life unravels in a series of flashbacks as we discover she was caned so badly by a headmistress that she was unable to play in her music exam. Francesca's only enjoyable period came when she was put into the care of crippled svengali and guardian, Nicholas (James Mason). He initially nurtures her talents but later turns on Francesca to ruthlessly ends her affairs with bandleader Peter Gay (Hugh McDermott) and painter Maxwell Leyden (Albert Lieven). As the flashbacks end, the psychiatrist has made Francesca realise who the man she really loves is – Nicholas.