Review of Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) by Art S — 27 Mar 2015

John Huston may have enjoyed the challenge of putting Freud's theories (not his life, exactly) on screen, given the direct parallel between repression of sexual thoughts by the superego and repression of the same by the Hays Office censors.

Surely, he also smirked when he put Monty Clift into the lead, knowing that the actor suffered great torment over his homosexuality (leading to emotional and alcoholic problems that troubled this production).

Indeed, Huston himself voices Freud's inner thoughts on screen in occasional narration, suggesting his role in directing/dominating Clift. Somehow, despite being all talk talk talk (therapy), the film mostly succeeds and is fairly gripping and noir-ish when Freud faces his own internal conflicts in a dark dream (not unlike Hitch's Dali sequence in Spellbound or Bergman's Wild Strawberries scene).

Susannah York's ongoing somatoform problems, Larry Parks' kindly but less brave attempts to treat them, and Eric Portman's dastardly (but secretive) supervision of Freud's early work are all pieces of the puzzle - but all roads lead to his relationships with his parents (of course).

For me, it is hard to know how much the audience of the day was able to fill in the gaps of Freud's theories from what is onscreen but the more you know, the more you may see (notwithstanding the schematicity necessary in all film).

Not the travesty it could have been and in fact consistently absorbing.