Sob o Signo de Capricórnio (1949)

A young gentleman goes to Australia where he reunites with his now married childhood sweetheart, only to find out she has become an alcoholic and harbors dark secrets.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

John Colton (play), Margaret Linden (play)

Stars:

Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ingrid Bergman	...	Lady Henrietta Flusky
Joseph Cotten	...	Sam Flusky
Michael Wilding	...	Hon. Charles Adare
Margaret Leighton	...	Milly
Cecil Parker	...	The Governor
Denis O'Dea	...	Mr. Corrigan
Jack Watling	...	Winter
Harcourt Williams	...	The Coachman
John Ruddock	...	Mr. Potter
Bill Shine	...	Mr. Banks
Victor Lucas	...	The Rev. Smiley
Ronald Adam	...	Mr. Riggs
Francis De Wolff	...	Major Wilkins (as Francis de Wolff)
G.H. Mulcaster	...	Dr. Macallister
Olive Sloane	...	Sal

Storyline

In 1831, Irishman Charles Adare travels to Australia to start a new life with the help of his cousin who has just been appointed Governor. When he arrives, he meets powerful landowner and ex-convict Sam Flusky, who wants to do a business deal with him. While attending a dinner party at Flusky's house, Charles meets Flusky's wife Henrietta, whom he had known as a child back in Ireland. Henrietta is an alcoholic, and seems to be on the verge of madness.

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Plot Keywords:

australia | governor | ex convict | secret | housekeeper | 

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Taglines:

A Woman Driven By The Demons Of Hell!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 February 1951 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Sob o Signo de Capricórnio

Filming Locations:

Warner Ranch, Calabasas, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Transatlantic Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Margaret Leighton appeared with her future husband Michael Wilding in this movie. After their marriage in 1964, they worked together several more times, but, by his own admission, Wilding preferred retirement, and was happy just to be a supportive audience member for his wife. In this movie, Michael Wilding played Charles Adare, and Margaret Leighton played Milly.

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Goofs

At one point in the film, a character says that employees to be fired should be given their "pink slips." The film takes place in 1830s Australia. An article in the New York Times dates the earliest use of the term "pink slip" to 1910.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: In seventeen-hundred and seventy, Captain Cook discovered Australia. Sixty years later, the city of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, had grown on the edge of three million square miles of unknown land. The colony exported raw materials. It imported material even more raw - prisoners, many of them unjustly convicted, who were to be shaped into the pioneers of a great dominion. In eighteen-hundred and thirty-one King William the Fourth sent a new governor to rule the colony. ...

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits roll up over a map of Australia.

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Connections

Referenced in Unikal'noe pozdravlenie (2014)

User Reviews

Watch it and try not to compare...

If your approach to reviewing this movie is to compare it with Hitchcock's usual style, Under Capricorn will surely not compare. If, however, you can suspend your expectations and view it with an open eye and mind, you might see that, in its own right, it is an excellent film of the type I refer to as the "Victorian soap opera." Being an aficionado of this "genre", perhaps I'm biased; but I enjoyed immensely the leisurely pace, extended dialog (which unlike other reviewers, I found to be intelligent, graceful, and poetic). I found it to be gently suspenseful, never really being sure who would get the girl in the end, or even who might survive to the end.

Joseph Cotton was appealing, even though his character throughout much of the movie seemed to be villainous, and his reasons for being that way were quite apparent by the end of the film. My suspension of disbelief centered around Bergman's casting as an Irish aristocrat: once in awhile she managed to say a word that had an Irish flavor, but mostly she just sounded Swedish. However, that did not detract at all from her usual thoughtful performance. Michael Wilding irritated me a little with his foppish ways, yet even he managed to come off as a human being with faults and virtues...just like the rest of us. Leighton was superb and she, like Cotton, seemed to be a treacherous yet sympathetic character. I think it was the portrayals of complicated people with no one being painted as totally good or bad, the nuanced characterizations that I found so artistic yet real.

If you approach this movie without preconceptions, you might be drawn into it and appreciate Hitchcock's genius in an entirely different way.