John Huston, Montgomery Clift and "Freud"

Hauntingly evocative Spanish-language theatre poster
Freud (also know as Freud - The Secret Passion)

In 1962, a herculean task in movie history was undertaken -- creation of a film about one of history's giants, Sigmund Freud.  Who better to tackle this project than another giant in his own field, John Houston? And who better to create the character of this complicated, tortured, gifted man than another in his own field, Montgomery Clift?  Few films are able to carry in a one-word title such expectation of things to come, but the name of Freud alone carries the weight of a genius who changed the identification and treatment of mental illness forever.  The theories of Sigmund Freud are a source of friction as much in our time as in his own.  Elements of Freud's original theories about the motivations of the subconscious mind have come under fire by some in modern psychiatry, yet are still widely-considered by others to be a major source of blinding truth as powerful as when this great man first postulated his theories.  In particular, Freud's theories of sexuality as the major psychic force, have been argued for generations.


Freud in 1885

 John Huston's film deals with the five-year period of 1885-1890 during which Freud began his journey into the field of mental illness with patients who had been termed "hysterical."  These patients, the most recognizable being women, suffered from physical maladies for which no organic cause could be found.  Doctors of the time erroneously assumed this to be exclusively the province of women, thus using the word hysteria which has its roots in the Greek regarding female.  The patients were written off as overly-dramatic females looking for attention.  Freud disagreed strongly, realized that this strange malady is also suffered by men, and was drawn to find the real root causes.  In these beginning years of discovery with regard to mental illness Freud made use of hypnosis, at the time a very controversial technique, to probe the mind for origins of mental trauma so heinous as to cause such debilitating problems as blindness and the inability to walk.


Montgomery Clift as Freud

 This early evolution of Freud's journey from hospital neurologist to ground-breaking theorist and practitioner is the subject of John Huston's Freud.   The years of Freud's career from 1885 to 1890 are considered the birth of psychoanalysis, and it is this period of time which with the film concerns itself.  Montgomery Clift, simply put, gives a masterful performance as Freud.  Clift, at only age 42, was nearing the end of his too-short life  The alcoholic, mental and physical  health problems affecting Clift caused such difficulties during filming that Universal Studios sued him for the cost of delays caused by him.  Fortunately, the trial took place after release of the film, showing it to be so successful and money-making for the studio, due mainly to the draw and performance of Clift, that the court ended up awarding a settlement to Clift, not the studio.  His great performance notwithstanding, some moviegoers were unhappy with his appearance in the film, disliking the moustache, beard and stiff-collared clothes designed to give Clift the realistic look of Freud.  Certain fans were not impressed, expecting to see the same clean-shaven, modern, handsome actor to whom they were accustomed.  More discerning moviegoers appreciated the experience that for the length of the movie, they might have been seeing Freud himself.

John Huston

Epic director Huston took a narrative approach to the movie, with his own distinctive voice as narrator, which I believe was an asset to the feel of the film as an almost documentary-type depiction of a piece of true history.  An absorbing screenplay by Charles Kaufman (Bridge to the Sun, When Tomorrow Comes) included, without shrinking, the often disturbing words of patients and doctor probing intimate sexual secrets. (Originally, the famed Jean Paul Sartre was slated to write the screenplay.  His work was found to be too long, complicated and unusable.  Huston and Sartre did not share the same vision, nor did they get along well.  Sartre eventually published his own screenplay as a book, "The Freud Scenario.")  Stark black and white cinematography, utilizing shadows and odd camera angles to depict a cave-like atmosphere in scenes depicting nightmares and memory, was beautifully created by Douglas Slocombe (Lion in Winter, Raiders of the Lost Ark).  Perhaps the most unusual behind-the-scenes story is the musical score by Jerry Goldsmith (prolific writer of movie scores, as well as many Twilight Zone episodes).  I had not seen Freud for many years, and in watching it recently, the music was very familiar to me, only not in the context of the score of that movie.  After much thought and not a little frustration, I realized where I had heard it before.  It was a famous part, note by note, of the score to the 1979 movie Alien.  I discovered that Jerry Goldsmith also composed the score for Alien.  Goldsmith did not, however, intend for his score from Freud to be used either in part or whole.  It was a studio decision to use his previous work for a particularly important scene in Alien, and Goldsmith was not happy about it.


David McCallum

 

Clift and Susannah York



Freud's nightmare - delving deeply into the subconscious mind


In his beginning treatment, particularly of two patients, Freud began to develop his theory of the interpretation of dreams, the act of free association of words, and finally his discovery of "talk therapy," the infant name for the treatment of mental illness which Freud eventually termed "psychoanalysis."  The first of Freud's significant patients, Carl, is played by young David McCallum in his first movie role.  The deep-seated problems of this young man disturb the young doctor so badly that he cannot continue his treatment.  An eerie nightmare scene shows the extent of Freud's own intimate secrets and his reluctant discovery of the concept of infant sexuality and the origin of the Oedipus complex.  The short scene with McCallum and Freud's subsequent nightmare are disturbing, even now when we think we have seen everything.  The second patient, Cecily, played by Susannah York, forms the main basis for Freud's discoveries of feelings and events that had no name before he came along -- repression, false abuse memories, dream interpretation as a tool for deep memory, intensive talk therapy rather than hypnosis, and the transference of love from patient to therapist which is common in psychoanalysis.  York is excellent, although if Jean Paul Sartre had had his way, Marilyn Monroe would have played the part. In her early youth, Monroe could have played such a part well, as she did the part of the mentally disturbed young woman in 1952's Don't Bother To Knock.  However, by 1962 she was a mature woman and well-known sex symbol, no longer suitable for the part of a sick young girl.

The supporting cast is quite good, including Susan Kohner in a rather wasted part as Freud's wife Martha; Larry Parks as Dr. Breuer, Freud's partner and champion; and Eric Portman as Dr. Meynert, a man who was secretly aware of his own neuroses, yet worked to destroy Freud in the medical community.  A special nod should be given to character actor Fernand Ledoux as Dr. Charcot, a practitioner of medical hypnosis who was a great influence on Freud's development of the psychoanalytic method. 

Freud in later years

During his lifetime, Freud developed many explanations for the workings of the human mind, perhaps the most famous being his categorization of the three elements of the unconscious mind -- the id, the super-ego and the ego.  Fans of the classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet will remember "monsters from the id" --- the portion of the psyche without strictures of conscience, struggling to break through and act without thought of consequence.  Freud called the second element of the psyche the super-ego, entirely opposite of the id, and acts strictly as the moral compass for the mind.  The third element, the ego, Freud believe to be the psychic element of balance for the other two.  Later in his career came another theory still fervently argued today, the aspect of deep-seated feminine envy of the male.  Indeed, to tell the whole story of Freud would require more than one movie can fulfill.

Freud is rarely shown on television and difficult to find for renting.  I was unable to find out why in my research.  It was a well-received, though controversial movie in 1962.  I was lucky enough to find the entire movie on Youtube.  The most enlightening and sexually open discussion of Freud's belief that sexuality is the driving force of human motivation is given in a scene of Freud's presentation to the medical society. The Victorian-era doctors are horrified and totally outraged.  I have set forth below the clip that includes this marvelous scene, a better example of both Clift's performance and the impact of the theory than I could ever write. To view the scene, forward to 2:37 and watch to 6:05.  It is a worthwhile four minutes for anyone who admires Huston's direction, Montgomery Clift's acting talent, great writing and unstinting truth.  Actually, those are the four best reasons to find and watch this extraordinary movie.