Under Capricorn

A strangely unexciting but emotionally intriguing Hitchcock costume drama with echoes of Rebecca and Suspicion. Set in the 1830s, it details the aristocratic Bergman's disastrous marriage to rakish stable-hand Cotten, who is deported to Australia convicted of murder. When the Governor's nephew (Wilding) visits them, he finds her an alcoholic wreck, and suspects she is being poisoned. Slow, a mite predictable, and rather verbose, the film nevertheless has an elegance (thanks to long, sweeping takes) and a poignant romanticism that looks forward to Hitchcock's more pessimistic account of human relationships in Vertigo.