Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 film Spellbound used a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí.
The psychological thriller stars Ingrid Bergman as psychoanalyst Dr Constance Petersen and Gregory Peck as a man whose identity and memories are uncertain. Hitchcock wanted the dream scenes to look more vivid and unusual than conventional Hollywood dream imagery, so he brought in Dalí, whose Surrealist visual language suited the project.
Dalí designed imagery involving stark spaces, eyes, curtains, cards, and other unsettling symbols. The final sequence was shortened and altered during production, so the finished film does not reproduce every aspect of his original conception. Nevertheless, Dalí’s involvement remains a notable meeting of Surrealist art and classical cinema.
Spellbound is sometimes confused with Hitchcock’s other psychological films, especially Vertigo. It is the 1945 romance-thriller, rather than the later films, that contains the Dalí-designed dream material.