ThiefHott Too much of everything

LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

JohnHowardReid Definitely one of my favorite films. True, I do agree with some of the negative comments made by other reviewers both here on IMDb and in contemporary press and magazine reviews, but I thought many of these critics were a bit unfair to director Compton Bennett. True, Bennett has not drawn an entirely convincing portrayal from Herbert Lom. This is an important defect because Lom has a key role, but I can well understand Bennett's problem. Lom is a fine actor but he does not take direction easily, but insists on doing things his own way. I would also agree that Hugh McDermott – never one of my favorite actors - comes really close to his usual obnoxious portrayal, but Todd and Mason are so electric, these deficiencies don't really matter.What's far more important, is that every one of the other support players are all exactly right. Bennett's strengths lie not only in his superlative handling of his two leads, but in the oppressive atmosphere he so meticulously builds up. He often stations his camera at the very back of Carter's vast sets, so that the very clutter of the furniture and fittings themselves contribute to an almost overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. "The Seventh Veil" is such a powerful blend of atmospheric music, moody settings and riveting lead acting that it has lost little of its original impact. I definitely do not recommend that "The Seventh Veil" be made accessible for younger children, who will find its atmosphere too terrifyingly real; but adults will definitely appreciate its impact - even if they find the quickly faded-out conclusion just a mite too pat.

atlasmb "The Seventh Veil" is significant for its depiction of therapeutic hypnosis--one of the first ever in films.The story is told mostly in flashbacks--the memories of a suicidal, nearly catatonic, pianist (portrayed by Ann Todd from age fourteen upward) who has suffered horrible emotional traumas. A therapist (played by Herbert Lom) seeks to unlock her debility through regression, using music as a trigger to recall key emotional moments.The depiction of hypnosis, as might be expected, is rather simplistic and too easy. The acting is strong. And the music, which pervades the entire film, is enjoyable.The end of the film is reminiscent of the final scene of a whodunit, when the detective assembles the suspects for his final revelation, but the final scene holds an interesting surprise.

dougdoepke A confined, upper-class English girl is passed over to a guardian where she is made to practice piano.Leave it to the British to treat the subject of repressed emotion with such class and restraint. Francesca (Todd) is the very epitome of repressed feeling thanks to those presiding tyrannically over her life. Her only release from a cheerless existence are lushly romantic concerts, where the gloriously surging music echoes what's inside her. Without that, we might never know what lies beyond those tightly pursed lips. Even her quietly assertive flings with Peter and Maxwell are stripped of anything like outward emotions.And all the time, her crippled guardian (Mason) makes her practice and practice and practice, alone and in an empty mansion. Poor Francesca, no wonder she cracks up. Nonetheless, it's drawing room drama at its most civilized.I get a kick out of imagining how a boisterous American studio such as Warner Bros. would have handled the material, maybe with Joan Crawford in the lead. Anyway, Todd is appropriately restrained, while Mason is darkly mysterious as the Svengali taskmaster. But, I'm still wondering why that last scene seems so right when the screenplay has given us so little preparation to think it would be. Maybe it's the power of Mason's brooding presence that makes it work, but I think it does.Anyway, as long as you don't mind presiding psychiatrists (Lom) with an answer for everything that ails us, this may be your cup of tea, British style.

spj-4 I have now seen this movie a few times! Considering its age, it goes about its issues with intrigue & carefully insightful contributions,appropriate to its age & circumstance, however unlikely! Yet time & again in the modern media & news bulletins from near & afar, echoing with GREAT regularity, we are ill-equipped to handle situations before our eyes!!! Likewise here, we watch a young woman in her despair! We watch a man of obsession & narrowmindness, attempting to control her life & call her resistance "as stubborn as a mule"! On top of her "obstinance", perceived or real, justified & intuitive, suspicious of the attack on her senses! AMBIVELENCE!!! That's the word that best fits here in her situation! Into her defiance & lack of commitment or reciprocated generosity unreplied to, other than by constraints & attempts to pigeon-hole her! So layer by layer, we find empathy of our own 7 veils here – the levels of cover-up & pretends, a necessity of our worlds to some degree, modern or dated! The music, background & atmospheres are more than adequately covered here!!! But somehow, if 7 veils is to be the yardstick, we are only up to the second or third veil here!!! So "the end" is NOT hopefully, all there is! Except for the supposedly qualified "We are only journeying on!" As a young widow who I noted on a website about grieving, for the victim dared to put it in respect of her deceased lover, "EVERY BREATHE I BREATHE IS ONE BREATH CLOSER TO YOU!" Thank you for your BRAVE & LOVING contribution, grieving lady!!! Surely, she'll get her reward, but will it be the man of her dreams? But to the rest of you, I say, think of this in your personal situation!!! And you will surely too, be a spokesperson for the aggrieved, the bereaved, the homeless, the outcast, the downcast & the heartbroken – for this movie is much about understanding a victim in all that we find it!!!! But remember, you're only up to maybe the second or third veil here. At least you've got something to show for your efforts!!! Something to question, too, with good reason. Something 9 out of 10 maybe, I would think.I personally say, this one gets better with EVERY viewing!!! And I'll look forward to another viewing in a year or two! A final point. For those who seem to have all the answers here, and judging the fullness of other lives they trivialise & make them subservient to themselves & their status, for they alone, it may well be the seventh (final) veil they have reached! I knew a suicidal youthful protagonist, who become victim of such a complex interaction of stronger wills but without the heart of such a victim! Still boxed in on every side! But one day, she will be free! There are many such victims out there to this day! But don't count on outcomes, as unlikely as it is here portrayed, being realised for long! This is NOT the ending - for most portrayed here! It is not a fairytale created, but a fairytale to be beyond the experience of such! But only for a short time! Till the next obstacle of injustice & wall of oppression of the apparently just, who hide so much of themselves, to be like what Jesus described as polished cups on the outside, but inwardly, like rotting graves others walk on without knowing it!!! Especially if this is to be the conclusion to be most likely. Only for the most brainwashed & abused! But inwardly, they will be drawn onwards to greater triumphs & achievements without repressive svengali-figures of oppression & the know-alls they make their well-paid over-esteemed servants of power & prestige, without justice or fairness, without layers of loyalty & love!