HOUSE OF DOCTOR EDWARDES by Francis Beeding

I'm reading the novel upon which SPELLBOUND was based, THE HOUSE OF DOCTOR EDWARDES, by Francis Beeding (actually a duo, Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer, who wrote several mystery thrillers), first published in 1928.

It's very different from SPELLBOUND, and is set almost entirely in the mental institution run by Dr. Edwardes who (at least at the point I'm at in the novel, half-way through) is away for a rest. In his absence, newly-arrived Dr. Murchison (who is nothing like the Leo G. Carroll character in the film) is running things, with some help from another new employee, Constance Sedgwick, M.D. (this is her first job in the medical field, having just attained her degree - for obvious reasons her name was changed to 'Petersen' for the film, and she's no longer a novice doctor). The institution is set in a mountainous, secluded part of France in an old chateau, which the local villagers regard with suspicion. There are a number of interesting eccentric characters amongst the patients (including a woman of about sixty who believes she's growing younger and worries about what will happen when she reaches "0"), none of whom obviously made it into the film. And one of the residents is performing occult-ish sacrificial rites in the nearby woods - thrillers dealing with the occult were popular in the 1920s, and DOCTOR EDWARDES seems to fit in better with that genre.

At the novel's start, Dr. Murchison has arrived along with a dangerously disturbed new patient, who became violent and caused the death of the chauffeur (a villager) who was driving them to the chateau - Dr. Murchison was forced to subdue the patient by knocking him unconscious - Now the patient is secluded, and under Dr. Murchison's personal care. However, the patient insists that he himself is Dr. Murchison!

While the premise of all this is intriguing, I have to say that things plod along here at a snail's pace, though I'll be seeing it through to the end. And I really can't see what attracted Selznick to the property in the first place.


"'Nature,' Mr. Allnut, is what we are put here to rrrrrriiiiise above!"