These two films deal with 'DID' Dissociate Identity Disorder sometimes known as Multiple Personality Syndrome. This is a psychological condition whose victims live in a world of inhabited imaginery and very different and diverse personalities. In each of these films detailed examples are provided on just how the individual copes with and is aware of the different personalities that make up their character.
In the 1940's there was increasing interest among film-goers of psychological problems. This was especially true in 1945 when two separate films dealt with aspects of psychology. The American film Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, examined a man suffering from Amnesia. Gregory Peck played the patient and Ingrid Bergman had the role of the psychiatrist who eventually identified what had brought on his condition which was related to a murder Peck had witnessed. Peck played an amnesiac again several years later in the intrigue film Mirage.
The second film of note in 1945 that had psychology as a primary focus was the English film The Seventh Veil. The problem in this film dealt with a concert pianist, Ann Todd who tried to commit suicide by throwing herself into the Thames. Herbert Lom was the psychiatrist who worked with her gradually pealing away the veils that she had placed around herself mentally to cope with her psychological problems. The seventh veil was the last one he pealed away to bring her freedom from her fears. James Mason, playing one of his dark roles was her music mentor in the film. Though like Spellbound this film was a major award winner it is not currently available in a video format. About the best a viewer can get is a spoof done on the Syd Caesar Show Of Shows with Caesar in the James Mason role, Howard Morris playing the psychiatrist Lom and the very funny Imogene Coca playing the unfortunate pianist. It had the very funny revised title of The Seventh Wail.
In 1957 two psychiatric doctors wrote and had published the story of one of their patients who suffered from multiple personalities. It was called The Three Faces of Eve. The film adaptation of this book was released that same year. It starred Joanne Woodward as Eve White, a mousy girl who was suffering from memory lapses. Her husband, played by David Wayne brought her to the two doctors to see what they could find out relative to her spells. Over time the doctors discovered that Eve White was inhabited by two alter ego's. The first of these was called Eve Black. Eve Black could be readily described as a wild girl completely different in character from Eve White. She went dancing, dressed in expensive clothes and drank. Further she made fun of Eve White and couldn't stand Eve's husband. In Eve Black you saw a personality very similar to the role played by Kate Blanchet in Shipping News. One Film Critic referred to Blanchet in this performance as a real old fashioned heller.
Eve White and Eve Black were not the end of the personalities. One day while in the doctor's office, and in response to a query, another person showed up. She didn't seem to know who she was but called herself Jane. Eventually, after further treatment, the Eve White and Eve Black persons disappeared and Jane was left as the only person in the triumvirate.
Joanne Woodward's performance is extraordinary. She makes the transitions effortlessly. Eventually, the doctors only have to ask for Eve White, Eve Black or Jane and she will instantly be the other personality. Woodward's performance was rewarded by her receiving the best actress award for 1957. The principal psychiatrist was played well by Lee J. Cobb. It turned out some events of her childhood had a traumatic effect on Eve's life. Most memorable was an insistence by her mother that she kiss her dead grandmother who was lying in a coffin in her home. Eve had strongly and nearly hysterically resisted this requirement but eventually gave in and performed what was an extremely odious task for the child.
In Sybil, Joanne Woodward returned to the multiple personality role this time playing the psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur, dealing with Sybil who was inhabited by a much greater group of personalities. Sally Field played this role and was nearly as good as Joanne Woodward was in the previous movie. She was awarded the best television actress award in the Emmy's for that year.
The film was based again on a book written by a psychiatrist who had initially treated the patient. This treatment that lasted for a period of over ten years. Early in the film we see Sybil acting as a teacher's aide in a school outing in a park. As we follow the sequence of events we note that she is very disturbed over a middle-aged woman pushing a child on a swing in the park. Gradually, we note her continuing agitation. Eventually we finding her standing ankle deep in a lake in the park with no understanding of why she is there and what brought on this bizarre behavior. That night at home she is recalling the event and humiliation when something she sees outside her apartment attracts her attention. She starts pounding on the window, breaking the glass, and cutting her hand.
She is taken to an emergency hospital where the hand is treated. Later we see Joanne Woodward talking to her there. Apparently, she had been acting strangely and the medical assistants working on her injury decide to call in psychiatric assistance. Woodward knows there is something deeply troubling the young woman, Sybil, and suggests if she ever would like to see her to call her at the phone number she provides.
Eventually Sybil is worried enough that she calls and makes an appointment. Much to Woodward's surprise the girl who keeps the appointment is the same girl, but very different. She is exquisitely dressed, and very outwardly conversational. She identifies herself with a different name and says she knows all about Sybil, but that Sybil doesn't know anything about her. Thus begins the series of consultations that will last over the next decade.
It seems that Sybil is occupied by more than a dozen personalities, some of which know each other and some of which don't. Two of these are boys, one of which is very belligerent. As Woodward peals away the veils surrounding Sybil she learns what awful things had happened to her as a child. Her mother was actually not rational and for some reason took a dislike to Sybil. She tortured her, some of the things are really awful, and made her life miserable. Her father ignored all these happenings. He was a deeply religious man and could not face up to the reality of his wife's insanity.
After long term treatment there is only one horror that Sybil has never revealed to Woodward. This was something that happened in what is referred to in the film as the green kitchen. After this is solved Sybil is required to face up to the fact that she has had all these personalities living within her who helped her survive in a world whose background was sheer horror. Woodward and Field go to the town where Sybil was raised and there in a park like setting she is brought face to face with the demons who have lived within her. These have been changed through the guidance of Woodward to become friends. They are all teenagers and they come out from behind trees where Sybil meets and hugs them. It is a rather dramatic ending.
In real life both Sybil and Eve managed lead more or less normal lives. Eve's real name was Chris Sizemore. Actually the solution to her problem didn't end with the three faces of Eve, later she acquired a number of other separate personalities. Usually these seem to come three at a time. She gave a lecture a couple of years ago at a university where she discussed her case. Accompanying her was her son Bob, who noted that he could tell by looking in her eyes when she had changed personalities, and there was one such personality that he didn't like.
Sybil was based on Shirley Ardell Mason; She eventually became an art teacher and is now deceased. Interesting enough, several of her personalities were artists. Examination of their individual works revealed that each personality used a different brush stroke when working on their artwork.
Sybil was originally a nearly 200 minutes long TV film. There are two different versions available on DVD one of which is 121 minutes and the second 132 minutes. To cut the film down to an approximately two hour production called for the complete elimination of some scenes. Though it isn't obvious when viewing the DVD that I saw, the complete film among other things fleshed out the relationship between Sybil's mother and father and provided more insight into their relationship.
Flora Rieba Schrieber who was Sybil's psychiatrist wrote the book the film is based on. One final thought. At one time in the film Sybil denies that all the horrendous details of her life were false, and that she had just made them up to impress psychiatrist Wilbur. Woodward proved to Sybil that they were not false and we learned that this denial was another one of Sybil's protection mechanisms in that she never trusted anyone after her terrible childhood.
There is controversy involving both Sybil's and Eve's stories, but there is no question over the remarkable performances of Joanne Woodward and Sally Field as the two young women with multiple personalities.
Dick Gardner, Classic Films
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