Rated: NR

Under Capricorn is overlong and talky, with scant measure of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller tricks.

Time of the plot is 1831, in Sydney, NSW, during that period when a convict, after serving his time, could start life anew with a clean slate. Such a man is Joseph Cotten, former groom and now Ingrid Bergman's husband. Cotten has become a man of wealth, but is not accepted socially.

That fact, along with his past crime - the killing of his wife's brother, a deed committed by Bergman but for which he look the blame — are the motives stressed as causing the wife's addiction to the bottle.

The production was troubled by the start of Bergman's infamous love affair with Roberto Rossellini, which resulted in her exile from Hollywood, and by Hitchcock's eagerness to finish the film quickly to avoid paying British taxes.

It was a terrible flop on release, though, as with many Hitchcock films, it has been re-evaluated in recent years.