The Seventh Veil is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Compton Bennett and starring James Mason and Ann Todd.

The screenplay concerns Francesca (Todd), a brilliant concert pianist who attempts suicide while she is being treated for a disabling delusional disorder centred on her hands that makes it impossible for her to play.

A psychiatrist uses hypnosis to uncover the source of her crippling fear and to reveal, one by one, the relationships that have enriched and troubled her life.

Dr. Larsen, a psychiatrist specializing in hypnosis, leads Francesca to describe events in her life, that appear as flashbacks.

Following a transgression, a teacher canes Francesca on her hands, causing her fingers to swell and thus ruining her chances of winning a piano scholarship that afternoon.

After the sudden death of her father, Francesca is placed in the care of his second cousin, Nicholas, a misogynistic bachelor who walks with a cane.

They work for hours every day and he arranges for Francesca to become a pupil at the Royal College of Music; but he violently rejects her demonstration of gratitude.

At the college, Francesca meets Peter, a brash American musician studying in London, who charms her and opens a new world to her, including music (in particular a waltz) that Nicholas scorns as "suburban shop girl trash".

Francesca proposes to Peter, who accepts, but when Nicholas hears the news he calmly orders her to pack a bag because they are leaving for Paris the following morning to continue her studies.

Francesca’s career progresses and eventually she performs at the Royal Albert Hall, to an overwhelming audience response.

But there is an accident and Francesca wakes in the nursing home with bandages on her slightly burned hands, irrationally convinced she will never play again.

He warns the three men that she is a new Francesca, no longer afraid, who will want to be with the one she loves, trusts, has been happiest with, and cannot live without.

Sydney and Muriel Box were commissioned to film a documentary about shell-shocked soldiers being treated with the help of hypnosis.

According to Kinematograph Weekly the "biggest winners" at the box office in 1945 Britain were The Seventh Veil, with Madonna of the Seven Moons, Arsenic and Old Lace and Meet Me in St Louis among the runner-ups.

[10] In 2004, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 biggest UK cinematic hits of all time based on audience figures, as opposed to gross takings.

[19] In 1951, Ann Todd, Leo Genn (playing the Mason role), and Herbert Lom appeared in a stage adaptation of the same title in London.