Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Distributor: United Artists
Top Billed Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Won 2 Oscars:
Outstanding Production - Selznick International Pictures
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - George Barnes
Nominated for 9 more:
Best Director - Alfred Hitchcock
Best Actor - Laurence Olivier
Best Actress - Joan Fontaine
Best Supporting Actress - Judith Anderson
Best Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison
Best Original Score - Franz Waxman
Best Art Direction, Black-and-White - Lyle R. Wheeler
Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern
Best Special Effects - Jack Cosgrove and Arthur Johns
Plot: A young bride attempts to settle down in a large house filled to the brim with memories of her husband's first wife, who died the year prior.
Distributor: United Artists
Top Billed Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders
Won 2 Oscars:
Outstanding Production - Selznick International Pictures
Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - George Barnes
Nominated for 9 more:
Best Director - Alfred Hitchcock
Best Actor - Laurence Olivier
Best Actress - Joan Fontaine
Best Supporting Actress - Judith Anderson
Best Screenplay - Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison
Best Original Score - Franz Waxman
Best Art Direction, Black-and-White - Lyle R. Wheeler
Best Film Editing - Hal C. Kern
Best Special Effects - Jack Cosgrove and Arthur Johns
Plot: A young bride attempts to settle down in a large house filled to the brim with memories of her husband's first wife, who died the year prior.
For the second year in a row, David O. Selznick put together the Best Picture winner. The hands-on producer met his match with a British director who crossed the sea for the first time in one Alfred Hitchcock. Rebecca (1940) is Hitchcock's first Hollywood film and it is the only Best Picture winner directed by the Master of Suspense. Like John Ford and Sam Wood, this is one of two films he directed that was nominated for 1940. Rebecca certainly had the critical acclaim with the most Oscar nominations of the night in eleven, but it was also the top-grossing film of 1940. However, it is the last film to win Best Picture without winning any other awards for directing, acting, or writing as the only other award it won was for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White. Laurence Olivier garnered his second Best Actor nomination in consecutive years. His roles in this and Wuthering Heights are similar in that he plays a moody keeper of a great estate. Like that film, there were some behind the scene difficulties because he championed for future wife Vivien Leigh to co-star with him, but to no avail. Instead, Joan Fontaine got the role, who was relatively unknown at the time. I couldn't place where I've seen her before and then I saw it - she's Olivia de Havilland's sister!
The fact Fontaine wasn't a bona fide star yet (she would win the Oscar the following year) made her perfect for this role. Apparently, Olivier had contempt for her because he was salty about Leigh not getting cast and that might have rubbed off on the cast and crew. Hitchcock used that to his advantage by playing up Fontaine's insecurities on the set. In hindsight, this sounds like such a cruel thing to do, but the results on the celluloid speak for themselves. Fontaine plays it timid, hesitant, and downright scared. She's the central character that the audience needs to connect to and it's wonderfully acted through and through. Another standout performance comes from Judith Anderson, who plays all-time great movie villain Mrs. Danvers. Her cold stare, monotone voice, and ability to just appear out of the darkness made this a character and performance for the ages. I applauded the Best Supporting Actress winner Jane Darwell in my previous review for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), but after re-watching Rebecca, it should have been Anderson all the way. Anderson sets the tone for how eerie Manderley can be the first time she's shown with her staff behind her and maintains that dread all the way until the final moments of the movie. That sinister tone is another reason this film stands out as one of the best of 1940. The title character is never seen, but the deceased Mrs. de Winter is felt in every room of that gorgeous house. Her shadow hangs over everything and Mrs. Danvers is there as the keeper of the shadow. Hitchcock and cinematographer George Barnes does such a wonderful job at building the suspense and mystery and maintaining the tension, that it suddenly becomes too much to bear.
Then we get the big reveal and, in my opinion, the film drops off a bit. This is a tale of two movie for me - one before a key scene in which Olivier's Maxim lays it all out to Fontaine's Mrs. de Winter and then the legal proceedings that take place after. I love seeing Olivier and Fontaine pining for each other and then moving in together and the mysterious atmosphere of the house dominates a good chunk of the film, but the last act falls flat for me. I won't spoil it because the reveals are interesting, but there's a lot of tell-don't-show happening. I am glad I didn't quite remember the narrative (it has been over a decade since I've seen this), but I do wish it happened closer to the end of the film. Like the previous year's Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind (1939), this might have been another case of Selznick attempting to adapt a novel too directly. Hitchcock wanted to change a few key moments but Selznick would always put his foot down. However, one key moment that does change is in the reveal of what happened to Rebecca due to the Code in place at the time. That change makes the story less convoluted from a moral perspective and thus creates a clearer picture of who these characters are. I would have enjoyed a bit more moral ambiguity but the film still captures the imagination.
Overall, a trio of excellent but differing performances inhabit the chilling atmosphere of a house shrouded in the shadow of its prior tenant. Judith Anderson stands out as the cold Mrs. Danvers as keeper of that shadow and the Master of Suspense's first Hollywood film and only Best Picture winner stands the test of time.
My Score: 8/10
The fact Fontaine wasn't a bona fide star yet (she would win the Oscar the following year) made her perfect for this role. Apparently, Olivier had contempt for her because he was salty about Leigh not getting cast and that might have rubbed off on the cast and crew. Hitchcock used that to his advantage by playing up Fontaine's insecurities on the set. In hindsight, this sounds like such a cruel thing to do, but the results on the celluloid speak for themselves. Fontaine plays it timid, hesitant, and downright scared. She's the central character that the audience needs to connect to and it's wonderfully acted through and through. Another standout performance comes from Judith Anderson, who plays all-time great movie villain Mrs. Danvers. Her cold stare, monotone voice, and ability to just appear out of the darkness made this a character and performance for the ages. I applauded the Best Supporting Actress winner Jane Darwell in my previous review for The Grapes of Wrath (1940), but after re-watching Rebecca, it should have been Anderson all the way. Anderson sets the tone for how eerie Manderley can be the first time she's shown with her staff behind her and maintains that dread all the way until the final moments of the movie. That sinister tone is another reason this film stands out as one of the best of 1940. The title character is never seen, but the deceased Mrs. de Winter is felt in every room of that gorgeous house. Her shadow hangs over everything and Mrs. Danvers is there as the keeper of the shadow. Hitchcock and cinematographer George Barnes does such a wonderful job at building the suspense and mystery and maintaining the tension, that it suddenly becomes too much to bear.
Then we get the big reveal and, in my opinion, the film drops off a bit. This is a tale of two movie for me - one before a key scene in which Olivier's Maxim lays it all out to Fontaine's Mrs. de Winter and then the legal proceedings that take place after. I love seeing Olivier and Fontaine pining for each other and then moving in together and the mysterious atmosphere of the house dominates a good chunk of the film, but the last act falls flat for me. I won't spoil it because the reveals are interesting, but there's a lot of tell-don't-show happening. I am glad I didn't quite remember the narrative (it has been over a decade since I've seen this), but I do wish it happened closer to the end of the film. Like the previous year's Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind (1939), this might have been another case of Selznick attempting to adapt a novel too directly. Hitchcock wanted to change a few key moments but Selznick would always put his foot down. However, one key moment that does change is in the reveal of what happened to Rebecca due to the Code in place at the time. That change makes the story less convoluted from a moral perspective and thus creates a clearer picture of who these characters are. I would have enjoyed a bit more moral ambiguity but the film still captures the imagination.
Overall, a trio of excellent but differing performances inhabit the chilling atmosphere of a house shrouded in the shadow of its prior tenant. Judith Anderson stands out as the cold Mrs. Danvers as keeper of that shadow and the Master of Suspense's first Hollywood film and only Best Picture winner stands the test of time.
My Score: 8/10