Title: Rebecca
Year: 1940
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Is It Any Good?: Great! It’s classic Hitchcock! Twists and turns in every way. Joan Fontaine is coy enough as the new Mrs. De Winter, and Sir Laurence Olivier is at almost the top of his game here. As is normally the case with Hitchcock he builts a compelling film from it’s opening act all through the denouement and close. “The Master of Suspense” does exactly what we know and love, and no director I’ve ever seen nor will you ever see has ever been able to give power to McGuffin characters quite like Hitchcock he does it here with “Rebecca” and in psycho with (spoiler alert!) Norma Bates!
Memorable Quote: Maxim De Winter: Please promise me never to wear black satin or pearls… or to be 36 years old.
Competition: Boy was this a year! Not only did Hitchcock win but he had another film nominated (Foreign Correspondent), but we had Charlie Chaplin’s first talking feature The Great Dictator. Alongside this we had an absolute classic in The Grapes of Wrath. Bette Davis chewing up scenes in not only All This, and Heaven Too as well as The Letter. And last but certainly not least The Philadelphia Story which features an Oscar-winning turn by Jimmy Stewart who outdid none other than Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Man what a year!
Next up we have one of the most perplexing years in Oscar history where the winner couldn’t outlast a nominee whose attitude in that year probably cost his film the win! Look forward to seeing you in 1941! Follow us on all the social medias @FilmSnobReviews and here to your right in that little subscription box!
