1940--Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock

1940--Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock

Nominated: All This and Heaven Too, Foreign Corespondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, The Philadelphia Story

Should have won: The Grapes of Wrath

Be sure to see: Fantasia, Knute Rockne All American, Pinocchio, A Wild Hare

"Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?"--Mrs. Danvers

     Of the library of Alfred Hitchcock films, Rebecca is his first American movie and his only one to win best picture. He almost didn't get the directing chair because he was going to make Titanic instead. Odd because, to my knowledge, there is no Titanic movie made in the early 1940s. There is a movie in 1953 called Titanic and in 1958, A Night to Remember told the fated ship's tale. But, if he was slated to direct a movie on the subject, lucky for us he jumped ship on that project and gave us this haunting tale. 

      Daphne Du Maurier, who wrote the novel, as well as the source for The Birds, is reputed to have been bisexual. There is a key role (and my favorite performance in Rebecca) of the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers who is cold and mysterious, yet remains professional to the new lady of the house. Could she have been in love with the former Mrs. DeWinter? Some film historians believed Du Maurier wrote her that way. 

     A very interesting choice was to have the lead character have no name. Said nameless character meets the charming Maxim DeWinter and they are soon married. They go home to Maxim's large estate where it becomes clear “The new Mrs. DeWinter” is not as welcomed as Maxim's late wife, Rebecca, who had mysteriously died. People treat her with respect simply out of their respect for Maxim, it seems. It is a nice touch that the new Mrs. DeWinter is haunted by Rebecca even though this isn't a ghost movie. It is as though she is haunted by the idea of Rebecca.

 

    Mrs. DeWinter becomes a somewhat pathetic character. Maxim is not a caring man. There is an underlying mystery in the film on whether Maxim murdered Rebecca or if she had committed suicide from depression of dealing with cancer. For me, the murder/suicide mystery was not the interesting aspect of the film. It was all about Mrs. Danvers. She was eerie, particularly as she attempts to get Mrs. DeWinter to jump from a window.

      Laurence Olivier was good, too but he is also one of the greatest actors of all time. If you want to watch him at his best, pick up 1976's Marathon Man and view his Oscar nominated performance. He also won best actor for 1948's Hamlet which won best picture.

 

      Rebecca comes recommended and as a Hitchcock fan I am pleased one of his films won the Oscar. But I feel The Grapes of Wrath was the better choice for the year. I also feel there are other Hitchcock films more worthy of the award than this one. Dial M for Murder, Psycho, The Birds and Rear Window come to mind. Even still, Rebecca is spooky and I'd rank it among the better, but not best, of Hitchcock's films.