Rebecca 1940

The Film:

Out of the early winners, this is one of the most familiar to me. I've probably seen it more times than any of them until we get to the 60s musicals (at least two of which I can practically recite....). In my eyes it's an absolute classic - and yet I'm still not entirely sure why it won!

It has the distinction of being the only Hitchcock film to win Best Picture. Hitch himself never won a competitive Director Oscar which seems more than slightly absurd in some ways - but the nature of most of his Hollywood films made them not quite mainstream enough, a bit edgy, a bit controversial etc.

Rebecca is quite different to most of those (it has more in common with Hitch's later British films, like The Lady Vanishes or 39 Steps, although much darker than either of them). Part of this may be because it isn't just a Hitchcock product. It's a Selznick production (as was Gone With The Wind the year before) - and Selznick was known for playing a very active role as producer in his films! Apparently he and Hitch didn't get on particularly well - Selznick liked to interfere, Hitch wouldn't let him get his own way.

I think that's one of the many tensions that lead to this being such a great film - along with the uneasy working relationship between Olivier and Fontaine. He wanted Vivien Leigh to play the part - which just goes to show how far love can cloud the judgement of even the greatest in pursuit of their art. At a push Leigh would have made a good Rebecca (though thank God they didn't depict her!), she couldn't have pulled off the second Mrs de Winter, especially just one year after being Scarlett in filmgoers eyes.

Also, apparently, Selznick was all set for the film to be in Technicolor - but the budget ran short. Thank God for that! The cinematography just adds to the sense of paranoia and uneasiness that's going on throughout the film.

As you can tell, I could waffle on about this for a while - I'll save the rest of my waffle until later!

An actual poster for this year - things
are getting serious

The Ceremony:

The Ceremony took place on February 27th 1941 at the Bilmore Hotel. It was the first time that the
results were in sealed envelopes, with Price Waterhouse counting the ballots - and continuing to do so right up to today (although they had a narrow escape this year!).

These awards mark the first and only time that Dalton Trumbo was officially nominated for an award (for Kitty Foyle). He was blacklisted a few years later but still wrote scripts for Hollywood and submitted them under other people's names. He won two Oscars that were credited (and handed) to different people - he got one of them back during his lifetime, but the second was only awarded posthumously.


Other Notable Winners That Night:

I love this photo!! I'd like to think they did a
little foxtrot together after it was taken!

Rebecca didn't win any of the other major awards (nothing for Hitchcock, some say Joan Fontaine was robbed, and George Sanders wasn't even nominated as Supporting Actor, which baffles me!). 

Best Director went to John Ford for Grapes of Wrath, Best Actor was James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story (and, possibly, belatedly for Mr Smith the previous year...) and Ginger Rogers won Best Actress for Kitty Foyle.

I'm a fan of both of them (particularly James Stewart) - Jimmy deserved his award, especially if you think of it as being for playing Jefferson Smith AND Mike Connor. An acting masterclass right there! Whether Ginger deserved hers is more debatable, although I need to watch Kitty Foyle before I can give my own verdict on that. I would have happily given her an Oscar for all the dancing she did in 30s - but many people felt that one or other of the heavy hitters nominated alongside her - Joan F, Bette and Kate among them - should have taken the award. Never mind - the other three have got seven between them!


Best Song:

An absolute classic again this year - like last year, a song that most children today (nearly 80 years on) can still sing along to:

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

Isn't this photo maaarvelous? Isn't this film maaarvelous?
Isn't Katharine Hepburn aaabsolutely maaarvelous!!

There are at least three other biggies on the Best Picture list this year - The Great Dictator (Chaplin's first full sound film), The Grapes of Wrath (epic US drama) and The Philadelphia Story (comedy with a stunning cast).

Chaplin's controversial film was never going to win given the political climate at the time - but either of the other two could just as easily (and justifiably) have won the award. I'm a big fan of Rebecca and I'm very glad it won - but I've also got a soft spot for The Philadelphia Story. And, although I'm still recovering from studying the (incredibly tedious and long-winded) book for A Level, objectively The Grapes of Wrath probably should have won.

Our Verdict:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again......

I think it's already pretty clear that I know this film rather well, and that I like it rather a lot. There's probably not a great deal else to say after this most recent (possibly tenth? or more?) viewing. Except that - slightly embarrassingly - I was really tired on the afternoon that I watched it and I drifted a bit in the middle..... Knowing the plot so well meant that it didn't matter (although I didn't pay quite as much attention to "Cousin" Jack as I usually like to) and, actually, it means that the not-so-dark first half hour of the film has stuck with me more this time.

Larry and Joan - both acting their socks off!

For completeness sake - the plot. Our unnamed heroine is playing chaperone to a rather over-bearing older woman holidaying in Monte (Carlo, that is) where she meets widower Maxim de Winter and they fall in love and get married. 

This bit takes about half an hour and is brightly lit, and lightly played - and has very strong comedic elements through the wonderful character of Mrs Van Hopper. Throughout it all Maxim remains brooding and his new bride stays timid and overwhelmed by everything - though both clearly relish getting one over on Mrs VH.

Mrs Danvers in a particularly evilly unhinged moment.
One of Hitchcock's greatest characters!

They head back to Maxim's enormous estate, Manderley (another character in its own right) and things start to get very dark and gothic.
The second Mrs de Winter begins to find out more about her husband and his first wife, Rebecca - some of this from the housekeeper Mrs Danvers and Rebecca's "cousin" Jack Favell, both of whom were clearly in her thrall in one way or another.

This is where Joan Fontaine would have been a worthy Oscar winner - the way her demeanor changes from wide eyed and innocent and trying (with difficulty) to fit in, gradually to uneasiness, paranoia and downright terror, then leading to resolve and determination, is quite brilliant.

I also think Olivier does a good job of not over playing Maxim. It would have been easy to make him too big and in charge (which he really isn't) or either too heroic and sympathetic, or too flawed and unlikeable. I think he pitches it just right.

The superb Mr Sanders - delectably vile....

Mrs Danvers is superbly creepy. She doesn't walk, she glides as though she's on wheels. There is at least one scene that you could put down to bad editing if you didn't suspect that Hitch meant it - where she's moved far further across the room during a quick cutaway shot than is humanly possible!

And George Sanders is wonderful as the charmingly snake-like Favell. Apparently Sanders was pretty awful as a person (and he admitted as much himself), but he works so well as an actor of a certain kind of character. In many ways Favell is a bit a warm up for when we see him again in ten films' time doing something rather similar only better (arguably) and with far more screen time!)

Saying too much more about the plotline would give away the ending. But one of the best things about the way the story is portrayed here is that it all comes across as being like a ghost story or even a horror film. And yet there is nothing supernatural going on at all. Everything is about how people are treating other people, how they perceive themselves and each other. And it's clever, and suspenseful, and entertaining - with a pretty satisfying ending (slightly modified from the book, thanks to the Hays Code). 

So, yes, I love this film. It's probably my favourite Hitchcock (and there are many contenders for that, even though we aren't going to get to watch any more of them for this challenge!) and it really does bear repeated viewing.

And it's in the public domain and all up there on Youtube, so here you go: