Rebecca (1940)
Country: US
Technical: bw 130m
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders
Synopsis:
An ingénue paid companion travelling on the Riviera meets the recently widowed master of a Cornish estate, and returns to England with him. But the ghosts from his past threaten to engulf her and destroy their future together.
Review:
Hitchcock's first American film is an appropriately British subject, with a perfect Maxim De Winter on hand in the shape of Olivier, in town to accompany Vivien Leigh while she made Gone with the Wind. The director was also fortunate to have done his first deal with Selznick International, and benefit from a handsome production: the sets and costumes are superior to anything he had had at his disposal previously, even if Manderley is patently a model (Hitch loved his miniatures) and the Riviera locations look as Cornish as the Cornish ones, since the California coastline stood in for both. No matter; it is hard to imagine this being done much better, with Anderson and Sanders perfect in their respective roles, and the gothic atmosphere well caught by the art direction and Hitch's roving camera. Above all, twenty year-old Joan Fontaine particularly impresses as 'the girl with no name', her face all innocence and appeal.
Country: US
Technical: bw 130m
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders
Synopsis:
An ingénue paid companion travelling on the Riviera meets the recently widowed master of a Cornish estate, and returns to England with him. But the ghosts from his past threaten to engulf her and destroy their future together.
Review:
Hitchcock's first American film is an appropriately British subject, with a perfect Maxim De Winter on hand in the shape of Olivier, in town to accompany Vivien Leigh while she made Gone with the Wind. The director was also fortunate to have done his first deal with Selznick International, and benefit from a handsome production: the sets and costumes are superior to anything he had had at his disposal previously, even if Manderley is patently a model (Hitch loved his miniatures) and the Riviera locations look as Cornish as the Cornish ones, since the California coastline stood in for both. No matter; it is hard to imagine this being done much better, with Anderson and Sanders perfect in their respective roles, and the gothic atmosphere well caught by the art direction and Hitch's roving camera. Above all, twenty year-old Joan Fontaine particularly impresses as 'the girl with no name', her face all innocence and appeal.
Country: US
Technical: bw 130m
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders
Synopsis:
An ingénue paid companion travelling on the Riviera meets the recently widowed master of a Cornish estate, and returns to England with him. But the ghosts from his past threaten to engulf her and destroy their future together.
Review:
Hitchcock's first American film is an appropriately British subject, with a perfect Maxim De Winter on hand in the shape of Olivier, in town to accompany Vivien Leigh while she made Gone with the Wind. The director was also fortunate to have done his first deal with Selznick International, and benefit from a handsome production: the sets and costumes are superior to anything he had had at his disposal previously, even if Manderley is patently a model (Hitch loved his miniatures) and the Riviera locations look as Cornish as the Cornish ones, since the California coastline stood in for both. No matter; it is hard to imagine this being done much better, with Anderson and Sanders perfect in their respective roles, and the gothic atmosphere well caught by the art direction and Hitch's roving camera. Above all, twenty year-old Joan Fontaine particularly impresses as 'the girl with no name', her face all innocence and appeal.