Rebecca

Alfred Hitchcock's only Best Director nomination came for Rebecca (1940), a meticulous, long-winded adaptation of Daphne DuMaurier's novel. It's not one of Hitchcock's best films, and his attempts to turn a melodrama into a thriller are a mixed success. Still, it's a technically perfect film, and a slew of great performances makes it well worth watching.

A unnamed young woman (Joan Fontaine) meets handsome widower Maxim DeWinter (Laurence Olivier) while on vacation in France. The two marry quickly, but the new Mrs. DeWinter is disheartened to find that Maxim is obsessed with the memory of his late wife Rebecca, who died in a tragic accident. Mrs. DeWinter is anguished to find herself in the shadow of Rebecca, and it doesn't help that the demonic Miss Danvers (Judith Anderson) tries to drive her insane. Also intruding is Rebecca's cousin Jack (George Sanders), who suspects that Maxim murdered Rebecca.

Rebecca's biggest problem is its schizophrenic tone. Producer David O. Selznick clearly wanted a woman's picture, while Hitchcock seems to have wanted a thriller. The melodrama sections are fairly bland, with lots of dull dialogue and throat-clearing exposition, but the second thread, where Hitchcock's interest clearly lies, is excellent. The murder investigation plot is good if a bit too conveniently wrapped up, but the scenes of Miss Danvers terrorizing Mrs. DeWinter with mind games and suggestions of suicide are superb. It helps that our protagonist is a beautiful and charming lady, and we can easily sympathize with her dilemma. Miss Danvers truly is a nasty piece of work, and her omnipresent, demonic character nearly overwhelms the rest of the film - not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hitchcock's direction is superb. In his Hollywood debut, Hitchcock relishes his large budget, making exquisite use of George Barnes' creepy shadows and lighting, and Lyle Wheeler's cavernous, expansive sets, to create an atmosphere of foreboding, isolation and dread. The movie is a bit more conventional than his later works, but it's still an impressive achievement. Franz Waxman's bombastic score is the only major technical flaw. This is a first-rate production, and certainly deserving of its technical accolades.

The radiant Joan Fontaine (Suspicion) gives a wonderful lead performance: self-conscious, inadequate, vulnerable and easily tormented, she's an easy protagonist to sympathize with. Laurence Olivier does well in a rather colorless role. Late in the film, Olivier is given the thankless task of spouting ten minutes of non-stop exposition, and somehow pulls it off. Judith Anderson (The Furies) is one of the all-time great villainesses, making Miss Danvers a chilling, omnipresent force of evil. George Sanders (All About Eve) plays his usual smooth-talking cad, and C. Aubrey Smith (The Four Feathers), Nigel Bruce (The Charge of the Light Brigade), Gladys Cooper (My Fair Lady) and Leo G. Carroll (North by Northwest) round out the supporting cast.

Rebecca isn't a truly great film, but Hitchcock and his cast make it an entertaining and engrossing movie.