Rebecca - The Oscar Project Part XIII

For all the movies that are made there are only a handful of directors that can be considered household names. Near the top of that list is Alfred Hitchcock. Over the course of his long career he made quite a few movies that are considered classics. The only one of those to actually win the Academy Award for Best Picture was the 1940 film “Rebecca.”

Knowing that this was a Hitchcock film going in, and being familiar enough with his work to know what to expect, I feel that I added extra suspense to the film that wasn’t supposed to be there. I feel as this took away something from the movie as I kept expecting the worse to happen. Whereas many of the people watching the film when it first came out may not have been expecting what was going to happen.
The film centers on a young girl who marries a very prominent and wealthy older man. During the course of the movie, the girl believes that her husband wants her to be more like his first wife and the maid pushes her into it. The movie later jumps through a few twists and turns that I don’t want to spoil here. If your familiar with how Hitchcock works and you like his style of movies, this one will not disappoint you. As always he is a master at giving direction and setting a scene.

The acting in the film is top notch with Laurence Olivier giving a great lead performance. The rest of the cast is also more than up to the task of really delivering on these characters. By the end of the film a real connection has been made with the two leads and I found myself very satisfied in how the villain met their end. The only problem with the film was that it felt as if there were too many twists. In the last half an hour we learn one thing, only to learn that it wasn’t true 5 minutes later at least 3 times. But where most directors would have failed, Hitchcock pulls it off masterfully.

If released today the film would do decent. I don’t think it would be an Oscar winning film, but it might have been nominated. I can only say that I really enjoyed it. 5 out of 5 stars.