1940 Best Picture:
Rebecca
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Competition:
All This and Heaven Too, Foreign
Correspondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The
Letter, The Long Voyage Home, Our Town, The Philadelphia Story
Other Winners:
Best Actor: James
Stewart, The Philadelphia Story
Best Actress: Ginger Rogers,
Kitty Foyle
Best Supporting Actor: Walter
Brennan, The Westerner
Best Supporting Actress: Jane Darwell, The Grapes of Wrath
Best Director: John
Ford, The Grapes of Wrath
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Cast:
Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Gladys
Cooper, Nigel Bruce, Florence Bates
Storyline:
Based
on the book by Daphne DuMaurier, Joan Fontaine plays a simple girl on a
luxury liner, traveling as a companion to an elderly woman. On
board, she meets the mysterious Maxim de Winter, and romance blossoms.
He sweeps her off of her feet, and drags her back to his mansion, where
echoes of his past life with his first wife come back to haunt the second
Mrs. de Winter.
Did it deserve to
win:
Why not? The
Bette Davis flick, The Letter would have also been a strong contender, and
it would have been nice to see the screwball comedy, The Philadelphia
Story, take the prize. Meanwhile, The Grapes of Wrath has also
become a bona fide classic. Rebecca, however, gets extra points for being
David O. Selznick's dreaded follow up to Gone
With the Wind.
Critique:
A
few items make Rebecca a noteworthy film. Hitchcock was just coming
into the spotlight back then, and this film put his name on the map.
Also, Laurence Olivier was becoming a huge star. They both had
pictures the previous year, but this was the one that made them popular.
Despite its
melodramatic feel, Rebecca is an eerie suspense drama, with great
performances by the female stars, Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson.
Anderson's nasty Mrs. Danvers has since become embraced a lesbian icon.
And finally, this
was Selznick's pick to follow up his monstrously successful, Gone With the
Wind. While it's much smaller in stature, it's certainly a top notch
film.
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Best Scene:
The Underwear Drawer! Judith Anderson
as Mrs. Danvers gives Joan Fontaine a tour of Rebecca's bedroom, stopping
to admire the panties. The film was cited by The Celluloid Closet
for its lesbian undertones, at a time when lesbians were often portrayed
as vampire-like shrews.
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Behind the Scenes:
Rebecca was nominated for
eleven Academy Awards, but only won two of them. The win for Best
Picture seemed the most critical, however, as David O Selznick was hoping
for a personal repeat, having won the Best Picture for Gone With the Wind,
the previous year. Alfred Hitchcock failed to garner a win for Best
Director, even though he had a second film also nominated for Best
Picture, Foreign Correspondent. Hitchcock went on
to direct some of the greatest films of the forties and fifties, including
Read Window, Vertigo and Psycho. This was the only film to win the
Best Picture Oscar. He was never awarded for Director.
Hitchcock, like many of the
nominated actors, didn't attend the ceremony that year, however
rumor has it that he was nervously pacing in his hotel room, while
listening to the show on the radio. Joan Fontaine and sister,
Olivia de Haviland carried on a life long feud
that was particularly
heated in the 1940's, when they were often nominated against each other.
Fontaine was nominated for Rebecca, but would win an Oscar the next year
for Suspicion. Sister Olivia would trump her by winning for two
films, To Each His Own and the Heiress, later in the decade.
Laurence Olivier
wanted his wife, Vivien Leigh to play the lead role. He treated
Fontaine badly on the set when she was finally cast in the role.
Hitchcock played upon this by having everyone on the set actually hate
her. It shook her up, and made her very uneasy, thus, according to
Hitchcock, enhancing her performance.
Another major
Hollywood icon, Charlie Chaplin, did not gain Oscar favor for his satire,
The Great Dictator. He and Hitchcock are, to this day, regarded as
two of the most glaring omissions from the Academy's list.
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Alfred Lunt
gives the Oscar to Jimmy Stewart for The Philadelphia Story. |
Also in 1940:
June 14: Germans parade
through Paris.
September 7:
Airforces wages the Battle of Britain.
September 30:
Hitler's long awaited aerial attack on Britain begins.
December 29: FDR
calls the US an 'arsenal of democracy'.
The Academy Awards
could now add suspense to their lexicon, not because of the film that
was selected for Best Picture, but because of a rule change that was
added this year, when the previous year, the Los Angeles Times announced
the winners prior to the ceremony. The Academy traditionally gave
out the winners names to the news agencies in order for them to make
press deadlines. Going forward, nobody, but a third party
accounting firm, would know the winners until the actual
ceremony.
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David
O'Selznick's follow up to his blockbuster, Gone With the Wind.
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Laurence
Olivier meets Joan Fontaine, as she is playing chaperone to a snotty old
society prude. |
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It's
love at first sight, but they keep their newfound friendship a secret from
her employer.
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Maxim
DeWinter carries some deep secrets.
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Mrs.
Van Hopper, played by Gladys Cooper, is confined to her bed with
illness during the trip, leaving more time for Joan to hook up with
Laurence.
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The
lovers take lots of car trips, where the backdrop is noticeably
fake.
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Mrs.
Van Hopper is stunned to find out that the two are planning a marriage.
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Enter
Mrs. Danvers.
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Gladys
Cooper plays Mrs. Lacy, a welcomed guest at Manderly, who gives the second
Mrs. DeWinter the scoop on first wife, Rebecca.
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A trip to the beach
house leads to a chance meeting with a strange old man who lives in fear
of the first Mrs. de Winter.
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Laurence
ain't too impressed with the fancy new gown his wife has bought.
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Mrs. Danvers is one
scary chick! |
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Mrs. Danvers suggest she dress as the
woman in the painting in the hall for a costume ball, not mentioning that
the woman is Rebecca.
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When the body of Rebecca is found, Maxim
must fess up to the awful secret.
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The man walking past George Sanders and
the cop is Rebecca's director, Alfred Hitchcock.
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