Alfred Hitchcock is, even now, a household name. He is the film director. With over 50 films to his name, he had a long, distinguished career. So it often comes as a surprise when people find out that Hitchcock never won a Best Director Academy Award, and the only film of his to win Best Picture was Rebecca, which for most people, doesn’t even crack a Top 10 list of Hitchcock films (these are main arguments when I suggest the lack of value in the Academy Awards). However, I don’t point this out to say Rebecca is undeserving of the attention. On the contrary, it’s on this list because it is at the very least a Top 5 Hitchcock film for me.

A young woman traveling along the French Riviera meets and falls in love with a widower named Maxim de Winter. Their whirlwind romance leads to wedding bells, and the woman comes home with Maxim to his home, Manderley. Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, seemingly still haunts Manderley because everyone at the house speaks of her in hushed and reverent tones, especially the house keeper Mrs. Danvers, who has also kept Rebecca’s old room exactly how it was with monogrammed decorations everywhere. The new Mrs. De Winter believes Maxim to still be in love with Rebecca, so to cheer him up, she decides to host a ball. Mrs. Danvers convinces her to wear a dress similar to one that one of Maxim’s ancestors is seen wearing in a painting. She does, but Maxim is distraught when seeing her in it, because Rebecca wore the same one to the last ball they had before her death. Mrs. De Winter confronts Mrs. Danvers about this and Mrs. Danvers tells her she will never take Rebecca’s place and she should just kill herself by jumping from Rebecca’s second-story window. Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers were apparently very close. Like very, very close. Like very, very, very close. Anyway, Maxim then confesses to Mrs. De Winter that Rebecca had no intention of keeping her marriage vows and implied that she was pregnant with her lover and cousin, Jack’s, baby. During an argument, Rebecca “fell” and died from hitting her head on a rock. Maxim and his wife seek to once and for all prove Maxim’s innocence, and succeed, Rebecca’s death ruled a suicide. Upon returning to Manderley, Maxim sees that Mrs. Danvers has set the whole mansion on fire. She is the only one who doesn’t make it out.

This was Hitchcock’s first film to be made in America. He had been courted by Hollywood for years, but only agreed to a contract from independent producer, David O. Selznick, with the promise of Rebecca as his first project and much more freedom than from anyone else. The freedom thing may be true, but it wasn’t enough for Hitchcock. Selznick was a bit of a control freak and edited all the films he produced himself. So, it made him rather mad when Hitchcock would edit as he filmed and only filmed what he wanted in the final film. This prevented Selznick from getting what he wanted from the ending, which was a giant, smoky “R” coming from Manderley as it burned. Selznick’s only other demand was that the film be incredibly faithful to the source novel, which was an easier sacrifice for Hitchcock, though it does mean the film lacks his trademark humor. Rebecca may not be Hitchcock’s most suspenseful work, but it is still rather terrifying.

Bonus Review: Notorious

Notorious is more of a romance than any other Hitchcock film with the exception of maybe Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains make up an interesting love triangle, indeed. The leads have fantastic chemistry and do a great job of carrying the suspense not only in the deeply serious times, but throughout the romance as well. The film also uses the love triangle to great ironic effect, but maybe you’ll pick up on that in the synopsis. Here we go!

In 1946, Alicia, the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy is recruited by American agent, Devlin, to infiltrate a group of Nazis hiding out in Brazil now that the war is over. Devlin receives word that Alicia is to seduce Alex, the leader of the Nazi group as well as one of Alicia’s father’s friends who has always loved her. Devlin, despite his growing love for Alicia, tells her of the mission with no hint of personal feeling. Alicia interprets this as Devlin never having loved her in the first place. Devlin forces a chance meeting between Alex and Alicia and Alex invites her to his house for dinner, where he will be hosting his business associates. Devlin tells Alicia to get names from the dinner, and during her observation, she watches a guest’s horrified reaction to one of the wine bottles. Alex proposes to Alicia and when she tells Devlin, he coldly tells her to do whatever she wants. She reluctantly marries Alex. Alicia realizes that Alex is hiding something in the wine cellar and so she hosts a big party and invites Devlin so he can investigate. Devlin and Alicia search the cellar, and when Devlin accidentally breaks a bottle of wine, they discover it is filled with uranium. Alex comes down to the cellar for more wine, and so Devlin and Alicia clean up quickly and they come up with a story where Devlin is drunk and Alicia brought him down to the cellar so he doesn’t make a scene. Alex becomes suspicious and later investigates the cellar to find the broken bottle with uranium. Alex cannot silence his wife without alerting the other Nazis to the fact that he married an American agent, so his mother convinces him to slowly poison Alicia. He does so, and Alicia becomes bedridden. Devlin, worried over Alicia’s absence, sneaks into the house and into her room where she admits that she believes Alex is poisoning her. Devlin confesses his love for Alicia and carries her out of the house, demanding to take Alicia to a hospital. Alex begs Devlin to take him with them, but he is left behind to deal with the other Nazis who now know the truth.