“You can find so many contradictory quantities of publishing–ranging from Alfred Hitchcock, Daphne Du Maurier, and you may David O. Selznick–for it 1940 motion picture to-be an entire achievement, but with their first couple of-thirds it’s because best a myth from adolescence since any of your own Disney films, recording the new childlike, nameless heroine’s initiation on the adult secrets out of sex, demise, and title, and the impossibility from fixing your relationship such pushes with family strictures.” — Dave Kehr, il Audience
“A splendid example of brand new cinema once the a greatest storyteller. Sherwood and you can Joan Harrison. ” – Leslie Halliwell, The brand new Filmgoer’s Companion
“Daphne Du Maurier’s pretty smaller top seller. turned into a story out of fear and shame, electricity and you will group. What makes the film doubly fascinating was Hitchcock’s concern with feminine, and the way it goes not in the effortless limitations out of narrative. Good riveting or painful flick.” – Helen MacKintosh, TimeOut Movie Publication
“New absolute, swooning satisfaction that movie affords – its melodrama, the love, the extravagant threat – will make it a necessity-pick. it’s a great masterclass inside the craftsmanship. Brand new atic terms, and you may reveals some thing uncommon in just about any movie out-of people several months: characters exactly who transform, and generally are satisfyingly proven to get it done throughout the story. An extraordinary shed was rounded from because of the George Sanders, playing Rebecca’s caddish relative: again, a superb lightness and you will fertility from the acting, and you may, again, certain exquisite suitings. A beautiful get rid of from one from cinema’s benefits. Not to be overlooked.” – Peter Bradshaw, The fresh new kissbrides.com site web Protector
“Ingesting Lyle Wheeler’s good interior sets (they dwarf Fontaine’s bashful character) and you may an amazingly caddish change of a blackmailing George Sanders, Rebecca sweeps new viewer with each other so you can an enthusiastic incendiary end.” – Thomas Dawson, BBC
“Attempt eg a headache film and you may offering Olivier among the least sympathetic heroes in the Hitchcock cannon, Rebecca ‘s the reason wise extrapolation with the templates inherited out-of gothic thrillers and you can Bronte novels lets the fresh new manager before everything else a beneficial suspenseful romance one scarcely provides its subtext underneath the epidermis, and you can smuggle in a narrative of just one woman’s immersion to your sexual hopes of their era. Rebecca is almost certainly not a great Hitchcock photo, but it is difficult to believe what we should now remember once the a beneficial Hitchcock image without it.” – Keith Phipps, The brand new Onion A. V. Pub
Critics’ Corner – Rebecca
Prizes & Celebrates The new National Board from Feedback place Rebecca 10th for the their ten-ideal number to own 1940, toward Grapes off Wrath within first. Nevertheless they noted Joan Fontaine’s among the year’s most readily useful activities. Rebecca acquired 11 Oscar® nominations — Greatest Image, Greatest Director, Ideal Star (Laurence Olivier), Most readily useful Actress (Fontaine), Most useful Help Actress (Judith Anderson), Ideal Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Most readily useful Editing, Most readily useful Score, Finest Artwork Direction and best Graphic Consequences. After the 1939’s Went on the Cinch, this was the second 12 months in a row producer David O. Selznick got lead the film most abundant in nominations. Rebecca’s race to own Most useful Visualize was solid and integrated The new Red grapes from Wrath, The latest Philadelphia Facts, The nice Dictator and Hitchcock’s own Overseas Correspondent.
To alter his Oscar® chance, Selznick organized good “re-premiere” from Rebecca during the the next-work at domestic for the Los angeles your day the new nominations were launched
The guy actually had the latest governor out-of California to help you re also-label Hollywood Boulevard “Rebecca Boulevard” during the day. Rebecca took Top Photo, the only real particularly honor to possess an effective Hitchcock motion picture, and greatest Cinematography. Hitchcock destroyed the fresh pointing honor in order to John Ford towards the Grapes out-of Wrath. Olivier destroyed Most useful Star to James Stewart regarding the Philadelphia Story, when you’re Ginger Rogers from inside the Kitty Foyle beat Fontaine to own Most readily useful Celebrity. The fresh CRITICS’ Place “Rebecca is actually an imaginative victory whoever b. Dave Selznick’s photo is too tragic and you will seriously mental hitting the flamboyant out of broad audience focus. It will located focus of experts and you can class patronage since a keen illustration of the power during the story drama of stunning screen portraiture, but general viewers usually tab it as a lengthy-drawn-out drama that could was basically advised better within the quicker video footage.