Comfort Films 105: Rebecca (1940)

Welcome to season 3! We're kicking off this season with a couple of episodes on our favorite films from the Gothic Romance genre, and who better to start us off than the master of the macabre, Alfred Hitchcock? Rebecca, starring Joan Fontaine and Sir Laurence Olivier, was Hitchcock's first film made in the US and his only Best Picture winner. The film also earned an Oscar for cinematographer George Barnes, whose talents with light, shadow, and camera movement created the moody atmosphere that pervades Rebecca. It was produced by David O. Selznick, who was coming off the huge success of Gone with the Wind and looking to make another big hit. Deeply faithful to its source material, Daphne du Maurier's best-selling novel, the film is a suspenseful cinematic take on classic Gothic Romance literature. The parallels with Bronte's Jane Eyre are numerous, but it's Hitchcock's ability to dramatize psychological terror that brings this movie into the modern age. Come to Manderley again with us, and watch out for Mrs. Danvers!