Post date: Sep 4, 2018 2:42:08 AM
Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock's first movie in America. The famous David O. Selznick of "Gone with the Wind" brought Hitchcock to Hollywood. "Gone with the Wind" was the year prior and Selznick wanted another hit. Having a strong-minded producer and a strong-minded director did not make the best team.
This is not a typical story for Hitchcock like the "Thirty Nine Steps" or The Man Who Knew Too Much"; it is more grim and more melodramatic. However, one feels the influence from the time he spent in Germany with the early expressionist film makers.
The story is a gothic tale set in a large dark mansion. The heroine marries a widower and finds the mansion still has many traces of the first wife. There is a great scene where she breaks a plate and hides the pieces in a drawer. This is the seen again by the main child in Hitchcock's Sabotage. He wants to indicate that she is a child in this mansion.
The film won an Academy award which went to producer: Selznick. It was the closest Hitchcock would get to winning a real academy award. George Barnes also won for cinematography. Barnes was a solid cameraman who was known for teaching Gregg Toland, who did Citizen Kane.