In 1940, Hitchcock released his first American film, Rebecca. It would go on to win Best Picture, but not Best Director—one of the Academy’s earliest snubs, since this is arguably among Hitchcock’s finest.
Alfred Hitchcock is known in the movie industry as the “Master of Suspense,” with genre-defining films like Psycho, The Birds, and Vertigo—all of which typically rank on film buffs’ best-of lists. Twenty years before these quintessential classics, Hitchcock released his first American film, Rebecca. It would go on to win Best Picture, but not Best Director—one of the Academy’s earliest snubs, since this is arguably among Hitchcock’s finest.
Rebecca opens in Monte Carlo, a playground of the rich, in the late 1930s. Gossip is all abuzz: Maximilian de Winter, a recently (and tragically) widowed playboy is vacationing at the resort for the first time after his wife’s death. Not one for propriety, he takes an interest in a young woman with no society experience and whisks her off to his family’s country manor, Manderley.
But the ghost of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, lingers in every room of the house, and the new Mrs. de Winter becomes obsessed with her seemingly flawless predecessor. In true Hitchcock fashion, spine-chilling twists abound.
With Hollywood legends Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier in the leads, and the sharp shadows only black and white film can cast, it’s impossible to think how a movie like this could be made today.