Lancashire Evening Post (28/Sep/1940) - 'Rebecca' Made Joan Fontaine Star Overnight

Details

• article: 'Rebecca' Made Joan Fontaine Star Overnight
• newspaper: Lancashire Evening Post (28/Sep/1940)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Daphne du Maurier, George Sanders, Gladys Cooper, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Bruce, Rebecca (1940), Reginald Denny

Article

'Rebecca' Made Joan Fontaine Star Overnight

Daphne du Maurier's international best-seller, "Rebecca," an emotional story written in the sombre Bronte tradition, has made an exceptionally fine film.

It has been widely acknowledged as one of the really big pictures of the year, big not as a spectacle, an epic, or anything like that, but as a human document with an especial appeal to women. Its strength lies in its telling psychology and the brilliancy of its characterisation.

For this Alfred Hitchcock is primarily responsible. It is his first Hollywood production, and it has all those qualities one associates with intelligent, imaginative direction — sincerity. subtlety, suspense, and the power to grip.

The story, briefly, is about a sensitive, clinging girl who marries a wealthy widower and is not only awed by her magnificent new surroundings, but made unhappy by the fact that the memory of her husbands former wife comes between her and the moody man she has married.

Joan Fontaine gives an exquisite performance as the second wife. You would never think she is acting at all. Also flawless is Laurence Olivier's portrayal of the husband. George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Reginald Denny, Nigel Bruce and Gladys Cooper, head a well chosen supporting cast.