Rebecca

Dennis and Bonnie are discussing the movie "Rebecca," which won Best Picture in 1940. They talk about their history with the film and its twist ending. They also mention other films that were nominated that year, including "Our Town," "All This and Heaven Too," "The Letter," "Kitty Foyle," "Foreign Correspondent," "The Long Voyage Home," and "The Grapes of Wrath." They recommend watching "Rebecca" and discuss the director Alfred Hitchcock and his filmmaking style. They also mention the actors George Sanders, Bette Davis, and John Wayne. Hi, welcome to Sibling Trilogy, I'm Dennis, and I am Bonnie, and we are here counting down the Oscar winners for Best Picture of the Year, and we'll have them ranked from worst to best, and we're all the way up to number 22. 22. Yeah, so what are we talking about today? 1940, the movie Rebecca. Yes. Yeah, Rebecca won Best Picture for 1940, great year for movies, we'll get into that a little bit more. What is your history with Rebecca? You know, it's interesting, I wasn't sure if I had seen it, and then I watched it, and there were a couple of things that made me, if I hadn't seen it, I saw it like 25 years ago. Right, yeah. And so it has a twist ending, I didn't see the twist ending coming. Okay, yeah. The only thing, have I ever seen a movie with Shere Khan? Oh, George Sanders? Yeah. Yeah, all about Eve, which we'll get to eventually, yeah. Okay, so maybe I'm, because I know I watched another old movie where I was like, I know that voice. Yeah, I thought you had seen it, but I seem to remember like, brought it over to Coronado when we watched that movie or something, but I mean that's decades ago. Right, yeah, that's probably 25 years ago. Okay, so 25 to 30 years ago, so I do think I, you know, there were some vague things, but I could not remember, you know, pretty, anyway. Well, as you said, there are twists, so if you haven't seen Rebecca yet, you should pause this and go see Rebecca, because we're going to give away the... Yeah, we are. We're going to give away the game. And I'm going to say this right now, if you haven't seen Rebecca, go see Rebecca. Okay, good. It's fantastic. Great. Yes. You will love it. You are familiar, you've seen a few Hitchcocks, though, right? Yeah, it's very Hitchcock. Yes, we'll get into that. Yeah, I've seen it several times. I'm a big Hitchcock fan, so I've seen it several times. I don't know why you wouldn't see it. It's really good. Yeah, well, it won Best Picture in 1940, which, as I said, is one of my favorite years for movies. Well, let's see what else was up. Let's see what Rebecca beat. There were 10 nominees. Wow. So as good a year as it was, there is some forgettable stuff that made the nominations list. Our Town is a movie version of the famous Thornton Wilder play. Are you familiar with the play? It's kind of a staple of regional theater, high school production. I mean, I've heard of it, but I don't think I've ever seen it. Yeah, I mean, it's a play that's kind of about a small New England town at the turn of the century and their loves and lives. But it's kind of a play within a play, so it's very easy to put on because it's kind of like a bench and a chair. It's the set, and the main character is the theater manager. Okay. And so it's like he's kind of directing a production of the play. And this movie version just kind of takes that out of it and just tells the story kind of in the costume. And I think it does kind of lose a bit without that play within a play structure. It's fine. You actually prefer the regional theater. Well, depending on which, yeah. Another movie that's not that well-remembered today is All This and Heaven Too. Although it's a pretty good movie. It's a costume drama starring the great Bette Davis and the great Charles Boyer. She plays a governess for a duke and duchess. She wins the hearts of the father and the children and the jealousy of the duchess. And so there's a conflict between the women. Okay. So is Bette Davis your favorite of all time? Oh, that's a good question. She's out there. She's definitely in your top five. I would say she's probably in your top three. Yeah. I mean, Meryl Streep is pretty flawless. I love Katherine Hepburn. I mean, I love Grace Kelly, but I think she had such an abbreviated career. I'll put her up there. Audrey Hepburn's great. Ingrid Bergman. Ingrid Bergman's terrific. Yeah. I do think Bette Davis is kind of up there for you. Yeah. Bette Davis gives one of my favorite all-time performances, but we haven't gotten to that movie yet. Oh, but we're going to? Oh, yes. Of course, yeah. Okay. I think I've seen All About Eve. Yeah, you've seen it. Yeah. Okay. But Bette Davis had a terrific year, because she's also in The Letter, which is a movie that's aged a lot better, but was also up for Best Pet Show this year. This is kind of directed by William Moyler. Okay, so him. Yeah. It is kind of a lurid suspense drama, where Bette Davis plays a woman who shoots a man, claims self-defense, but then a letter emerges, which casts some doubt and opens up layers of intrigue and blackmail and all sorts of just juicy stuff. Oh, that sounds really good. Yeah, it's terrific. It's also kind of set in a plantation, I think, in the Far East, but one of the elements is that she's part of a colonialist power, so that kind of plays into it. Are we supposed to root for them? You should watch it. Okay. It's kind of complicated, as far as who you like and who you don't. Kitty Foyle was the Ginger Rogers vehicle that same year, also up for Best Picture. Ginger Rogers is kind of branching out from her musical – her partnership with Fred Astaire is still going on, but she's kind of branching out in her range in this drama about a young woman raising a child on her own. This is a production code, which was very heavily enforced at this time. In 1945? Yeah. I think in the book that it's based on, the woman just has a legitimate child and has to deal with the – As I remember in the movie, it's like she's kind of – they elope, and then she's quickly abandoned, and they have to set up a lot of plot mechanics to show that she was very mean. Virtuous. Yeah. It's a standard melodrama. She calls her child, my millennium baby, because she realizes when the baby's born, oh, he's going to live to see the year 2000. Wow. It's so amazing to her. So she calls him her millennium baby. Uh-huh. I have a few of those. Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not as – we're a lot past the millennium. Yes. But, I mean, the millennials. Yeah. I have three or four, depending on how you classify, Mikey. Your grandkids are probably going to live to the 22nd century. Oh, don't they? Yeah. 80 years, so. Yeah. Wow. That's so crazy. Yeah. Ford Correspondent was also one of the losing nominees this year. This is a spy movie starring – Joe McCrae stars as a war correspondent, American war correspondent, working in London who – Oh, they've had George Sanders. Yeah, George Sanders is in it, also directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Oh, okay. Yeah. So Alfred Hitchcock, his first two American movies were Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca. So he was kind of a big fish in a small pond at the British film industry, which was very rudimentary compared to Hollywood in that time. But he really was the premier filmmaker there. In Britain, he made the first Man Who Knew Too Much, and The 39 Steps was probably his first really big international success, The Lady Vanishes. So then he got invited to Hollywood and became kind of – it was adapted into a much bigger pond. But, yeah, Foreign Correspondent. Is it Alfred Hitchcock who makes cameos in his movies? Yes. Okay. I forgot about that until now. You'll have to tell me where the cameo was in Rebecca. I will. Okay. What's so great about Alfred Hitchcock? I mean, I know I enjoy the movies. I mean, he's a perfectionist. Just a real technical skill and then has a great way of kind of using filmmaking to tap into the psychology of the characters. But I think we'll get into that in more detail when we get to our feature presentation. Okay. Looking forward to that. So, Foreign Correspondent, you recommend. Oh, it's great. That sounds like something Adam would really like. Yeah, it's a spy movie. Yeah, really beautifully shot. So, Alfred Hitchcock isn't the only director with two movies nominated for Best Picture this year. William Wyler? No. The great John Ford also has two. Oh, I don't know. John Ford, yeah. You know him from... From the movie that is basically The Fableman. Yeah, he's in The Fableman. He's also directed How Green Was My Valley. Yes. This is the year before How Green Was My Valley. And the first of his two nominees this year is The Long Voyage Home. This is a movie about sea merchants who are returning home to Ireland across the Atlantic in a very dangerous time, of course, 1940. So, to deal with that. John Wayne is one of the shipmates. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, it's a beautifully shot movie. Not one of John Ford's best remembered movies, but it scored a Best Picture nomination. But his other nominee this year is one of his absolute best movies. It's The Grapes of Wrath, an adaptation of the 1939 John Steinbeck novel. Oh, wow. That was fast. Yeah, it was fast. John Ford's mainly known for his westerns, but this is probably his most acclaimed non-western. Have you seen Grapes of Wrath? No. Have you read the novel? Probably in high school. Yeah. Yeah, this is set in the basketball, Great Depression. Henry Fonda plays an Okie, which are the Oklahoma farmers who have become destitute. With the Dust Bowl, their farmlands are ruined, and so the family packs up and goes to California in search of work. And it is just a gorgeous movie. It almost has this kind of post-apocalyptic feel. It seems almost like a zombie movie, because with the Depression and the Dust Bowl, it's like the world of America has been ruined. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about how quick World War II came at the challenge of the Depression. Yeah, it's a remarkable movie, and one of the best American movies of all time. Oh, but it's not on our list. Well, it lost to Rebecca. But you should watch it. There's so much humanity in the lives of these impoverished people. It kind of sounds depressing, but it's just very riveting, and I love the Grapes of Wrath. So, has this been remade a few times? It seems like a movie that would be remade. I would think it would be. I'm not familiar with another version. I mean, the novel is very famous. Has Rebecca been remade, right? Yes. Is it the same movie, Rebecca, or just the same title? No, there was a Netflix version two years ago. Okay. Which is terrible. Oh, really? Yeah, and then there's also, I think, a BBC version of it. Yeah, but that's the Grapes of Wrath. Also, another masterpiece this year was The Great Dictator. Another one of the movie nominees. I had not thought about The Great Dictator being while Hitler is still in power. Yes. Because it's clearly depicting Hitler. Yeah. He plays a feminine. And the symbol, it's not a swastika, but it's two X's. Two X's. Yeah. His, oh gosh, what name did they give him? He plays the Dictator of Bacteria. Oh my gosh. That's the name of the country. This is Tony Chaplin's only Best Picture nominee. His first talking role. Oh, okay. And it's great. Have you ever seen it? I think I have. Yeah, it's a masterpiece. I think you will see it. Because I think when we're done, we're going to do a little Charlie Chaplin marathon. Oh, okay. You haven't seen any Chaplin, right? What are some Charlie Chaplin? Did I see The General? The General. You've seen Buster Keaton movies. The General is Buster Keaton. Okay. Yeah. I don't think you have. Oh. The City Lights. Yeah. Okay, yeah. So if I think of Charlie Chaplin, I probably am thinking of Buster Keaton. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Great Dictator is wonderful. It's a comedy. It's him making fun of Hitler. Wow. Yeah. Okay, good. I'm not going to worry about it then until... Sure. Until I assign it to you. Yeah. There's one more nominee to get to, which is the Philadelphia Comedy. Oh, wow. I love this movie. Yeah. One of the great... I wouldn't even call this Kubock's comedy, but which is one of the great comedy of manners, Catherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant. Have the three of them been in a movie altogether other than this one? I mean, I know she's been paired with both of them. Yeah. Yeah, she's been paired with... Yeah, she's been paired with Cary Grant a lot, a few times. Yeah. No, this is the only one with the three of them. And it's such a witty... It's a great comedy. I love Catherine Hepburn's performance here. This is also one of my favorite performances of an actress. And the story behind it is she was... Her career was in the Bell Room. She was labeled box office poison. Catherine Hepburn? Yeah. What? Yeah, like in the late 30s. I guess her movies... Like, Bring a Baby did not do well at the box office. Oh, such a great movie. It's a fantastic movie. Maybe people weren't in the mood for comedy in the late 30s. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like Awful Truth was very successful. Let's see. So she went to Broadway and started in the Philadelphia story on Broadway. Okay. The play. And she herself purchased the movie rights and would only license it to the studio if she could play the lead. Okay, good for her. And she did. Look at her. Wow. She was great. Good girl. Yes. And then did she get to pick who starred alongside her? I don't know that. Yeah. Yeah. But she did. Good. It's great. It's a great cast and great movie. And so those are the nominees. But I do need to bring up some of the stuff in this great year that didn't manage to get a nomination. Okay. Wow, there's more. Yeah. Another Jimmy Stewart comedy, which I actually like better than the Philadelphia story. It's just stopped around the corner. That is a nice movie. It's a fantastic movie. You like that better than the Philadelphia story? Oh, yeah. This is one of my favorite movies. It's been remade as You've Got Mail. Right. And it kind of has that kind of horror, like, neat, cute type of romantic comedy stuff. But there's so much, like, humanity, like, on the margins of this story that it's just so wonderful. There's a lot more going on than just the friction of these two people. But they have a lot of charm, and it's great. So go see this half around the corner. It's fantastic. Yeah, I do like that movie. And as much as I do really love the Philadelphia story, but it's not even my favorite Cary Grant comedy of that year, because he does have His Girl Friday, which is a great movie with Rosalind Russell, where they play newspaper reporters trying to get a story, and just rapid-fire dialogue, which is just, it's fantastic. Have I seen that one? Yeah, I think you have. Sounds like something I would see. Yeah, I think you commented on it. You like it. The dialogue is fantastic. Yeah. So really great year for comedy. I think Philadelphia story is probably my third favorite comedy of the year. And she plays a character that can keep up with all the guys in the newsroom. Yeah. Okay. I did see that. Yeah, and really interesting social commentary. But this was also a very good year for Walt Disney, who had a second and third animated features, both classics, Pinocchio and Fantasia. I mean, I say it's a good year for Disney. They both actually lost money in their original release. Really? Yeah, they didn't get the attention that Snow White, or they didn't get the box office that Snow White did. So the first one is Snow White. Yeah. And then Bambi? No, Pinocchio, the second. Oh, this is the second. Yeah, and then Fantasia is third. Okay. But both movies have aged spectacularly well. I mean, they're two of the greatest animated films of all time. And they have since made a profit, of course, with their re-releases every six or seven years. And all the paraphernalia that goes along with Fantasia. Yeah. Like the posters alone. Exactly. Yeah, and then, I mean, Jiminy Cricket would be like an icon. I had a little Jiminy Cricket. Yeah, I always thought your cousins were your guys. Yeah, so that's, I mean, 1940 is just one of the great movie years. It's amazing how people have churned out so many movies in a year. You know, that you can invite big actors to have a couple of movies. No, exactly. So, I think we are ready. You know, I have a strong feeling that before the day is up, something's going to make use of that rather expressive, though somewhat old-fashioned term, foul play. So, let's get into Rebecca, which won the Best Picture Oscar for this very competitive year. So, what is Rebecca about? Rebecca is about this wealthy widower who, it's like a secretive, his wife has passed away. We learn early on that she passed away in some sort of accident, and he's been mourning her death for the past, you know, year or years. And anyway, he meets this young girl in Monte Carlo, and they get married fairly quickly. So, the bulk of the movie is where she goes to his estate and is, you know, kind of replacing the former, you know, mistress of the house or whatever you call that. Anyway, it's got a lot of twists and turns, and she's sort of drama with the staff, and she doesn't know, you know, it really kind of gets in her head. Anyway, things that you think, you know, she didn't, you know, she's, I don't know, you just find out what she thought. It's like it messes with people's reality. Anyway, and then they have that character, George Sanders, you said? Yes. Who plays the voice of Shere Khan, the tiger, in the Jungle Book. And the Jungle Book is later than this. Yeah, much later. Yeah. 67. Yeah, but it's like that tiger is the same character as him. Okay, yeah. He even uses some of the same phrases. Oh, he has that great velvety voice. Oh, he does. Similar character and all about Eve, too. Yeah, so he's just this sort of, yeah, and you even have it at the end where he's, you know, the fire at the end reminded me of, you know, the fire and, you know, he gets bested by fire. So, yeah, it's this thriller and we're kind of, we're watching it through the view of this young woman. Yeah. Yeah. What's her name? Fontaine, Joan Fontaine? Yeah, the actress's name. Okay. Wait, oh, what is her name in the movie? I don't even know. What is her name? We never get her name. Seriously? Yeah, no, she's not named. She's the second Mrs. De Winter. Oh, that's so weird. I couldn't think of her name, but that's pretty common for me, yeah. Is that why you asked me that? Yeah, Joan Fontaine. Have I seen her in anything else? She's in Suspicion. Her sister is Olivia Haviland. Really? Yeah. Okay. She's in Gone with the Wind. She's in Gone with the Wind, yeah. I haven't seen that yet. Nope. So, what did she think of Rebecca? Well, I already said I really love this movie. Good. And those are great movies, but at least, I don't, I mean, I don't know where, I haven't watched some of them recently, but I wouldn't argue with some of the other ones all winning over this, but it's not like Helene that this one won. Oh, no, yeah. I think this is a great movie. It's a great movie. It's really intriguing, and even though I'm pretty sure I've seen it before, I couldn't remember any of it, and, you know, the twist at the end is pretty fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Historic's famous for saying that drama is life with all the boring bits cut out. Okay. I think he means by that that his suspense is very much tied into life itself and our psychology, because so much of the tension in this movie comes from social anxiety, which we get in the Monte Carlo scene, as some people say, where it's her terror at just saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing or being awkward, is what the whole film is kind of built on. Yeah. Yeah. I really like how those Monte Carlo scenes are handled. First of all, she is there as a paid assistant to Mrs. Van Hopper, who's just this really vain, ridiculous woman who fancies herself as a society lady and tries to curry favor with Max in the winter because he's a big muckety-muck, and that's what she does. How old would you say that she plays in this movie? Mrs. Van Hopper? Yeah. I would say 60s. Yeah. The actress was 48 when this came out. Seriously? I didn't even look those up. Oh, yeah. I was like... Wow. I had the same thought, you know? Yeah. I would have put her at 68, but yeah. Yeah, she's great, and I think that you have this... It's an interesting play on the social relationships because her job, the John Fontaine character, her job is being a friend, right? Right. So that sort of intimacy is reduced to commerce, or she's a servant pretending to be a companion. Right. I think that's one of the fascinating themes of identity. I mentioned that she's not even named herself, and the naming is kind of... There's an interesting motif, I think, on names because we get a couple times how elaborate Maxim's name is. George Fontescue Maximilien de Winter, I think was the name, and then George Sanders' character, Favel, makes fun of that at the end. You also have the fact that she's not named, and there's this kind of class divide where the servants, the upper class kind of has the names, and they're kind of pulling in the identities of the people below them. Right. He always kind of treats her as a child. He seems to like her because she's pliant, and he's shaped into whatever he wants. Right. So there's a very controlling aspect to their nature. It seems very imbalanced union there. Rebecca, I think one of the other things with the naming is that Rebecca takes on Mrs. Danvers' name, the doctor in London. She's introduced with her maiden name. I forgot what it was, but when Mrs. Van Hopper is talking about her, this is Rebecca whatever. Clearly comes from a high society background. Yeah. Yeah, so she's a woman who takes on, yeah, she takes on names, takes on identities, and it's almost like that's the conflict with Max, right, because he hates Rebecca at the end. Right, which is the opposite of what we thought. Yeah, it's the opposite of what we thought, but, yeah, so he's an interesting character because we're introduced to him with his temper. Yeah. He reminds me a little bit of Pride and Prejudice, Darcy. Darcy? You know, how he seems so imposing and aloof, and then, anyway, becomes, and it says no. I like Darcy better. You know, this guy, he definitely seems to have a dark side to him. Yeah. So how much can we trust his version of Rebecca in terms of, like, he kind of presents her as a monster. Right. We don't trust that? Oh, what? Yeah, well, I mean, I think we see what he likes about this young woman is that she's kind of quiet, and, you know, she does what he says, right, even when they're sitting down for breakfast, and Monty, you know, he says, you know, eat your eggs like a good little girl. Yeah. He says, first of all, I'm not hungry. He says, eat your eggs like a good little girl, and then she does. Yeah. And, you know, throughout the movie, she kind of does what he's telling her. Yeah, and then he warns that look on her. Remember, at one point, he's like, that look of, what does he call it, wonderment or something. Yeah. That innocence is gone and will never come back because she's now been through too much. Yeah, and he seems to be worried about her turning into Rebecca, you know, who he talks about as a monster, but is it more so that she just has more agency. Oh, it could be. She has an identity of her own that he can't control. Wow. Yeah. That's a very dark picture of him. Yeah, well, he does have some of the cycles of abuse, like with the temper cards coming up. That scene in the car seems like, well, that's not very nice. Do you remember? Yeah. I mean, his temper comes up a lot. There's even one scene where, you know, he loses his temper. She gets very frazzled by it, and then she ends up apologizing for making him mad. This is when she says something about, well, people will gossip, and then he, like, yells at her. What do you mean gossip when they have to gossip about? And then he's like, oh, darling, you're upset. And she goes, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It was such a cruel thing to say. She didn't really say anything. So it's almost like, you know, he doesn't strike her. You know, we don't witness any abuse, but he puts her in this submissive position where he lashes out at her and she's apologizing to him. Yeah. So I have to say that I kind of saw it as one of the things I liked was the progression of their characters. So they started out with it was very imbalanced, and he was clearly sort of almost, not even almost, he was like a father figure to her. And that's a good way of putting it. She didn't have much agency. And when she started out in the house, she also didn't have much. She's just like, whatever you, the staff, whatever you think best, do that. And then we saw her start to break out of it, and then she'd, you know, take a step back, like when it was, you know, okay, I want to do the costume party. I'm going to plan this. This is going to be. You see her start to have a spark and some agency, and then she took a step back by taking a, you know. She got tricked, but it was really taking a step back of that. But then as she kind of went on, you saw her. I thought I saw her like gaining strength. And as she became more kind of sure of herself and had gone through these things, she lost that spark that he missed. But you also saw their relationship together grow more real and more, you know, it's like their relationship, as it became more balanced, it became more intimate. Yeah, and she certainly takes a stronger role in the latter part of the movie. Right. Until she's sent home. I mean, she does kind of save him when she faints, as he's starting to lose his temper. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems pretty clear that she did that intentionally. Right, which is also agency. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it's using her demeanor, you know, how she can show agency. Right. Working within the system that she's been given. Yeah. Yeah, so what do you think of Mrs. Danvers? Great character. Isn't she great? Yeah, she, I don't know who plays her, but. Judith Anderson. Oh, my gosh, she's really good. So she's, I don't know what character she reminds me of, but I feel like she must have been imitated in so many things. She's, you know, dressed in all black. She has this very. Stepmother. Yeah, right. Exactly. Maybe Melissa's her. Maybe Melissa's her, yeah, who's just, you know, she's the servant, but, you know, she's kind of running the whole thing, and she's. Yeah. But we also see later some vulnerability in her, you know, when it comes to the devotion she had to the first Mrs., to Rebecca. Anyway, it was. Yeah. You know, but that scene where she's trying to get the Joan Fontaine character to jump out the window. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. And she's just such a great character. She slips in and slips out and. Yeah. Yeah, that's intentional. You don't watch her enter. Yeah. In fact, in this scene when she's first in the West Wing, the second Mrs. De Winter is just kind of exploring this. Yeah. Kind of the museum to Rebecca, a shrine to Rebecca. Her room is preserved. And then we don't see Mrs. Danvers enter. She's just on the other side of this kind of sheer curtain or veil, almost. Maybe it's a canopy to the bed. I don't know. But you just see her merging through it. It's just fantastic. Yeah. Well, the other thing I would say is, you know, yes, we only get his version, which is going to be planted. But we also see the, we never meet Rebecca, but we see the effects that she has. The effects that she had is, first of all, Mrs. Danvers is very much, I'm on Rebecca's side, and therefore I'm against you. You know, I can't be, you know, I can't be for you. And then the other way we see Rebecca is through the Shere Khan character. Yes. Right? Her cousin who was also having an affair with her. Anyway. Anyway, yeah. So what we see is the effects of her is division. And that's, you know, so it's, you know, is she a, you know, you know something by its effects, and the effects are division. So I don't see him as being much. He's at least. I think there's an ambiguity. There's a good part of the truth that, you know, maybe he also doesn't like that, because maybe she presented herself as somebody with less agency so that they would get married, because apparently in the 1940s people would just meet each other and get married five days later. Yeah. And then she, but she also was. I think this is that well before the 1940s. Okay. Well, there's cars, so not too much before it. But I think this is definitely maybe like the 20s or. Okay. Seems older. So I don't know if I would, I might push back a little. Well, I think that it's ambiguous, because we don't know Rebecca. We don't. She's not a character in the movie. In fact, it was kind of funny when I asked you what you thought Rebecca was about. What did I say? You said it's about a woman named Rebecca. Actually, she's not in the movie. It is, in a sense, about her. But you also said, I hope it's not a ghost story. Oh, it is a ghost story. It's kind of a ghost story. Yeah. It's not a literal ghost story, but it is kind of haunted. Mandalay is kind of a haunted house. How about this, too? I wonder if maybe Mrs. Danvers also felt like she had some control over Rebecca. Yeah. Maybe the division is not from Rebecca, but it's from Mrs. Danvers, too. I don't know. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of subtext in the movie, particularly about the relationship between Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers, which a lot of people comment on that it's lesbian coded. Oh, really? Well, yeah. I mean, the way she handles her sheer nightgown, and she's going through her underwear. Yeah. And so there's a lot of subtext there that when Max is telling the story that after they got married, he learned her secret, maybe it's a little bit different than the one that he thought, like if he's just kind of a beard for her. Yeah. But it is ambiguous. It's not, I don't think there's an answer one way or the other. But there's, that's what, the movie, the tension of the movie kind of plays on these kind of, yeah, this social anxiety. Right. Now, the pregnancy would definitely have not come from. Well, no, no, no. But she wasn't pregnant. Right. But they thought she was. Yes. Mrs. Danvers thought she was, too, right? No. She didn't think she was pregnant? She was sure that she didn't commit suicide, but she didn't know that she went to the doctor, the doctor to whom she presented as Mrs. Danvers. Oh, okay. Maxim thought she was pregnant, or at least that's his story. Well, both of the guys did. Yeah. Shere Khan did, too. Mm-hmm. I don't remember what his name was in the movie. Favell. Favell, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, but it's kind of interesting when you go back the second time, because it's not that clear that Favell thinks she's pregnant with his child. He thinks that's why she's going to the doctor, but he also makes a comment where he thinks Frank was in love with Rebecca, the other financial guy. Okay. Yeah. So there's a lot of layers there. There is. And at one point, there was just one time when Frank said something, or Maxim said, I have to. Yeah, I have to tell you. I have to tell you what's really going on. Frank's like, I know what's really going on. Yeah. And then they don't explore, or at least I didn't catch that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So there are a lot of layers. Yeah. Yeah, and it is in that scene where Favell is on the phone at the end of the movie where Hitchcock makes his appearance standing outside of a phone booth. Oh, okay. Got it. Yeah. But going back to the social anxiety, I love that whole sequence with the Cupid that she breaks. Yeah. And she's kind of hiding it, and it's like there's no rational sense to it because she's like the lady of the house. Right. Oh, yeah, I broke this. Yeah. She shouldn't be afraid of her servants, but we understand that fear. Yeah. First of all, the demeanor of Mrs. Danvers. She's very intimidated. Right. She feels like an imposter. Yeah, she feels like an imposter. So it's almost she's kind of imprisoned by her own mind, right? Yeah. And she kind of makes the restrictions, her own restrictions in her head. Yeah. Yeah. And Fritz, the butler, comes in to ask about it, and then she confesses after Fritz leaves, and Maxim's like, why didn't you say that while he was here? And she's like, well, I was afraid to, to her butler, to say anything. Yeah. And he's like, well, that's going to look a lot worse now. But then he says, you've got to tell Mrs. Danvers. And she goes, oh, please, you tell her, I can't do that. Yeah. Which kind of mirrors earlier in the movie with their engagement about telling Mrs. Van Hopper. Oh, yeah. She's afraid to tell her and ask Maxim to do it for her. Yeah. So she does have this real, she feels her insecurity. Yeah. And in that sense, you know, Rebecca herself as a figure, this is kind of like an early version of the Instagram influencer, or this kind of, this woman is comparing herself against something, an ideal that doesn't exist. Yeah. Right. She's perfection and all her awkwardness, you know, she knocks over a vase at the table, she breaks things, she's always doing crazy things, or she's doing careless things, saying the wrong thing, and she's very, but she's always comparing herself to Rebecca. Right, never live up to the. It's kind of a really interesting version of what people are still dealing with today, but in a different way. Yeah. On social media and stuff. Uh-huh. And, oh, the Max's sister. Uh-huh. Did you recognize her? I mean, she looks familiar. Vyce Cooper. She's from. She's, and I think it's Mother. Oh, okay. Yeah. Much later, so. Much later. Yeah. Yeah, so this was Hitchcock's. Yeah, he came from the British film industry, where he was like the top dog, and the producer of this movie is David O. Selznick, who's one of the most controlling producers on the MGM lot. He was just cutting off the success of his career with Gone with the Wind. He produced that. Oh, the year before. The year before. And he's famous for, he sees the producer as the author of movies. Okay. And the director is just like your. Employer. Your guy on the set to make things happen. So they really clashed. Uh-huh. He was famous for sending his directors these really long memos that detail every aspect of production. But Hitchcock gave a great interview much later in his career, where he says, he goes, when I went to Hollywood to make Rebecca, I received a memo from Mr. Selznick. I have just finished reading it. I plan to make it my next film. I shall call it the longest story ever told. Wow. Yeah. But, you know, he kind of paid his dues in Hollywood and ended up getting a lot of control on his later movies and really has a spectacular career, of course. Yeah. Particularly heading into the 50s with Rear Window Vertigo. Oh, my gosh. Oh, wait. You're talking about Hitchcock? Hitchcock. Yeah. Yes, yes. I thought you meant the producer. No. David S. Selznick. Yeah. I mean, he kind of peaked here with back-to-back Best Picture Oscars with Summer of the Wind and Rebecca. He ended up having a romance with actress Jennifer Jones and put a lot of money into an epic called Duel of the Sun, which ended up kind of vanishing his career. It was kind of an expensive movie that lost money. Wow. Yeah, but that's Rebecca. Anything else on Rebecca? The only other question I have is, so where do you – I presume that you like this movie. I like it a lot. I think it's a great movie. David, how do you feel about it winning the Oscar this year for Best Picture? I think it's certainly Best Picture worthy. If I were a voter that year, I would have voted for – well, my favorite movie of the year is the Top Around the Corner of the nominees. I would go with The Grapes of Wrath. It's so good. Was it – do you know if there was a front-runner for the Oscars that year or anything? Yeah. Rebecca was a huge hit. It was the biggest hit of the year. Okay. So it's probably not surprising. Grapes of Wrath ended up winning Best Director. Oh, really? Okay. So they split the – Yeah. We'll get into that in a minute. Okay. When we get to that. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's a great movie. I would say probably the weakest part is the ending scenes with all the courtroom stuff. Not that it's bad. I just think it's much better in Manderley. In the psychological drama. Yeah. And I like the Monte Carlo scenes are really good, too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as far as Hitchcock goes, I mean, it's not a slight to Rebecca, but it would probably be just so many others that I would have ahead of it. Probably have it. Maybe in my top ten, Hitchcock, but – Okay. Is this only Best Picture wins? It's only Best Picture wins. It never wins Best Director. Oh, really? Nope. Yeah. One of the things with Hitchcock is his great movies always come in really competitive years. So Rear Window comes out the same year as On the Waterfront. Okay. Psycho, as big as six, comes out the same year as The Apartment. Okay. And both of those we haven't gotten to yet. I don't think we'll get to them for a while. North by Northwest is up against Ben-Hur, which we already talked about. We weren't that thrilled with, but it was a juggernaut. It's a hard movie to compete with. Yeah. Vertigo came out in a really terrible year. Gigi was the eventual winner, but Vertigo is just a movie that didn't – it was rediscovered much later. Nobody really liked it, either critics or audiences at the time. Yeah. But his strongest contenders seem to come in very competitive years, as this one did. So are we ready to get to the limerick? Yeah. I do. I have the limerick. Yes. This is the one you wrote? This is Chat GPT. Chat GPT. In Manderley, dark and forlorn, a tale of intrigue was born. With Mrs. Danvers so sly and a house up so high, Hitchcock's Rebecca leaves us torn. All right. But that was my question. Does it really leave us torn? Not really. Yeah. That's what I thought. I mean, there are some ambiguities there. She does kind of get away with – Well, one of the differences in – because of the production code from the book – in the book, he shoots Rebecca. Oh. So they have to – Because in here, they have – You can't have him get away with murder. Right. So she has to die by accident. Yeah. So – Yeah. Yeah. So my limerick, which I just wrote last night because I forgot. That's so good, though. Well, thanks. Rebecca's been dead for a year. Her replacement is saddled with fear. Mrs. Danvers' grief-ridden old secrets unhidden in the mansion's inferno draws near. I love it. Oh, thank you. It's so good. Okay. Yeah. So Rebecca got ten Oscar nominations. Okay. That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot. Three acting nominations. Okay. Can you guess who? Laurence Olivier? Mm-hmm. John Fontaine? Mm-hmm. Mrs. Danvers? Yeah. Susan Sanderson. Yeah. So Laurence Olivier would lose to James Stewart for The Philadelphia Story. Do you want me to call him Jimmy Stewart? Jimmy Stewart, yes. You can call me that. He'll answer the phone. Okay. Will he, though? Well, not since 1996. Okay. Joan Fontaine would lose to Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle. Okay. And Judith Anderson loses to Jane Darwell, who won Best Supporting Actress for playing Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. Okay. A very competitive year. Rebecca actually only won two of its ten. Oh. Yeah. And only won Best Picture and Best Cinematography. Okay. So, I mean, I think it stings more to the competitiveness of the years than... Did it get sort of evenly divided, more or less, among the movies? More or less, yeah. In fact, the movie that won the most was The Thief of Baghdad, which is kind of a fantasy, an Aladdin story. Okay. So it won a lot of the technical categories. It won three. Oh, okay. This won two. Grapes of Wrath won two. Pinocchio won two. Okay. So Alfred Hitchcock lost to Laurence Olivier. No, Alfred Hitchcock lost to John Ford, as I said. Okay. I'm not going to argue with that. I mean, Hitchcock deserved an Oscar, but for other... In other years. Yeah, the acting ones, I don't really begrudge. Although, I'd stay that for Junot Anderson. I actually think best... Well, I think I would definitely go with Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath, as much as I love Jimmy Stewart. And Katherine Hepburn should have won for The Philadelphia Story. Ginger Rogers is good, but I mean, that's an all-timer performance. Did Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine ever win Best Actor or Best Actress? Yeah. Joan Fontaine wins the next year for Suspicion. Okay. And Laurence Olivier wins eight years later for a movie we've already watched. Hamlet? Hamlet, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, yeah. It won Best Cinematography. So Laurence Olivier in this movie is Hamlet in the next one? Mm-hmm. He plays Hamlet. Eight years later, yeah. But he's blonde in Hamlet. Uh-huh. That's movie magic. That's the lighting. That's weird. And it's weirder because he looks younger in Hamlet. I know. Yeah, we talked about that. I commented in our Hamlet episode about he looks too old for the part. And he said, oh, he looks so young. He looks so young, but he looks younger than... And he's eight years younger here. Wow. Okay. Yeah, the only other one I would begrudge is Art Direction. It lost to Pride and Prejudice, a 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice, which I've seen, but the detail is the design of Manderley. I mean, that's such a character in the movie. I don't see how it loses to Pride and Prejudice. It's a scandal. Well, it is what it is. But, you know, I can understand the score loses to Pinocchio. Good score. Which I understand, yeah. So let's do that tune. Okay. With the best song winner, which I think we'll get. We'll test your knowledge of... 1940 songs. 1940 songs. Okay. When you wish upon a star. Yeah, obviously, it's a classic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so that's 1940. Good year. Really great year, yeah. Yeah, wow. So we're about to close out the non-top 20 movie. Okay. So what do we think is coming up next at number 21? Great movie center left. What one's not going to make the top 20? I mean, Parasite, I never heard of. Why is that going to make the top 20? Well, we don't know it. So do I just have to pick one or I do mine? Well, do yours, yeah. I have the best years of our lives. Amadeus, No Country for Old Men, Moonlight, and Parasite. Yes. Okay. You've had those for a while. I've had those for like eight months. That's not quite. Yeah, I have Unforgiven, Left Side Story, The Sign of the Lambs, Bridge on the River Clyde. What are you going to add? I'm going to go with Annie Hall. Annie Hall, Dennis, what's wrong with you? You're a big Schindler's. I've never seen, have I seen Schindler's? I've never seen Schindler's List. I've always wanted to. Well, you will. Which one do you think it is? Well, I had picked, way back when I picked Amadeus at 21. Yeah, that would be so wild. That's my pick. Yeah, I will pick Unforgiven. Okay. That's what I think it is. Could be either of those. Amadeus, we both win. Yeah, but you'll get the point. Yeah. All right. Okay. Let's see. Oh, Left Side Story. That is not, well, you had it on your list. I saw my list. Okay. 1964. Oh, it's too late. I need to watch both Left Side Stories. Oh, yeah. There's the Steven Spielberg rebates here. You definitely have to watch the 61 version. Okay. 1961, Left Side Story. Yeah. Okay. I was into that. Yeah, I'm excited to watch it again. Yes. Yes. You've seen it. I have seen it. Okay. So, we'll be back next week with Left Side Story. Bye-bye.