The Divorcee (1930)



“All men are fair game from now on!”

The Divorcee, made in 1930 when sound was still new and the studios were still trying to find what worked with the new technology, was very risqué for its time. The film is Pre-Code so there is a biting sense of realism and daring which made it risqué. The plot addresses how men and women deal with sexuality and the double standards that arise.

            On a retreat to the country, Ted asks Jerry (Norma Shearer) to marry him and she happily agrees. Paul has loved Jerry for a long time and he is heartbroken over the engagement. He gets drunk and that night gets into an accident which seriously disfigures a girl named Dorothy. Ted and Jerry marry and Paul marries Dorothy.

            The night of their third anniversary, their friend Don stops by with a group of their other friends. One lady happens to know Ted all too well. Ted and the woman go into the kitchen to talk when Jerry walks in on them hugging. Jerry is angry with Ted and later that night she cannot bear to be left in her apartment alone so she has Don take her out. Longing looks and loving touches are exchanged and eventually lead to a one night stand.

            When Ted comes back Jerry tells him she " balanced their books.” Ted is none too happy with Jerry but she cannot understand why it is ok for him to go out with someone on the side for as long as he did and she only had a one night stand. He said that what he did “was not the same.” The couple decides to divorce.

            Jerry has a fabulous time with her new found freedom. She goes to parties and sees random men. One man she comes across after many years is Paul. He still married to Dorothy but unhappily; she never lets him forget what he did to her face. He says they are most unhappy because his wife knows he is still in love with Jerry. He tells her that he will get a divorce and she can come live with him in Japan where he has been sent to work. Jerry agrees to this but not everything goes to plan. Dorothy comes to tell them how much she still loves Paul which shows how much she is willing to fight for him and how much she loves him. Jerry realizes that she never fought to stay with Ted she just let her marriage fall apart. Ted has been living in Paris and she goes to find him and make things right.



            Today the plot of divorce and spouses/couples cheating on each other is nothing new but back in the 1930s this was a subject that had never been portrayed in films. When The Divorcee was released it was extremely controversial.

            Norma Shearer up to this point had always played a proper lady and she was very eager to play something else. She was “Queen of the Lot” at MGM mostly because she was married to Irving Thalberg who was head producer at the studio and gave her all the good roles. Everyone at MGM was skeptical they did not think she had enough sex appeal but Shearer was sure she could handle the part so she had the famous photographer George Hurrell shoot some “racy” photos of her. Well they must have gotten some pulses racing and tales wagging because she got the part. I recently read about Norma Shearer and she felt repressed sexually and in many of her films where her character had to be seductive she was able to express her sexuality (the book I read was very good it was written by Gavin Lambert).

 

          

         I liked the performances in this film. Norma Shearer would win her only Academy Award for her role as Jerry. She was good but I still have to wonder who she was up against for her to have won. I guess she won more for her characters content and let’s face it acting for sound and acting for the screen itself was still being perfected. There’s something about Shearer that is attracting, she was not very pretty but for some reason I think she had a very nice face and her sexy stares were quite sexy. A very young Robert Montgomery plays Don with whom Jerry as her affair with. He provided a bit of the comic relief. Jerry never told Ted who she had her one night stand with so Don got nervous when she said she was going to tell Ted about their night together. Montgomery played a pretty sly guy but when Jerry said she was going to tell her husband about their night he told his butler to get him on a boat going anywhere. He played that scene very well with the perfect touch of comedy.

            I also liked the Art Deco sets. Art Deco is one of my favorite art movements to study. The style would show up repeatedly and very popularly on film sets and clothing throughout the 1930s (in the Astaire/Rogers films just about all their lavish sets are Art Deco).

            The Divorcee is a film to watch if you are interested in the history of cinema in America and of Pre-Code films. The film has largely gone unwatched for many years because it is out of style and Norma Shearer has unfortunately faced the same fate as the film. If you can watch The Divorcee in context of the time period you will be able to see it as scandalous and risqué and enjoy it.

Psycho (1960)



“I think I must have one of those faces you can't help believing.”

Ever since I first watched Psycho I have always asked myself the question of why this film is so great. After seeing several Hitchcock films such as Rebecca, Notorious, Spellbound, To Catch a Thief, and several others I still could not understand the big deal with Psycho. Then I realized for the most part that like any classic movie to truly appreciate it you need to look at the time period it was made in… and do a little bit of research along the way.

            One of the big questions about Psycho is what makes this film so scary? We look today at what is considered “horror” often with half naked women running around as a crazed guy in a mask runs through the woods chasing them with a blade. Modern horror movies do not grip us psychologically. The bad guys are scary to look but that is about all they are not real and we know that. Psycho is what makes Alfred Hitchcock a genius he made a genuine horror movie that was realistic in its subject. What unnerves us as the viewers so much is knowing that men like Norman Bates exist in the real world and that what happens to Marion Crane could happen to anyone.

            Paranoia plays a major role in the film. All the main characters go through a state of paranoia. The point when Marion steals the money the characters and the audience are put into a constant state of paranoia. It is a great device and feeling that other “thrillers” severely lack. We get into Marion’s paranoia over the simplest things. As she drives away from Phoenix after she has seen her boss she starts to imagine what everyone must be saying about her. We see her squirming in her seat and fear in her eyes. Marion feels paranoid believing someone besides her coworkers know what she has done and this feeling intensifies when the cop knocks on her car window. Even Norman becomes paranoid when his sinks Marion’s car with her body in it and it stops a bit before it submerges completely. The killer starts to unravel with paranoia when Detective Arbogast and Lila Crane and Sam start coming around asking questions.  We are lead to feel for Marion we want her to get away. Even though Norman is a bad guy we take a deep breath in anxiety hoping the car will go down so he will not be caught. To me the best example of paranoia and fear is when Lila is walking through Norman's mother's room and she catches her reflection in the mirror really quick and scares herself. That was awesome it shows how on edge she was and also broke the tension somewhat. 

            No analysis of Psycho would be complete without talking of the most famous scene in cinematic history: the shower scene. If you can look at this scene deeply it is truly terrifying and genius. Hitchcock played on the fact that we are at our most vulnerable when we are naked alone in the shower. Marion’s privacy and vulnerability has been brutally invaded. This is what shocked and disturbed so many movie goers when the film premiered. Hitchcock also used the idea that what you do not see is scarier than what you do see. We never see the knife plunge into Marion the camera quickly cuts away before we see contact. At the end of the brutal commotion is a great transition from the water flowing down the drain to Marion’s open dead eye. Truffaut asked Hitchcock what attracted him to turn the novel Psycho is based off of into a movie to which the director replied “the suddenness of the murder in the shower, coming as it were, out of the blue. That was about all.”

            Another aspect that shocked audience members is the killing of Janet Leigh half way through the film. This was never done before no one was expecting to see her die. This was part of Hitchcock trying to direct the viewers away from what they were so used to doing when they went to movies. As viewers we try to think we are clever and know what will happen next, he was deliberately playing on the fact that he could control the audiences’ thoughts. It is always a shock when something happens that we do not see coming.

            Adding as much of the tension and shock is the incredible score by Bernard Herrmann. The music does not move us it is cold and sterile only played by strings. The music does not allow for any attachment emotionally to the characters which we are not truly meant to. Herrmann made the score a bit twisted; the strings are soft while being played on a high note. Hitchcock did not want a lot of music being played throughout the film, he did not even want music in the shower scene mostly because there is not instrumental music playing all around someone in real life. Once he heard the score for the scene Hitchcock changed his mind.

            Now I do appreciate Psycho more than I used to once I read about it and watched in a film class I took but I will have to disagree that this is Hitchcock’s greatest film. Yes it has left a very long and fantastic legacy on film making but I just do not see it as the director’s best. It is a very good story because it strikes a nerve it is something that could happen it could be real. I will say the film making is the best I have ever seen I will always be amazed by the cinematography and the direction. To me Psycho is just not as good as Hitchcock’s early American films.

            When Hitchcock was interviewed by François Truffaut about Psycho, the director said that he did not care about the subject matter or about the acting what he really cared about was getting to the audience through filmmaking and making them scream. He made this thriller for the audience. Even after its release fifty-one years ago audiences are still left amazed and terrified.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)



“If you had it all to do over again, would you still have married me?”

            I’m sure a lot of married couples ask themselves this question from time to time. Well what if you had the opportunity to marry your spouse again? Would you? Hitchcock tackles the theme of marriage and doing the whole thing over in his only true comedy film Mr. and Mrs. Smith starring the queen of screwball Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery.

            David and Ann Smith have been happily married for three years. Of course like all married couples they have their share of arguments. A rule they have is they cannot leave the bedroom until they have made up after they have fought. The film opens with the couple just waking up in the morning. There are dishes strewn all over the room and Ann and David are not in bed together. The hired help say the couple have been in their room for six days, the longest they have ever gone without talking and coming out of the room. A few minutes later they start talking to each other. They sit down at a table to breakfast and Ann asks David if he could marry her all over again would he. He simply answers “No” he misses his freedom.

            Later in the day when David is at work a man comes to tell him that his marriage to Ann is not legal because of some boarder dispute. David sees this as an opportunity to woo Ann all over again and ask her to marry him all over again. Unfortunately Ann is greeted by a visit by the same man who went to David (he knew Ann when she was younger). Ann does not mention this meeting to David, she gives him the opportunity to propose and marry her that night.

            Well, things do not go over very smoothly and Ann kicks David out of the apartment. Ann enjoys her new found sense of freedom even getting a job (which David then has her fired from) and starts dating David’s friend Jeff. David realizes he misses his wife and does what he can to get her back. 

            I bought this film because, one, it is a Hitchcock film and it is a comedy and two, Carole Lombard is the star and I had never seen her in anything before this. I was excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith knowing that Hitchcock always had a touch of (dark) comedy in his films; unfortunately I was left with the feeling that I desperately wanted to like the film so much and I just could not. It almost had all the right ingredients for being a perfect comedy with Hitchcock directing and Lombard and Montgomery as the stars but there just seemed to be a need for something more. The script is not strong, it does have some good points but not many and the characters, as hard as I tried to like them I just could not I found them stubborn, which is the point, but almost to the point of annoyance. Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that he did not really understand the characters and just did what was written. His feeling of not knowing the characters may be the element that is missing the characters are just formulaic with none of the Hitchcock touch. He directed the film out of a favor to Lombard whom the Hitchcocks were renting a house from.

            I do like how Ann and David’s egos will not let them sit and talk to each other to work things out. Ann now has a new found freedom and a new sense of pride and David just cannot live without his wife he needs her and will not give up. Towards the middle of the film Ann realizes for how many faults David has she cannot live without him either. I also like all the sexual innuendo. When the couple sits at the table for breakfast, Ann moves her bare feet up and down David’s leg. The ending is one many people should know or at least have seen screen still. Ann gets stuck in her skis and cannot get up off the chair. David comes over looks longingly down at her, then kisses her, and Ann no longer resists. These are two scenes that I think perfectly demonstrate Hitchcock’s mastery at sexual innuendo and getting around the censors.  

            Mr. and Mrs. Smith is definitely not one of Hitchcock’s strongest films but it is one that all fans of his should see. As I said there are some good comedic moments as well as some wise cracks. Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery are two great actors and worked very well off each other even if their characters were fighting most of the time. Mr. and Mrs. Smith is interesting to see since Hitchcock always directed dark stories with some bits of dark comedy. He definitely had the touch for comedy but this story was not too much of a good vehicle for it. I often wonder what another pure comedy from Hitchcock with the right script could have been like.



The Ghost Breakers (1940)

“Are you the one advising Miss Carter to sell the castle?”
“No, my advice is keep the castle and sell the ghosts.”

            The Ghost Breakers is not a typical ghost story. It is a comedy film starring two very funny people, Paulette Goddard and Bob Hope. The film has its silly moments just like all old comedies but the silliness does not go over the top here. There are many small, sneaky jokes that you have to sometimes listen for carefully.

            Goddard plays Mary Carter who has just inherited an old family castle called“Castillo Maldito” on an island off of Cuba. She is repeatedly warned with death threats against going to the mansion but curiosity and, in a way, a sense of family pride gets the better of her and she decides to go anyway. Hope plays a radio host named Larry Lawrence (“Your name is Lawrence Lawrence?” “My parents had no imagination.”). He gets into trouble with a crime boss after he does an expose on him. The crime boss calls Larry to the hotel where he lives and where Mary also happens to be staying. The hotel experiences a blackout along with the rest of the city during a lightning storm. Larry jumps at the sound of a gunshot and accidentally fires his own gun. When the lights go on there is a body on the floor and he thinks he shot the man lying on the floor.

            Mary hears the shot as well and opens the door. Larry comes into Mary’s room. She had just been listening to his broadcast on the radio and takes a liking to him. The police arrive and knock on Mary’s door; they have to search every room on the floor. Larry hides in Mary’s luggage case. Before she can open the case to let Larry it is taken away to be boarded on a ship to Cuba.

            On the boat, Larry and Mary as well as Larry’s friend Alex learn that Larry was not the killer someone else killed a man named Medereo who was supposed to be taking Mary to Cuba. Larry and Alex act as Mary’s bodyguards keeping watch on her door and outside on the ship’s deck. A man named Geoff Montgomery who Mary knows said that he knows Cuba inside and out and he could be her guide around the island. 

            On the night the group arrives in Cuba, Larry and Alex go to the castle leaving Mary behind so nothing will happen to her but she comes by later on determined not to be left out of the action. They come across strange goings on and a killer no one saw coming.

            Paulette Goddard and Bob Hope were so adorable together. This was their second film together they had made a film called Cat and the Canary before this.  Their camaraderie is perfect they just worked so well off of each other. Both actors did wonderfully in their parts. One scene I really enjoyed between Goddard and Hope was when Larry was trying to comfort Mary after someone had posted a death threat on her door. Larry starts pretending to be a society person saying how he would like to take Mary to a dance and Mary plays right off of him and does the same thing. I give Goddard so much praise for her comedic timing she was very capable and able to keep up with Hope and deliver her lines perfectly.

            As I said in the beginning, there are many funny lines where if you are not listening carefully or paying attention you will miss them. I found many of the line quiet clever. In the castle Larry and Alex fight off a zombie. The zombie put on armor to hide so he could attack the two men. Larry yells out as he is fighting the zombie “Quick get the can opener!” When Mary got to the castle she ripped her bathing robe (she swam up to the castle when she got off a small fishing boat) on the stairs after something frightened her. She finds an old dress in the trunk and puts it on. When she comes down the stairs after changing Larry and Alex have just finished fighting off the zombie. The zombie opens the door and scares Mary into Larry’s embrace. Larry likes this reaction and jokingly tells Alex to open the door again.

            This was the third time The Ghost Breakers was made into a film. The story originally appeared on Broadway then as a film in the years 1914 and 1922. The 1922 version was directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Unfortunately both original prints of the films are considered lost. In a scene in this version before the boat pulls into harbor, Larry comments on the history of the castle saying “Sounds like a Cecil B. DeMille script.”

            Iconic movie costume designer Edith Head designed the clothing worn in the movie. Her costumes were a great touch of chic.  

            No “scary” movie would be complete with a little zombie action. Larry and some of the other character mention how there is voodoo being done around the castle and a zombie is said to roam the grounds. They talk about how horrible it must be to not have a mind of your own like a zombie. This reminded me a bit of the film I Walked With a Zombie.

            The Ghost Breakers is a good old comedy film that is guaranteed to make you laugh. What is so great about this film is that something like this was not done before. To this day The Ghost Breakers is still fresh and funny.



That Wonderful Urge (1949)



“Good! Tell them I'm not your husband. Don't let me go through life with that blot on my record”

            That Wonderful Urge is a predictable comedy.  It really did not need to be as long as it was, just by looking at the poster you knew Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power were going to wind up together in the end (oh I’m sorry was this a spoiler? If this was, you obviously have not seen too many romantic comedy movies in your life or pretty much any movie for that matter).

            The plot is really silly and boring by the middle. Gene Tierney plays Sara Farley a wealthy socialite who has her life splashed across the pages of newspapers and gossip columns. Tyrone Power plays Tomas Jefferson Tyler a newspaper writer sent to write about Sara. Tom sees that Sara is a really nice girl and starts to kind of feel bad about writing about her. One day Tom and Sara are out skiing when Tom hits his head and gets a little knocked out. They find a small hut for stranded people and remain there until help comes. The two get to know each other and Tom sees another side to this much gossiped about socialite. After they are rescued he has nothing but nice things to write about her but unfortunately the papers do not print this story immediately and Sara only sees the slander Tom had previously written about her.  

            To get back at Tom Sara tells everyone that she and Tom are married. This whole situation throws Tom into a wreck and makes his life miserable. He gets fired by his paper and he has nowhere to stay since he is late on rent. He tries to marry a girl friend of his but everyone believes that he and Sara are really married and no one will marry him and his friend.

            After this it is pretty much all about Tom and Sara one upping each other in embarrassment which gets old very quickly and is not always funny.

            Gene Tierney is one of my favorite actresses and all I had ever seen her in up to this point has been dramas. I liked Tierney in this role it is something different from what I was used to seeing her in. Sara Farley as a character is annoying but Tierney was very good. One scene I really enjoyed with her was when Sara and Tom are put in jail for the night. She starts singing a song to get on Tom’s nerves. Tierney had a pretty good singing voice. Sara then asks Tom for his last cigarette and he teases her holding the cigarette out so she can’t reach it with her mouth then she takes his hand and bites it! He starts throwing his shoes and whatever he can at her and she is just sitting on her cot puffing her cigarette and smoking.

            This was the first time I have ever seen Tyrone Power in a film. I like him as an actor but like Tierney with Sara the character of Tom was annoying.

            That Wonderful Urge is a remake of an earlier Tyrone Power film called Love is News with Loretta Young. Apparently from what I have read the original is better. I would not doubt that. I believe I read somewhere that during the late 1940s Daryl Zanuck decided it would be a good idea to remake movies and this was probably one of them. The film does have some very good funny scenes especially in the middle when Tom and Sara start to see there really are feelings between them (the two actors had been in The Razor’s Edge where they had very good chemistry which carries over here). Watch That Wonderful Urge if you are not in the mood to really think about the movie you are watching or if you are a fan if either Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power.

            Youtube currently has this available to view. The film is a little difficult to find on DVD.

Rebecca (1940)

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“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

            I am often asked how was it that I came to have a passion for classic films. That is a simple question I always answer by saying my great-grandma loves Cary Grant and being curious I started to watch his films and from there I started watching classic films. One question I am never asked is what was the movie that sealed my love for classic films and my great admiration for Hitchcock. Well what sealed my love for classic films and Hitchcock is his first American film Rebecca. I can remember the first time I sat through this film: I had recently bought Hitchcock’s Notorious and Spellbound because Ingrid Bergman starred in both films. I was talking to my great-grandma about these films and I mentioned that I saw the DVD for Rebecca. She said Rebecca was an excellent film that I would really like it. So the day after I saw her I bought the film and after it was over I understood why Hitchcock was a genius and why he is considered the greatest director of all time.

            The beginning of Rebecca is like a fairy tale: a young girl working as a companion to an annoying old woman meets and falls in love with a wealthy older man (who was old enough to be her father according to the book) and the two have a world wind romance. The girl has to leave with her companion but she does not want to go for if she goes she will never see the man again. The man asks her to marry him. After they marry he takes the young bride to his castle of a home in the English country side. But alas, this is a Hitchcock film here and no story line of his films is ever pleasant for very long. The new bride is not well liked by the head maid and starts to become frightened of the women. Secrets come out that should have remained hidden. Feeling tormented the poor girl starts to fear for her life.

            The element which makes Rebecca such an amazing film and so suspenseful and heart pounding besides the story is the acting. Without Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, and Judith Anderson in their roles as The Second Mrs. De Winter, Maxim De Winter, and Mrs. Danvers the film would not have been as powerful, each actor was exceptional in their roles.

            If there had been anyone else besides Joan Fontaine in the role of the Second Mrs. De Winter the character and the story would not have worked. Hitchcock always knew who he wanted in the roles of the characters in his films. He had seen a screen test of Fontaine for The Second Mrs. De Winter and liked her, he knew she was the nearest to the heroine of the story. David Selznick insisted on making tests of just about every actress in Hollywood like he did for Gone With the Wind just to drum up some publicity since it worked so well the first time. Hitchcock said he found the whole thing a bit embarrassing seeing all these women try out for the role when he knew who he wanted. He saw that Fontaine could play the character in a nice, quiet shy manner which she did. (Speaking of Gone With the Wind… Laurence Olivier wanted his then girlfriend Vivien Leigh for the part of the Second Mrs. De Winter. Since Leigh did not get the part Olivier was hostile to Fontaine throughout the filming of the movie.) From the first moment you see Fontaine on the screen after Maxim yells at her to leave him alone you feel for her: she cowers hurtfully and sadly away when she was only trying to help him.

Fontaine gives an excellent performance throughout the film. Once back at Manderley The Second Mrs. De Winter feels cornered, overwhelmed, scared, and nervous; Fontaine plays these emotions very well most likely because she was feeling the same since Olivier was mean to her and Hitchcock told her everyone on the set was out to get her (what a nice guy).

            Laurence Olivier, in the movies I have seen of him, played the same character as Maxim De Winter over and over. But the monotony this time works to a great advantage. I have read the book twice since I first saw the film and Olivier portrays the character perfectly; he’s handsome and wise but there is something dark and troublesome lurking underneath. Olivier had the look as well for the character he was handsome and had charm and at the same time could be cold.  

            Where to even begin on how incredibly perfect Judith Anderson was as Mrs. Danvers? No one could have been more creepy and unsettling than Anderson in the role. When Mrs. Danvers is first seen when the newlyweds come back to Manderley I had this feeling that she would be up to no good and my heart gave a little flip. Mrs. Danvers is the suspense in this film she is sinister and dark and her motives are twisted and insane. She was never shown in motion; to show her moving would have humanized her and there is no reason whatsoever for us to like her. Hitchcock explained the character and her functions the best:  

            “Mrs. Danvers was almost never seen walking and was rarely shown in motion. If she entered a room in which the heroine was, what happened is that the girl suddenly heard a sound and there was the ever present Mrs. Danvers, standing perfectly still by her side. In  this way the whole situation was projected from the heroine’s point of view; she never knew when Mrs. Danvers might turn up, and this, in itself was terrifying.” (Hitchcock/Truffaut)

            Another very important character to the story is Manderley itself. The house is in an isolated area of the English countryside. To add to the isolation we do not even know what town Manderley is in. The characters especially The Second Mrs. De Winter has nowhere to turn she is completely alone. The house is so huge it feels cold and uninviting.

            What I find fascinating about the story of Rebecca is how domineering the woman was in life and what a hold she had on Maxim and how even in death she managed wreak havoc on him and everyone around him. The whole story is told through a young woman’s view; she is not experienced in love or with taking care of a large house with a staff. From the start we are shown that Rebecca plays on The Second Mrs. De Winter’s mind even when she is at the hotel. The fear and suspense is all made possible through this poor character’s fear and paranoia and of trying to live up to what Rebecca was and what people must think of her with their possible constant comparisons to the dead woman. All The Second Mrs. De Winter hears is how beautiful Rebecca was and what a great lady she was and she feels so plain and insignificant. Adding suspense and paranoia the character is constantly fumbling or breaking things or wringing her hands or a handkerchief.

            All the fear is brought on from something no one else knows. All anyone knows about the woman was what they saw in public. They all believe she was so wonderful and outgoing. To Maxim she is a monster who was evil and manipulative. In the film Maxim tells his wife that Rebecca’s death was an accident he went to talk to her and she fell hitting her head. He did not want people to think he killed her so he put her in her boat and sunk it. In the book Maxim shot Rebecca purposely but because of the Production Code of the time period movie Maxim could not be a killer and get away with it. Maxim killing Rebecca is the whole point of the book it explains everything about him. After Maxim tells his wife what happened we are given the sense that he could have killed her: his horrible temper is mentioned over and over again blurring the lines between guilt and innocence and his behavior along with his wife’s after he tells her are consistent with guilt.

            Hitchcock questioned the line of the story asking why when Maxim had identified the body of another woman as Rebecca’s there was no inquest but when the real body of his first wife is found there is an inquest. Very interesting thought indeed.

              Over the summer I happened to find a biography on Daphne Du Maurier. The book was a very interesting read. So much of Du Maurier was put into Rebecca it is almost autobiographical. Du Maurier lived in Cornwall on the English coast where when she was younger she saw a house called Menabilly which would become the setting for Rebecca (in her later life she would live in Menabilly). Her husband was a high ranking officer in the British Navy so he had money to hire servants. Du Maurier never knew how to give commands to the servants. She grew up wealthy and used to be friends with the servants her parents hired so giving commands was uncomfortable for her. Her husband had previously been married to a beautiful woman before she met him. The woman actually lived with them for a while and during the War she killed herself. Du Maurier felt that her husband was haunted by her death and never got over her in a way. The book version of Mrs. Danvers and parts of the film version reflect Du Maurier’s psyche. Book Mrs. Danvers obviously had very strong almost lesbian feelings for Rebecca; Du Maurier in her letters and journal claims to have lived with “a boy in the box” or had “Venetian tendencies”- in other words she had strong lesbian feelings for other women even though she was married with children (her father made her a bit screwy and always said he had wished she was a boy).

            Rebecca is the only film Hitchcock made to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.  This is truly a Hitchcock masterpiece. It was a perfect film to kick off his incredible and long work in Hollywood. My favorite scene in a Hitchcock film and the whole reason I became addicted to classic movies is the scene where Maxim describes the night Rebecca died. As he explains the woman’s movements moments before her death the camera follows the movements by panning the camera up when she got up and moving towards the door as she had moved towards the door. Me explaining the scene will never do it justice you just have to see it the scene just totally and completely captivated me. From the opening scene to the ending scene there is not one fault in this film whatsoever. Every character is perfectly cast, the cinematography is outstanding (this also won an Academy Award), and the story is breathtaking. This is the only instance where I have found both the movie and book to be fantastic I could not tell you which is better (I will say the movie ending is ten time better than the book ending).

            If you have never seen a Hitchcock film in your life and would like to start forget Psycho and watch Rebecca. I guarantee you will be absolutely addicted and breathless from the first line of the film all the way to closing scene.

The Clairvoyant





The Clairvoyant is a film you probably have never heard of unless you are a fan of Claude Rains or Fay Wray. Or you just happened to have come across somehow. One day I was looking around Amazon to see what Fay Wray films are available on DVD and The Clairvoyant came up. The plot sounded interesting and Claude Rains is in the film as well so that did not hurt. Luckily I did not have to buy the DVD or even download it, I recently bought an app on my iPhone called Movie Vault which contains hundreds of old movies. The app does not have popular films the films are ones that could be considered cult hits or not the best.

            Rains plays a phony psychic named Maximus who along with his wife Rene (Fay Wray) perform mind reading shows in English music halls. Rene stands next to plants in the audience and Maximus pretends to read their minds. When Rene does not get to the balcony in time Maximus focuses on a young woman named Christina Shaw in the audience. All of the sudden he is able to go into a real psychic trance.

            Later on, Maximus, Rene, and Maximus’ mother are on a train. They run into Christine and all of sudden Maximus predicts the train will be in a terrible accident. He pulls the emergency switch stopping the train. The psychic, his wife, and mother along with Christine exit the train. When they arrive at a train control center they hear of the train’s crash. Christine’s father owns a newspaper. She convinces him to run Maximus’ story. The story makes Maximus famous.

            Maximus’ next predition is of a horse race. The horse he picks wins. After the race he is invited to a gentleman’s club to give a speech. Christine goes to the club even though she is not supposed to be there. He sees his mother’s face on hers for a moment; his mother will. She dies trying to stop him from using his powers.

            The psychic’s third vision gets him into serious trouble.

            I found The Clairvoyant- though short and not many things excellently explained- to be entertaining. This is an early British sound film so it is not as good as many American films being made at the time. Claude Rains never fails to give a great performance. You can believe him to be a phony clairvoyant who loves his wife. Fay Wray was a great actress and she was so pretty. It is a shame (and not a total shame) that she will always be known as Ann Darrow from King Kong, Ann just screamed all the time which did not allow Wray to act with lines too much. She was very good as Rains’ wife Rene. It was sad to see her so upset with Christine always hanging around her husband.

            The Clairvoyant is a film to watch if you are into film history. The film is a bit suspenseful and interesting to sit through. It is available to view on Youtube in full