Rebecca
Hitchcock hits the big screen this week and follows the relationship of Alfred Hitchcock and wife Alma Reville during the filming of Psycho.
To celebrate the release of the movie we are taking a look at some of the best work by Hitchcock as he remains one of the greatest directors of all time.
We kick off today with Rebecca a movie that was to be Hitchcock's first American project.
The movie was a big screen adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's 1928 novel of the same name and it was released in 1940.
Rebecca starred Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine and remains one of Hitchcock's greatest works.
When a naive young woman marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, she finds the memory of the first wife maintaining a grip on her husband and the servants.
Rebecca is a triumph from start to finish and shows Hitchcock off at his suspenseful best as he notches up the tension scene by scene.
He strikes the right balance between tender gothic romance and horror film as the two genres go perfectly together.
Fontaine is wonderful as the tortured Mrs. de Winter who suffers at the hands of Mrs Danvers - played so well by Judith Anderson.
Anderson brings a real sinister and chilly feel to this character and yet she never takes it too far.
Mix the character of Danvers with the eeriness of Manderley mansion and you have a movie that is packed with tension at every turn.
Olivier is also terrific in the role of Maxim de Winter, a man who is haunted by the death of his first wife and is looking for love and companionship in his second.
The production and the cinematography are stunning as the light and the shadow that is captured throughout is just as powerful and the central performances.
Rebecca was a triumph as it went on to pick up two Oscars: Best Picture and Best Cinematography, Black and White while it was nominated in nine other categories.
Rebecca was Hitchcock's first step into American cinema and it remains one of his must see works.
Hitchcock is released 8th February
Tagged in Alfred Hitchcock