The MoFo Top 100 of the Forties: The Countdown

I wasn't crazy about Laura but have only seen it once.

Laura

The only other Preminger i've seen is Anatomy of a Murder which is great but i honestly think this was better. As much as i loved Anatomy i felt it was a bit too long, even just 20 minutes less and there wouldn't be those gaps were i was left uninterested. Laura on the other hand was nice, short and riveting for every minute of its runtime. This was really not what i was expecting at all, i knew nothing about the story but for whatever reason i was under the impression this was going to be a more dark, cynial, serious film and i had a feeling Laura would be a femme-fatale.She wasn't that far off weirdly, of course she wasn't one but the results were similar: all men seemed to fall for her and ended up acting uncharacteristically crazy over her, the difference being that it wasn't intentional on her part; they were sucked in by her endearing qualities as opposed to the usual dark, mysterious, intenionally seductive femme fatales. Great performance by Tierney, very likable despite never being exactly sure if she is really as nice and good as she usually acts.

It was interesting telling the story the 'Citizen Kane way' at first with the central character dead and all we have to rely on is the recollections of people who knew her. This added an extra bit of intrigue to that formula since the people telling the stories about her are suspects in her murder. I wouldn't really call it "an unreliable narrator" because it is clear that these were how the events happened, but i at least was wondering when Waldo was telling it if this was an accurate represantion of what happened. I think that was one of the things i missed most when Laura returned, i thought we'd get Shelbys versions of events in this type of setting rather than after we already knew she was alive. The thing that improved the most was the mystery, while it had been intriguing up to that point it felt secondary to us getting to know the characters but as soon as Shelby answered the phone and was clearly not surprised to find out she was alive it really ramped up the mystery. Good ending i don't think it was amazing but it was well put together and Clifton Webb was great in that final scene.

The best things about this were definitely the dialogue and the characters. Waldo was without a doubt the best character, sorry but if you don't agree you are wrong. He was just so unbelievably cool while not being cool at the same time and i don't know how that is possible when he was a slighty eccentric, distinguished gentleman character. I loved how he acted like he wasn't a suspect in this even though he knew he was, he just wasn't having it, completely unphased by the detective; almost acting like he was purely helping the detective investigate this almost in a partner rolerather than attempting to clear his name as a suspect. The best example of his cool-unphasedness was when the detective clearly implies that Waldo is a suspect again because he was so eager for Shelby to be arrested then Waldo just nonchalantly goes "ok fine, now we are having a party for Lauras return". My god when he started threatening/analyzing the detective it just killed me. As well as how intriguing and hilarious he was, he was also surprisingly sympathetic. I felt bad knowing how crazy he was about Laura knowing she didn't have the same feelings and the clear fact that he didn't feel as if he could compete with someone like Shelby. Best character

I want to praise Dana Andrews here, particularly for his performance before Laura returned. In alot of similar movies to this the person who is playing the detective who truthfully should be as objective as possible and more of an observer often injects alot of emotion or extra character to his performance; i'm not opposed to this since it can work really well. But when it's not a PI or someone directly involved with the case it's nice to see a stern detective whose only objective is to find out what happened. I'm glad that his deeper involvement with his falling for Laura came about so close to her returning and that he still largely acted as stern even though his role was conflicted by this point. When i saw Vincent Price was in this my excitement definitely improved. I've only seen him in about five films, most of them i think i'd find terrible if he wasn't in them. He's a great presence and i never don't fully enjoy watching him. I was a bit disappointed with his role at first; he was as charming as usual but his character was a bit dull, thankfully he greatly improved once Laura came back. Judith Anderson who i thought was excellent in both Pursued and Rebecca was the most forgettable character in this, she wasn't bad but i kept forgetting she was even in it until she appeared on screen.

Great film. I hope Destiny is still in because this will most likely finish high on my list. Five left for me. Going to re-watch Castle of Cagliostro for the Animation HOF first though.

Rebecca -

Hitch does it again! At this point i'm expecting to dislike his films but nah 16 in and i've found another one i adore. Another reason i wasn't sure was because i had heard some people say things along the lines of "the only Hitchcock film to win Best Picture was Rebecca. It is a fine film but c'mon it is just average Hitch". Well from what i've seen so far i would say it was as good as any. Beautiful film, stunning cinematography. I'm almost always interested in Hitchs films visually because of all of the differnt angles, techniques, etc he uses. In addition to that though the scenery was amazing, DeWinters beautiful house, the breathtaking view, just about every scene was a pleasure to look at.

I think this was my second time seeing Olivier. He is my mums favourite actor, funny thing is one of the main reasons she loves him so much is his performance in Wuthering Heights and some of this reminded me of the Wuthering Heights book. He was very good. He had a genuine charm but also a bit of a dark streak; kind of would have liked to have seen a bit more of him during the first half but at the same time i wouldn't have because i get the point was for her to feel completely isolated alone with Mrs Danvers and all of the memories of his dead wife. The scene where he confesses his true feelings for Rebecca and what happened was incredible. Joan Fontaine was very good, admittedly there were a few parts i thought she was noticeably bad like when she was crying in the car near the start or when she had to pretend she was looking at a real video of her and Maxs wedding; i was cringing a bit when she was saying stuff like "ooh remember that". Those were only small things though as soon as she started interacting with Mrs Danvers she became much more interesting.

One thing i often have a problem with is romances depicted too quickly, i know they are called whirlwind romances but sometimes it is just done too quickly that i don't buy into the relationship. Here i was fine with it, i'd encourage it even because they had a whole other story to tell and i'm glad they got into it fairly quickly. The thing i loved about that was the first 25 minute story of him wooing then marrying her could've been stretched into a perfectly fine romantic film, that hotel scene could've been the finale where he stops her from going to New York; it would've been generic and forgotten just one of the dozens studios pumped out every year, but regardless that is pretty amazing to me.

From when she entered the house on it was just incredible. Pretty vague word to use but i don't think you can descibe it as anything other than haunting. Those long creepy halls and large rooms, and Mrs Danvers! She was so great, extremely cold; she had such a great glare and always appeared like a ghost at the exact right moments. The mystery was very well done. So glad i went into this blind. I loved how it was almost as if Rebecca was still in the house, her memory lingered about the house, Mrs DeWinter barely being able to enter a room in the house without being confronted by her. Decent ending but i would've liked to have seen Mrs Danvers going mad.

Fantastic film. Maybe i'm rating it too high because i've just watched it but i'm thinking this may join my big four of Hitch along with Vertigo, North By Northwest and Notorious.