Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter is superb, but it's mousey Joan Fontaine who is a revelation as the second Mrs de Winter. Lovers of lesbian subtexts will have a field day with Judith Anderson's sinister housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, as Hitchcock circumvents the censors who forced plot changes to the original story to accommodate the Hays Code.

Trivia:

Olivier's role was originally offered to Ronald Colman by producer David O. Selznick. Colman turned it down because his character was a murderer and that the film would focus too much on the female characters. William Powell and Leslie Howard were also considered before it went to Olivier.

For the female lead, Selznick was determined to create a media frenzy as big as that for the quest for Scarlett O'Hara for his previous production Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). Eventually, more than twenty actresses would be screentested, including Margaret Sullavan, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh (Olivier's then fiancee) and Anne Baxter. The choice of Fontaine was not a popular one, summed up by Olivier, who at one point said to Hitchcock: 'Fontaine's horrible, ol' boy!'

Just as in the novel, Mrs de Winter has no name of her own, and is referred to only in relation to Maxim (taking the name de Winter) and Rebecca (who was the first Mrs de Winter). In an early draft of the screenplay, Hitch had tried to givel the girl the name Daphne after Daphne du Maurier - much to Selznick's disgust!

OSCARS:

• 1940:
  Best Picture, B&W Cinematography