Rebecca (1940)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce, Reginald Denny, C. Aubrey Smith, Gladys Cooper, Florence Bates, Melville Cooper, Leo G. Carroll, Leonard Carey, Lumsden Hare, Edward Fielding, Forrester Harvey, and Philip Winter

When Alfred Hitchcock came to America, his first movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture, although he lost Best Director to John Ford for The Grapes in Wrath. There were probably many in Hollywood that believed that Hitchcock would go on to make many great films in Hollywood, and he and his films would win many Academy Awards. They were half right. Although he became one of the most popular film directors of all time, no Hitchcock film would again take home Oscar's top prize, and the director himself would never be awarded for a specific work. As far as this film goes, it is not Hitchcock's best, but was the Best Picture of 1940. Fontaine and Olivier do good work in the leads, and Judtih Anderson is very good as the deranged housekeeper. Does not belong in the same class as Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, or Strangers on a Train, but it's still a very good work from one of the true masters of film directing.

Other nominees: All This, and Heaven Too (Anatole Litvak), Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock), The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford), The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin), Kitty Foyle (Sam Wood), The Letter (William Wyler), The Long Voyage Home (John Ford), Our Town (Sam Wood), and The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor)