Hack’s buddy, actor Eddie Frierson, recently gave an interview in which he was asked to name his favorite Halloween film. Frierson gave the offbeat (but excellent) suggestion of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 classic Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson. It’s the story of a late middle-aged widower named Maxim de Winter (played by 33 year-old Olivier aided by some pretty unconvincing white shoe polish in his hair), who marries a beautiful poor young thing who is never referred to as anything but “the second Mrs. de Winter” (a really excellent performance by Ms. Fontaine) and takes her to his magnificent mansion, only to have her life made miserable by the spectre of de Winter’s first wife Rebecca and her devoted but VERY unnerving housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Anderson).
Hack thought that it was a great suggestion for both a Halloween film AND as a subject for one of his trademark rip-offs, especially since today is the late Ms. Fontaine’s birthday and he didn’t have any other good ideas for covers for us to post.
Happy heavenly birthday to Joan Fontaine!