Rebecca: 1940 Best Picture

Daphne Du Maurier’s tale of gothic intrigue, Rebeccca, was put on the big screen with Lawrence Olivier playing that tormented total hottie Maxim de Winter, just a year after playing another tormented soul, Heathcliff (yeah, hot). It was Alfred Hitchcock’s first directing project on this side of the pond and although he did not win for Best Director, the film itself won Best Picture at the 13th Academy Awards. Rebecca scored 11 nominations but only won for Best Picture and Best Cinematography (Black and White).

For the first time, the award for Best Screenplay was split into two separate categories: Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. “The Great McGinty” beat “The Great Dictator” and three others for Original; and “The Philadelphia Story” beat “Rebecca” and three others for Adapted.

As for best acting, Olivier lost out to Jimmy Stewart in “The Philadelphia Story”. Fontaine lost to Ginger Rogers in “Kitty Foyle”. In the supporting category, Judith Anderson lost to Jane Darwell in “The Grapes of Wrath”.

The Thief of Bagdad received the most Oscars of the evening, three, the first time a film not nominated for Best Picture won the most awards. Another first was the use of the now familiar: “May I have the envelope, please.”

There are a decent amount of Jeopardy! clues on “Rebecca”:/strong>
THE MOVIES $500: In “Rebecca” this actress’ first line is “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley Again”
MOVIES TO THE MAX $800: Laurence Olivier starred as Maxim de Winter in this film, but no one played the title role
OLD MOVIES $1000: Laurence Olivier wanted Vivian Leigh to play his wife in “Rebecca”, but this actress got the job
ALFRED HITCHCOCK MOVIES $2000: Hitchcock’s 1940 classic “Rebecca” was based on a book by this female novelist
CLASSIC CINEMA OF THE ’40s $400: Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film was this 1940 classic based on a Daphne du Maurier novel
DIRECTORS $1,500 (Daily Double): (VIDEO DAILY DOUBLE): The first American film Alfred Hitchcock directed was this 1940 classic, seen here: “You thought you could be Mrs DeWinter, live in her house, walk in her steps, take the things that were hers, but she’s too strong for you, you can’t fight her…”
UNSEEN TITLE CHARACTERS $1000: In a 1940 film, this deceased title character haunts Joan Fontaine

“Pinocchio” was a particular favorite of the cluewriters. These are a few of its clues:
MOVIE BY OSCAR-WINNING SONG $2000: 1940: “When You Wish Upon A Star”
ACTOR-DIRECTORS $400: “The Great Dictator” (1940)
MOVIE TAGLINES $800: 1940: “For anyone who has ever wished upon a star”
DISNEY FILM BY CHARACTER $800: Stromboli, a puppet-show proprietor (1940)
DISNEY FILMS $200: 1940: Bad boys are turned into donkeys
FELINE FINE AT THE MOVIES $1200: Fans of a 1940 Disney film know that Figaro the cat belongs to this woodcarver
THE NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY $200: Films from 1940 include this Disney puppet tale & the ever-popular “Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse”

More clues for 1940s films:
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD $600: …Thinks this actor did a fine job as Tom in the 1940 “Grapes of Wrath” movie
MOVIES & POLITICS $600: (Sarah of the Clue clue reports from the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.) Films like “The Three Caballeros” resulted from a goodwill tour that Walt and some artists took in the early 1940s, at FDR’s request, to combat the spread of this ideology of Mussolini and Franco
PLAYING LINCOLN $400: Raymond Massey showed us Lincoln in his younger days in 1940’s “Abe Lincoln in” this state
CARY GRANT FILMS $800: Cary shows up with some unexpected guests for the wedding of ex-wife Katharine Hepburn in this 1940 comedy
CROSBY $600: In 1940 Crosby hit the road in the first of several “road” films co-starring Dorothy Lamour & this funnyman
CINEMANIA $400: Many low-budget American movies of the 1940s were made in this genre, French for “black film”
ACTOR-DIRECTORS $400: “The Great Dictator” (1940)
RABBIT STEW $400: He munched his first carrot in the 1940 Tex Avery cartoon “A Wild Hare”
MOVIE BIO DOUBLE $1200: Henry Fonda in 1939, Raymond Massey in 1940
URBAN MOVIES $400: 1940, Jimmy Stewart woos Kate Hepburn: “The _____ Story”
MOVIES WITH SUBTITLES $2000: “Katyn”, from this country, is the story of the killing of its army officers by Soviet soldiers in 1940
WESTERNS $2000: Dag nabbit! He’s the perennial sidekick who won 3 Oscars, including one for 1940’s “The Westerner”
BUNNY $200: In the 1940 cartoon “A Wild Hare”, this character utters the iconic “What’s up, Doc?” line for the first time
MOVIES’ LAST LINES $1200: 1940– “We’ll go on forever, Pa, ’cause we’re the people”
CLASSIC CINEMA OF THE ’40s $1200: This 1940 “Story” starring Cary Grant & Katharine Hepburn was remade as the musical “High Society” in 1956
RONALD REAGAN WAS AN ACTOR $1200: In 1940’s “Santa Fe Trail”, co-starring Errol Flynn, Reagan played this flamboyant cavalry officer
MOVIE PORTRAYALS $1200: In 1940’s “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” Mary Todd Lincoln was played by this “Harold and Maude” star
THE APPRENTICE $1200: (Hi, I’m Bill Rancic of The Apprentice.) When you hear the word apprentice, you may think of this character played by a rodent in a 1940 film
BOB HOPE $1,000 (Daily Double): Bob first hosted these on February 29, 1940 at the Ambassador Hotel
4 “N” WORDS & PHRASES $1000: Raymond Massey played the 16th president as a young man in this 1940 film
ON THE ROAD WITH BOB & BING $600: In 1940, the first “Road” movie found Bing & Bob swearing off women & hiding out in this Asian city-state
ANIMATED CATS $100: In their 1940 MGM debut, “Puss Gets the Boot”, this feline partner of Jerry was called Jasper
FILM FACTS $1000: Leslie Caron’s 1956 film “Gaby” was a remake of this 1940 Vivien Leigh film named for a bridge
“GREAT” MOVIES $400: John Barrymore spoofed himself in this 1940 movie whose title reflected his nickname
“GREAT” MOVIES $1000: Charlie Chaplin played on the physical resemblance of Hitler & the Little Tramp in this 1940 satire
ASIAN CITIES $200: In a 1940 film Sabu was “The Thief of” this city
MOVIE REMAKES $600: 1940’s “The Shop Around the Corner” was the basis for this 1998 Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks romantic comedy
ENDS IN “EE” $600: This classic 1940 film starred Mae West & W.C. Fields
MOVIE DEBUTS $100: His first film, the 1940 musical “Too Many Girls”, starred Lucille Ball; they married soon after
CLASSICAL MUSIC $600: This 1940 Disney film featured the music of Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Schubert & Mussorgsky
MUSIC & THE MOVIES: When this 1940 classic was on the drawing board, it was referred to simply as “The Concert Feature”
THE MOVIES: The night before their first mass jump in 1940, paratroopers at Fort Benning saw a Western about this man
COMPOSERS: When “Fantasia” was released in 1940, he was the only one of its composers still alive to hear his music

Share