REVIEW: Rebecca [1940]

They say he simply adored her. Director Alfred Hitchcock winds the camera down the overgrowth to a once beautiful estate known as Manderley—now a shell of its former splendor and shrouded in shadows. He’s foreshadowing the forthcoming darkness so we don’t meet the bright eyed and innocent young “companion” of Mrs. Van Hopper (Florence Bates) and believe we’re about to receive a whirlwind romance of love and life rather than pain and sorrow. No, the latter are firmly entrenched from frame one straight through the end despite subsequent appearances to…

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REVIEW: Abe Lincoln in Illinois [1940]

“And this too shall pass away” Talk about destiny. If the tale woven by Robert E. Sherwood is to be believed—and I can’t find anywhere online that doesn’t exclaim Abe Lincoln in Illinois to be as accurate a telling as any—this humble young man bounced between Kentucky and Indiana before a fateful journey to New Orleans exposed the quaint town of New Salem, Illinois and its beautiful Ann Rutledge never wanted to be a politician let alone President. Sure, he didn’t want to be a farmer working alongside his father…

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