The Oscar Project #21: Hamlet (1948)

by Chris Marshall:

"I don't see why people admire that play so. It is nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together."

I have a confession to make. I taught 8^th grade English for a while. I took an entire class on Shakespeare. I’ve been alive for almost 27 years. And yet this was the first time I have ever seen/read/absorbed any version of Hamlet. Of course I knew the story, but it was learned entirely through osmosis. I think The Simpsons did a version of it. In any event, I’d never seen it.

The quote at the beginning of the post comes from Isaac Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare (though he was quoting somebody else at the time), and it’s easy to see why somebody might think that way. It seems like every line is a famous quotation or phrase that has become commonplace in the English language. To thine own self be true. Brevity is the soul of wit. Murder most foul. The primrose path. Mind’s eye. And the entire “to be or not to be” soliloquy. It all came from Hamlet.

The Oscar Project #13: Rebecca (1940)

by Chris Marshall:

Ah, Rebecca. I knew a little bit about it going in, but it was only at the most superficial level. It was Alfred Hitchcock’s only Best Picture winner. It was based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. It was something of a melodrama.

Other than the Hitchcock connection, none of those tidbits made me particularly excited about watching it. Then I learned it co-starred Laurence Olivier. Ok, he’s pretty good. Then I found out that it was more of a psychological thriller than a straight drama. All right, even better. Then I actually watched the thing.

And it was really good! The true star of the film, Joan Fontaine, turned in an immaculate performance as the brand new bride of the recently widowed Maxim de Winter (Olivier). As I started to write this, I realized I could not remember what her character’s name was; when I looked it up, I discovered that she was never given one, despite being in almost every scene. If she needed to be spoken to directly, it was always “Mrs. de Winter.”

Oh, and Rebecca’s dead. That’s important. The film’s namesake was Maxim’s first wife, who died in a drowning accident. According to some of her family members, the circumstances were quite suspicious indeed.