Rebecca (The Criterion Collection)

"Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again." Rebecca’s haunting opening line conjures the entirety of Hitchcock’s romantic, suspenseful, elegant film. A young woman (Joan Fontaine) believes her every dream has come true when her whirlwind romance with the dashing Maxim de Winter (Sir Laurence Olivier) culminates in marriage. But she soon realizes that Rebecca, the dead first Mrs. De Winter, haunts both the temperamental, brooding Maxim and the de Winter mansion, Manderley. In order for Maxim and the new Mrs. De Winter to have a future, Rebecca’s spell must be broken and the mystery of her violent death unraveled. The first collaboration between producer David O. Selznick and Hitchcock, Rebecca was adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s popular novel and won the 1940 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Cinematography (Black and White).