LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Joan Fontaine: Laurence Olivier
built 185 days ago
Joan Fontaine is shy ladies companion who meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) in Monte Carlo. After a whirlwind romance, they marry and return to Manderlay, his country estate in Cornwall.
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Joan änderte ihren Nachnamen daraufhin von Burfield in Fontaine und erhielt ab 1937 neue Angebote. In den folgenden Jahren spielte sie größere Rollen in Filmen wie You Can't Beat Love, Quality Street, Die Frauen und Aufstand in Sidi Hakim. 1940 engagierten der Filproduzent David O. Selznick und der Regisseur Alfred Hitchcock Fontaine für Rebecca, die Verfilmung des Bestsellerromans von Daphne du Maurier. Die Rolle der verschüchterten, naiven Gattin des tragisch-verquälten Max de Winter, gespielt von Laurence Olivier, verkörperte sie überzeugend. Joan wurde für den Oscar nominiert und avancierte zum Star. Allerdings war sie vertraglich an Selznick gebunden, der sie nach Belieben an andere Studios verlieh und ihr nur einen Bruchteil der Gage auszahlte.
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Fontaine is the pretty and painfully shy companion to an unsympathetic social-climbing, wealthy woman, Mrs. Van Hooper, who seems to enjoy being cruel to Fontaine and putting her down at every turn. When Fontaine meets, falls in love with and marries a rich still grieving widower, you cheer as she escapes Van Hooper's cruelty. But not before Van Hopper belittles Fontaine one more time and says out loud, what Fontaine is thinking. Why would someone like Maxim deWinter (Laurence Olivier) be interested in someone like her? Fontaine feels no welcome upon her arrival to the deWinters Manderly estate where she is greeted by the grim faced housekeeper, Mrs. Danver's (played splendidly by Judith Anderson) who seems to hate her on sight. Nor does she feel that she is mistress of Manderly.
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Nominated for an Emmy award and winner of the Golden Globe and People’s Choice Award, as well as numerous other awards worldwide, Joan has appeared in more than 55 feature films and dozens of television programmes. Some of her most memorable films are THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING, RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS, THE VIRGIN QUEEN, THE BRAVADOS, THE BIG SLEEP, LAND OF THE PHARAOHS, ROAD TO HONG KONG and THE STUD. She has worked with some of the greatest movie legends including Richard Burton, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Joan Fontaine, Laurence Harvey, Bob Hope, James Mason, Ray Milland, Robert Mitchum, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Joanne Woodward, Sir John Gielgud and Sir Nigel Hawthorne. She has guest starred in some of the most popular TV series, such as STAR TREK, STARSKY & HUTCH, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, LOVE BOAT, THE PERSUADERS, SPACE 1999, BATMAN, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., POLICEWOMAN, BARETTA, THE NANNY, WILL & GRACE and ROSEANNE.
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Daphne du Maurier's story unfolds the tragic experience of a young wife (Joan Fontaine) who lives in the shadows of the memories of Olivier's first spouse. Concerned with her husband's continual moodiness over the former wife, Miss Fontaine gradually pieces together the tragedy of the former marriage to eventually find marital happiness when the burdensome secret of Rebecca's death is lifted from the shoulders of Olivier.
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Hitchcock's first American film is a superbly mounted Gothic thriller with a good Joan Fontaine as the timid wife, superb Judith Anderson as the malevolent housekeeper, and uncharacteristically mediocre Olivier as the tormented husband. [More]
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Laurence Olivier