Directed by Mitchell Leisen • 1944 • United States
Starring Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone, Arturo de Córdova

“Rebecca” author Daphne du Maurier’s swashbuckling novel gets a deluxe film adaptation, complete with lavish seventeenth-century period detail, gorgeous Technicolor cinematography, and a star turn by Joan Fontaine as Lady Dona St. Columb, an unhappily married English noblewoman who leaves behind her comfortable but staid life for romance and adventure with a dashing French pirate (Arturo de Córdova). The most expensive film ever made by Paramount at the time of its production, this sumptuous wish-fulfillment fantasy is Hollywood escapism at its finest.