Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1940: Judith Anderson in Rebecca

Judith Anderson received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca.

Rebecca is an amazing movie about a young bride who is haunted by the memories of her husband's former, deceased wife. It has always been one of my favorite Hitchcock movies and my admiration for it only grows with every rewatch. Hitchcock's direction is downright incredible as it has such a clear grasp on the shifting tone of the movie: he manages to make the story's progression to a fairytale-like dream (the courtship between the two characters) to a nightmare (the final act) in a way that is absolutely convincing and compelling all the way through. In doing so he is aided by a leading performance for the ages and pitch-perfect work from everyone involved in the technical department. The cinematography, with its incredible use of lighting, is especially magnificent, capturing the conflictual emotions of the characters in intimate, extreme close-ups as well as the terrifying beauty of the manor of Manderlay. 

When I first watched Rebecca I was probably around fourteen years old: I didn't know too much about the film except for the fact that it was the only Hitchcock film ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture and the fact that it featured what was, by all accounts, a brilliant supporting performance from Judith Anderson. While I was in awe of the film, I was surprised to find that I was not especially impressed by Anderson's turn. Looking back, I can understand why I didn't: back then, great was equal to flashy for me while Anderson's performance is surprisingly restrained. Revisiting the movie years later, I finally get the universal love and praise this performance receives: it's one of those cases in which a performance works so perfectly in tune with the tone and the direction of its movie and in which all those elements mutually enhance and elevate each other. And Anderson deserves a great deal of credit for the subtlety and intelligence of her performance which could have easily been campy and overwrought considering the nature of the character. Instead, she makes Mrs. Danvers, Manderlay's unwelcoming housekeeper, one of the most unforgettable villains ever delivering a performance that is both genuinely terrifying but also expertly controlled and psychologically rich.

Alfred Hitchcock's direction and George Barnes' cinematography are both key to the impact left by the character of Mrs. Danvers: she's often in the shadow, she's rarely seen walking and when she does she usually comes from a dark corner of the room. Because of this, the movie immediately establishes Mrs. Danvers as an enigmatic, discomforting presence and it's incredible how Hitchcock and Barnes manage to suggest that simply on an atmospheric level: Anderson has the tricky task to live up to the presentation of the character and she solves it skillfully. Watching the movie I found myself comparing her to her fellow nominee Barbara O'Neil (in All This, and Heaven Too): in her quieter scenes with Bette Davis, O'Neil actually adopts a similar approach to Anderson but the results are the exact opposite. Whereas O'Neil's stillness ended up being robotic and lifeless, Anderson manages to be rigid yet not dull in the slightest. She turns Mrs. Danvers in the personification of efficiency: in her early scenes she purposefully appears as basically inhuman, whose existence revolves around her profession and nothing else. Still, right from the beginning, Anderson suggests that there is something eerie going on with Mrs. Danvers and the fact that the viewer can't exactly point what it is makes her an intentionally frustrating, uncomfortable and later downright frightening presence whenever she appears.

As the movie deals with the second Mrs. De Winter's efforts to fit in at Manderlay, there are many scenes featuring Anderson and Joan Fontaine: the two actresses engage in a mesmerizing acting duet that makes their scenes together so captivating and compelling to watch - there is very little said explicitly, it's all in the subtext of their performances, which makes their exchanges together both reserved and explosive. They have a terrific anti-chemistry with Fontaine being extremely touching at portraying her character's attempts to gain Mrs. Danvers' respect and Anderson being so effectively and subtly cruel as she constantly undermines Mrs. De Winter's authority and self-confidence, unfavourably comparing her to Rebecca (the former wife) and doing her best to make her feel out-of-the-place and unworthy. Anderson is fantastic at portraying Mrs. Danvers' subtle game of manipulation while being an incredibly mysterious and fascinating presence as her motives still appear to be somewhat unknown. The turning point of her performance is the scene in which Mrs. Danvers finds the second Mrs. De Winter inside Rebecca's room and as Mrs. Danvers shows it to her Anderson uncovers her character's adoration, or rather obsession, towards the deceased woman: it's a challenging scene that could have been played in many different ways and Anderson simply nails it. What I especially love is the fact that she still keeps that physical stillness and idea of efficiency that had characterized the character previously and that she never goes for an over-the-top approach: she conveys everything through the modulation of her voice, soft and reminescent of Rebecca yet sharp and hateful towards the new wife all at once. She never turns Mrs. Danvers into a cheap villain and instead finds the humanity in the deranged woman she is playing: there's genuine pain in Anderson's performance and that touch of vulnerability and grief is what makes her insanity all the more terrifying, because it feels real. And she's unforgettable in a later scene in which Mrs. Danvers tries to convince the second Mrs. De Winter that she'll never replace Rebecca in her husband's heart and urges her to jump from the balcony - it's the moment in which the character reveals itself in all its cruelty and Anderson's performance is brilliant, vicious, unhinged and chilling to the bone.

Mrs. Danvers is not at the center of the attention for most of the movie's third act, which focuses on the investigation on Rebecca's death after a few more details are unveiled, but she makes the most of her screen-time. What's especially remarkable in her last scenes is how strikingly they contrast to the rest of her performance - in the scenes that take place outside of Manderlay, Anderson is terrific at portraying a far meeker, more nervous and uncomfortable Mrs. Danvers: she's not in the position of privilege that it is granted to her at the manor and she is aware of it. And as it turns out that Rebecca had more than one secret, Anderson does a brilliant job at portraying her character's devastation as Mrs. Danvers is forced to realize that everything she believed in was a lie. Her final descent into madness is not only terrifying but also perfectly well-earned as Anderson had previously built up to that moment impeccably.

This is a rightfully iconic performance from Judith Anderson who takes a very challenging role and plays it to perfection. She's an incredibly effective villain, making Mrs. Danvers a genuinely and subtly threatening presence whenever she appears, but the hints of humanity of her performance are what makes her all the more haunting. An unforgettable performance of an unforgettable character. 

5/5