Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton in "My Cousin Rachel"

My Cousin Rachel (1952) is an American gothic mystery directed by Henry Koster and starring Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton in his American film debut. The cast also includes Audrey Dalton, Ronald Squire, George Dolenz, and John Sutton. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson, who also produced, based on the novel of the same name by Daphne Du Maurier. The cinematography was by Joseph LaShelle and the music was by Franz Waxman.

Philip Ashley (Burton) is raised by his older and wealthy cousin Ambrose Ashley on a large estate on the coast of Cornwall. Ambrose's declining health requires him to move to a warmer climate. He ends up in Florence, Italy, where he marries his cousin Rachel Sangalletti (de Havilland). Philip begins to receive disturbing letters from Ambrose complaining that Rachel and his doctor aren't treating him well.

Philip travels to Florence only to discover that Ambrose died of a brain tumor. A man named Guido Rainaldi informs him of this fact and provides a death certificate to prove it. Rachel left before Philip's arrival and according to Rainaldi, Ambrose left his entire estate to Philip (upon his 25th birthday) and nothing to Rachel. In spite of this, Philip suspects foul play in regard to his cousin's death.

Was Rachel responsible for Ambrose's death? And if so, what were her motives?

Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland

Henry Koster (1905 - 1988) was a German-born film director. He signed a contract with Universal Pictures in 1936. At the time, he didn't speak English but he convinced the studio to let him make Three Smart Girls (1936), which was Deanna Durbin’s first starring film role. The movie was a huge success and saved Universal from bankruptcy. Koster convinced Universal to sign Abbott and Costello to a film contract. The comedy duo was a box office sensation during the 1940s, making the studio millions. Later in Koster’s career, he directed Harvey (1950), My Cousin Rachel (1952), which was Richard Burton’s American film debut. He directed Burton again the next year in The Robe, which was the first film to be filmed in CinemaScope. Other films include Desiree (1954) with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, Flower Drum Song (1960) starring Nancy Kwan, and The Singing Nub (1965) starring Debbie Reynolds.

Olivia de Havilland (1916 – 2020) was a British-American actress and two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner. De Havilland’s career spanned more than five decades. She was one of the leading actresses of the 1940s and was the last major surviving star from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Some of de Havilland’s classic films include The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939), Hold Back the Dawn (1941), To Each His Own (1946), The Snake Pit (1948), and The Heiress (1949).

Richard Burton (1925 - 1984) was a Welsh actor who was a star on both stage and screen. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award but never won an Oscar. He made his American film debut in My Cousin Rachel (1952) for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He didn't win but his film career took off with the blockbuster Cinemascope classic, The Robe (1953) co-starring Jean Simmons and Victor Mature. Burton's other film roles include Prince of Players (1955), Alexander the Great (1956), and Look Back in Anger (1959). He hit his stride in the 1960s, marrying Elizabeth Taylor in the process after their affair during the making of Cleopatra (1963). Other films include Beckett (1964), The V.I.P.s (1963), and The Sandpiper (1965) both co-starring Taylor. He had a box office hit with the John Huston directed The Night of the Iguana (1964). Burton continued making films up until the time of his death and is remembered as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

Oliva de Havilland, Audrey Dalton, and Richard Burton

My Cousin Rachel trivia

• It was reported that Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland didn't get along during filming.
• The film was proposed as a comeback for Greta Garbo with George Cukor directing.
• Vivien Leigh was also considered for the role of Rachel.
• The film marked the American film debut of Richard Burton.
• This was de Havilland's first film after her Oscar-winning The Heiress (1949).

Why watch this film

• It's an opportunity to see Burton early in his American film career.
• This was a prestige picture for 20th Century-Fox with de Havilland at the height of her powers.
• The production, partially filmed in Cornwall and on the Fox soundstages is impressive.
• The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Burton's for Best Supporting Actor.
• It's a gothic mystery romance based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier like they don't make anymore.

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.

To join the discussion on April 4, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and Zoom link to the discussion.

Discussion questions

1. Do you think Philip had good reason to be suspicious of Rachel?
2. If Rachel was responsible for Ambrose's death, what were her motives?
3. What did you think of Richard Burton's film debut?
4. Did Olivia de Havilland have the right amount of mystery in her portrayal of Rachel?
5. Were you surprised by the ending?
6. What are your conclusions? Guilty or innocent?

Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven star in “The Bishop’s Wife”

The Bishop’s Wife (1947) is a fantasy romantic comedy directed by Henry Koster and starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven. The film was produced by Samuel Goldwyn with cinematography by Gregg Toland and music by Hugo Friedhofer.

Bishop Henry Brougham (Niven) is preoccupied with the construction of a new cathedral for his congregation that it overwhelms his entire life and alienates him from his wife Julia (Young) and young daughter (Karolyn Grimes). In a desperate moment, the Bishop asks God for help and guidance. Enter an angel named Dudley (Grant) who helps the Bishop organize his life to better serve his church and family. When Dudley begins cheering up a disillusioned Julia, he finds himself falling in love with her. Will his mission to help rekindle the love the Bishop and Julia have for one another be a success or failure?

Henry Koster (1905 - 1988) was a German-born film director. He signed a contract with Universal Pictures in 1936. At the time, he didn't speak English but he convinced the studio to let him make Three Smart Girls (1936), which was Deanna Durbin’s first starring film role. The movie was a huge success and saved Universal from bankruptcy. Koster convinced Universal to sign Abbott and Costello to a film contract. The comedy duo was a box office sensation during the 1940s, making the studio millions. Later in Koster’s career, he directed Harvey (1950), My Cousin Rachel (1952), which was Richard Burton’s American film debut. He directed Burton again the next year in The Robe, which was the first film to be filmed in CinemaScope. Other films include Desiree (1954) with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, Flower Drum Song (1960) starring Nancy Kwan, and The Singing Nub (1965) starring Debbie Reynolds.

Cary Grant (1904 – 1986) was an English-born American actor who became one of the most popular leading men in film history. Grant started his career in vaudeville before heading to Hollywood. He became a superstar in the late 1930s in a series of screwball comedies including The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne. He was a memorable C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940) opposite Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart. He received two Best Actor nominations: Penny Serenade (1941) and None but the Lonely Hearts (1944). Other classic Grant films include Gunga Din (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). He made four popular films with Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). He was presented with an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970.

Loretta Young (1913 - 2000) was an American actress who can trace her start to the days of silent films where she performed as a child actress. Young made the transition to talking pictures as an adult with almost immediate success. As an adult starred opposite some of Hollywood’s most popular leading men including James Cagney, Clark Gable, Tyrone Power, Gary Cooper, and Cary Grant. Young made many films during the pre-code era including Platinum Blonde (1931), Taxi! (1932), They Call It Sin (1932), Employee’s Entrance (1933), and Midnight Mary (1933). Darryl Zanuck signed Young to a contract at Twentieth Century-Fox and paired her with Tyrone Power, the studio’s top male star in several hit films including Love is News (1937), Cafe Metopole (1937), and Second Honeymoon (1937). Unsatisfied with the roles Zanuck was providing her with, Young left the studio and became a freelance artist. On her own, Young starred opposite Alan Ladd in two films, starred alongside Gary Cooper in Along Came Jones (1945), The Stranger (1946), The Bishop’s Wife (1947) with Cary Grant and David Niven, and Rachel and the Stranger (1947) top-billed over William Holden and Robert Mitchum. After her film career was winding down, Young became a huge star on television when the medium was in its early stages.

David Niven (1910 - 1983) was a British actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958). Niven’s film career started in the 1930s with small roles in films like Mutiny on the Bounty  (1935). He soon signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn and his career took off. He had a supporting role in Wuthering Heights (1939). The film was a major success and increased his profile as an actor. He next co-starred with Ginger Rogers in Bachelor Mother (1939), another big hit. He played a safe-cracker in Raffles (1939) co-starring Olivia de Havilland. Niven worked constantly in film throughout the next four decades. Other films he starred in include Enchantment (1948), Soldiers Three (1951), Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960), and The Pink Panther (1963).

The Bishop’s Wife trivia

• When the film was in the development stages, Dana Andrews was set to play the bishop, Teresa Wright was set to play Julia, and David Niven was set to play Dudley.
• Teresa Wright had to drop out due to pregnancy, but Andrews was still attached to the project when Loretta Young was being considered.
• Child actor Karolyn Grimes, who plays Debby, played Zuzu in It’s a Wonderful Life the same year.
• James Gleason, who played Sylvester the cab driver, played a cab driver in Arsenic and Old Lace also starring Cary Grant.
• The film was remade as The Preacher’s Wife with Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Courtney B. Vance some 50 years later.

To watch the film on YouTube, click the link below.

Why watch this film?

It’s one of the great Christmas classics.

It features three great stars: Grant, Young, and Niven

The film has excellent production values, including cinematography by Greg Toland (Citizen Kane, The Best Years of Our Lives)

The supporting cast features Monty Wooley, Elsa Lancaster, and Gladys Cooper.

To join the discussion on December 20, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to the discussion on Zoom.

Discussion questions:

Where would you rank this film as far as Christmas movies go? Top-ten? A personal favorite?

Do you think David Niven and Loretta Young made a credible couple?

Do you think Dudley really fell in love with Julia?

What do you think is the film’s main theme?

Did the film end the way you wanted it to? Was it satisfying?

Screening of "It Started with Eve" June 9 at Daystar Center

It Started with Eve (1941)

Where: Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street

When: June 9, 2018

Time: 6:45 p.m.

Hosted by Stephen Reginald

It Started with Eve (1941) is a romantic comedy starring Deanna Durbin, Charles Laughton, and Robert Cummings. Cummings is Johnny Reynolds, the son of millionaire Jonathan Reynolds (Laughton) who is on his deathbed. Johnny’s father’s one wish is that he would get to see his son’s fiance, Gloria Pennington (Margaret Tallichet) before he dies. When Johnny discovers that Gloria and her mother are not at their hotel, he asks hatcheck girl Anne Terry (Durbin) to pretend to be his fiance for the evening. Things get complicated when the elder Reynolds has a “miraculous” recovery and Johnny scrambles to explain to his fiancee that Anne means nothing to him. Then there’s his father who has taken an immediate liking to Anne. Anne is an aspiring opera singer who hopes to get to sing at a party that Jonathan is planning to introduce his "future daughter-in-law" to his influential friends and associates. Will Johnny be able to fool his father long enough so that Anne gets her big break?

Durbin was one of the highest paid movie actress in the world when It Started with Eve was released. This film is considered one of her best, in a film career that saw the actress headline 21 movies from 1936 to 1948. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther lauded the film and the performances of Laughton and Durbin. He said, “Miss Durbin is as refreshing and pretty as she has ever been and sings three assorted songs—including a Tchaikovsky waltz—with lively charm.” Durbin and Laughton became great friends during filming. They made another movie together, Because of Him in 1946.

Deanna Durbin, Robert Cummings, and Charles Laughton

Have some Joe and Enjoy the Show!

You can bring food and beverages into the auditorium; we even have small tables set up next to some of the seats. General Admission: $5 Students and Senior Citizens: $3.

Join the Chicago Film club; join the discussion

Twice a month we screen classic films and have a brief discussion afterward. For more information, including how to join (it’s free), click here. The Venue 1550 is easily accessible by the CTA. Please visit Transit Chicago for more information on transportation options.

Stephen Reginald is a freelance writer and editor. He has worked at various positions within the publishing industry for over 25 years. Most recently he was executive editor for McGraw-Hill’s The Learning Group Division. A long-time amateur student of film, Reginald hosts “Chicago Film Club,” a monthly movie event held in the South Loop, for the past two years. Reginald has also taught several adult education film classes at Facets Film School, Chicago.

Deanna Durbin in “First Love” #OCanadaBlogathon

This is my third time participating in the O Canada blogathon. It’s also my third time writing about Deanna Durbin. If you visit my blog, you’ll realize that my love for Durbin runs deep. She was an international star who had the largest fan club in the world during her heyday. First Love was a milestone in Durbin’s career. It showed Durbin as a maturing young woman showcasing her first taste of romance. Loosely based on the Cinderella tale, First Love is a coming-of-age sweet romance.

The Plot
Durbin plays Connie Harding an orphan who we meet on her graduation day from Miss Wiggins’s boarding school for girls. After graduation she goes “home” to New York to live with relatives, the Clinton family, who don’t seem to care for her. They don’t even come to her graduation, but instead send a butler to pick her up. Sad and unhappy, Connie has nothing in common with the Clinton’s beautiful, socialite daughter, Barbara. In fact, Barbara despises Connie—and pretty much any female who she feels is competition—and seems to take pleasure in humiliating her at every opportunity. The rest of the Clinton family includes Uncle Jim (Eugene Paulette), Aunt Grace (Leatrice Joy), and Cousin Walter (Lewis Howard). The Clintons, in all their quirkiness somewhat resemble the Bullock family from My Man Godfrey (1936). Ironically, Eugene Paulette was the hapless father in that classic too.

Marcia Mae Jones and Deanna Durbin on graduation day

Barbara the bully
Barbara bullies Connie into helping her get the attention of Ted Drake (Robert Stack), a handsome young heir who all the debutantes in New York City are after. Connie makes a fool of herself, keeping Ted occupied at his country club while Barbara hurries to join his riding party after oversleeping. Connie is smitten by Ted almost immediately, but feels he’s out of her league. The Drake family is hosting a ball that the Clintons and other New York City socialites will be attending. When Connie gets invited to the ball, she can hardly believe it. The servants pull together and buy her a dress and new shoes. Her dreams of having a proper evening with Ted are dashed when Barbara concocts a lie about some relative coming to visit the evening of the ball. She suggests Connie stay home to greet him, which her Aunt Joy seconds. Connie is crushed. But the servants have a plan for her to get to the ball.

Robert Stack and Durbin

Six white motorcycles
The servants concoct a plan the keep Barbara, Walter, and Mrs. Clinton from getting to the ball until after midnight. Connie is escorted to the ball by six police officers riding white motorcycles (a servant’s brother is a cop). She even gets to ride in the Commissioner’s car! The butler (Charles Coleman) informs her that she needs to be home before midnight (just like Cinderella). At the ball, Connie, in a comical scene, is accidentally introduced as the singing entertainment. Her performance is a huge hit with the crowd. Her beautiful singing gets the attention of Ted, who asks her to dance. The two dance and talk the night away losing all track of time. Connie reveals that she was the girl that delayed him at the country club, which seems to intrigue Ted all the more. Ted tells Connie that he’ll be leaving for South America in a few weeks to carve out a life of his own. It’s at this point that the two kiss. While the two are caught up in the moment, Connie realizes that it’s after midnight. Remembering the butler’s warning, Connie runs away from Ted, losing her shoe in the process (more shades of Cinderella). While she is leaving, the Clintons show up. Barbara sees Ted holding a shoe and also spies a young woman she thinks looks like Connie leaving the ball. After a few more queries, Barbara is convinced that Connie is the girl everyone at the ball is talking about. So convinced is she that she rushes home to make sure. At first Barbara thinks she may be mistaken when she bursts into Connie’s room to find her asleep in bed. But when she spies a discarded shoe on the bedroom floor that is the match to the one she saw Ted holding, she rips the bed covers off revealing Connie dressed in her ball gown.

Stack and Durbin at the ball

Connie is reunited with her prince
Barbara tells Connie that Ted knew who she was all along and was just playing her for a fool. Connie is so hurt and humiliated that she packs her bags and takes the first train back to Miss Wiggins’s boarding school. She’s decided that she wants to become a teacher at the school. Miss Wiggins (Kathleen Howard) tries to talk Connie out of it by telling her, in the most unflattering terms, what the life of a spinster teacher is like. Connie doesn’t like what she hears, but she agrees to stay on. Miss Wiggins has Connie sing “Un bel di” from Madame Butterfly to make the spinsters cry. She tells her, “spinsters are only happy when they cry.” While Connie is singing the aria, Ted walks in with the missing shoe. When Connie sees Ted standing at the back of the recital hall, she falters a bit and then stops singing to run into Ted’s arms. A happy ending or as the screen tells us, “They lived happily ever after,” just like Cinderella!

Backstory: First Love is a delightful movie. It is successful in part because of Deanna Durbin’s winning on-screen personality and the wonderful supporting cast. The film was an important milestone in Durbin’s career. With five hit films under her belt as a juvenile star, Durbin was growing up right before the eyes of the American public. The year before, Durbin won a special Juvenile Academy Award. Would the public accept this older, more mature Durbin?

Durbin and Stack on the Universal lot during the filming of First Love

This film was also a milestone for Robert Stack. It was his first film and he got to give Durbin her first screen kiss. The publicity around this event was extraordinary. “The kiss heard around the world” was the word from the press. Durbin was so popular all over the world during the late 1930s. Anne Frank had a picture of Durbin and Stack from First Love on her bedroom wall in the family’s hiding place in Amsterdam; it’s part of the museum to this day. Durbin’s fan club was the largest of any star during her heyday.

Universal seriously considered filming First Love in Technicolor. Although it’s black and white cinematography by Joseph A. Valentine is superb—he was nominated for an Academy Award—this movie would have been wonderful in color.

Director Henry Koster, Durbin, and Producer Joe Pasternak

This was Durbin’s fourth film directed by Henry Koster—she had made only six films thus far—and produced by Joe Pasternak, the two men most responsible for Durbin’s screen success.

In Stack’s autobiography, Shooting Straight (1980), he relates that he auditioned for First Love with Helen Parrish, who Stack thought was “a beautiful girl.” Speaking of Parrish, this was her third Durbin film. She was her nemesis in Mad About Music (1938) and her older sister in Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939). Durbin and Parrish may have been antagonists on the screen, but the two were reportedly best friends in real life.

Other actors that frequently appeared in Durbin films include Marcia Mae Jones (Mad About Music, Nice Girl?), Charles Coleman (Three Smart Girls, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, It Started with Eve), Mary Treen (Three Smart Girls Grow Up), Kathleen Howard (Three Smart Girls Grow Up), Thurston Hall (Three Smart Girls Grow Up, Lady on a Train, Up in Central Park), Eugene Paulette (One Hundred Men and a Girl, It’s a Date), Samuel S. Hinds (It’s a Date, Spring Parade, Hers to Hold, Lady on a Train), Lucille Ward (It Started with Eve), Frank Jenks (One Hundred Men and a Girl).

Not so trivial trivia: Mary Treen and Samuel S. Hinds found screen immortality by appearing in the Frank Capra classic, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

This post is part of the O Canada Blogathon, hosted by Kristina of Speakeasy and Ruth of Silver Screenings . Click here to check out the other great posts in this annual blogathon.

Loretta or Cary: Who Is more Beautiful?

Loretta Young: a photographer's dream

The Faces of Beauty
Both Loretta Young and Cary Grant were known as much for their classic movie star looks as their acting abilities. Young, a star since the days of silent films, is considered one of the screen’s great beauties. Her big expressive eyes and lovely cheekbones made her a photographer’s dream. Grant’s was the face that the top female stars of the 1930s wanted next to theirs on the big screen.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...
When Young and Grant costarred together in The Bishop’s Wife (1947), audiences were faced with two of the most beautiful and most photographed faces in the movies. With those two great faces on the screen side by side, the question comes up; who is the most beautiful of all?

Publicity photograph of Cary Grant

Dressed to Impress
In the film, Grant plays a very dashing angel named Dudley. Dressed by five-time Oscar-winner Irene Sharaff, Grant looked as if he just walked off the set of Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946). He’s as dapper as, well, Cary Grant. Young on the other hand, plays Julia Brougham, the wife of a Bishop (David Niven). Throughout the movie, Young is dressed modestly, but beautifully. Likewise, her hairstyle is pulled back, simply styled, but framing that beautiful, luminous face.

Vanity, Vanity
Like the public that adored them, Young and Grant were aware of their respective good looks and did all they could to present themselves on screen in the best way possible. The story goes that when director Henry Koster blocked out a two-shot between Young and Grant, both protested that the blocking did not exploit the best sides of their faces. To appease the two stars, Koster had them look out a window in the same direction. This shot satisfied Young and Grant because their best sides (the left sides of their faces) were photographed.

I'm not Paying for Half a Face

 Tyrone Power and Young

When producer Samuel Goldwyn saw the dailies (film shot that day), he was critical of Koster’s decision to shoot the scene in such a manner. When Koster asked Young and Grant to explain why the shot was set up and filmed this way, Goldywn let go with one of his famous “Goldwynisms.” He said to both stars “Look, if I'm only getting half a face, you're only getting half a salary!” Young and Grant, both being freelance movie stars and not contracted to a major movie studio were also conscious of workplace politics.

After that confrontation with the boss, the subject of what side of their faces looked better on film never came up again.