Daphne DuMaurier returns to her beloved Cornwall coast to write My Cousin Rachel where she set many of her stories like Rebecca and Frenchman's Creek. Although this film has the breakout performance of Richard Burton in it, I would have to say that it's not as good as Rebecca.
Burton's Philip Ashley and Maxim DeWinter of Rebecca are a pair of similar brooding characters each mourning the loss of someone close. In Burton's case it's his cousin John Sutton who took him in as an orphan and raised him like a son. Sutton with whom the foggy and damp climate of Cornwall doesn't agree has moved to Italy and leaves young Burton in charge of the Cornwall estate. Sutton also marries an Italian-English woman in Italy and he dies there.
His will left everything to Burton, but as the widow she might have a case to contest. She's got herself an Italian lawyer in the person of George Dolenz who might just be more than her attorney.
The title role of that new cousin by marriage is played by Olivia DeHavilland, her first screen appearance since winning her second Oscar for The Heiress. As My Cousin Rachel is set roughly the same time as The Heiress it's like Olivia stepped from film set right to the other despite the three year gap. Her performance also is like what Catherine Sloper evolved into in The Heiress, mannered, controlled, manipulating and shrewd.
But one of the four bits of recognition the Academy gave My Cousin Rachel was a first Oscar nomination for Richard Burton. Inexplicably Burton is put in the Supporting Actor category and he's got more screen time than DeHavilland. As for Burton imagine Maxim DeWinter from Rebecca as a young man, Burton is 25 in this part and you've got his character. He's brooding and passionate and madlessly in love with his new cousin by marriage, but also incredibly suspicious that maybe DeHavilland might have helped Sutton along to his demise and that Dolenz helped her.
You can't spoil this story because DuMaurier and the film leave it quite up in the air as to whether DeHavilland was a murderer or not. My Cousin Rachel also got Oscar nominations for Costume Design, Black and White Art&Set Direction and Black and White Cinematography. That estate is beautifully photographed, the set will remind of Manderley in Rebecca.
My Cousin Rachel is not as good as Rebecca, but certainly has its place in cinema history as the big break performance for Richard Burton.
Burton's Philip Ashley and Maxim DeWinter of Rebecca are a pair of similar brooding characters each mourning the loss of someone close. In Burton's case it's his cousin John Sutton who took him in as an orphan and raised him like a son. Sutton with whom the foggy and damp climate of Cornwall doesn't agree has moved to Italy and leaves young Burton in charge of the Cornwall estate. Sutton also marries an Italian-English woman in Italy and he dies there.
His will left everything to Burton, but as the widow she might have a case to contest. She's got herself an Italian lawyer in the person of George Dolenz who might just be more than her attorney.
The title role of that new cousin by marriage is played by Olivia DeHavilland, her first screen appearance since winning her second Oscar for The Heiress. As My Cousin Rachel is set roughly the same time as The Heiress it's like Olivia stepped from film set right to the other despite the three year gap. Her performance also is like what Catherine Sloper evolved into in The Heiress, mannered, controlled, manipulating and shrewd.
But one of the four bits of recognition the Academy gave My Cousin Rachel was a first Oscar nomination for Richard Burton. Inexplicably Burton is put in the Supporting Actor category and he's got more screen time than DeHavilland. As for Burton imagine Maxim DeWinter from Rebecca as a young man, Burton is 25 in this part and you've got his character. He's brooding and passionate and madlessly in love with his new cousin by marriage, but also incredibly suspicious that maybe DeHavilland might have helped Sutton along to his demise and that Dolenz helped her.
You can't spoil this story because DuMaurier and the film leave it quite up in the air as to whether DeHavilland was a murderer or not. My Cousin Rachel also got Oscar nominations for Costume Design, Black and White Art&Set Direction and Black and White Cinematography. That estate is beautifully photographed, the set will remind of Manderley in Rebecca.
My Cousin Rachel is not as good as Rebecca, but certainly has its place in cinema history as the big break performance for Richard Burton.