My Cousin Rachel (1952)

I've often heard of this film referred to as a classic of the genre, the gothic romance. Along with WUTHERING HEIGHTS it is often considered worth watching. Was it?Based on the novel by author Daphne Du Maurier who wrote REBECCA among other novels, it centers around Philip Ashley (Richard Burton), a man taken in by his cousin Ambrose when his parents died. The two form a quick bond, more like an uncle and nephew than cousins, with Ambrose determined to raise Philip as a gentleman. The years pass and Ambrose health becomes an issue so he travels to the warmer climate of Florence. There he meets their cousin Rachel (Olive de Havilland), falls in love with her and then marries her.All of this is learned via letters he sends back to Philip. But then the letters change. Ambrose becomes suspicious of Rachel and thinks she is poisoning him. He request Philp to come to him and he obliges only to arrive too late. Ambrose has passed while he was on his way and Rachel has gone into mourning among friends elsewhere.Returning home he swears vengeance against Rachel. He is also surprised to learn that Ambrose has left his entire estate to him rather than his wife. And while she could contest the will she instead obliges it. A planned visit is requested and Philip agrees. While he assumes the worst his mentor and god father Nick Kendall (Ronald Squire) comes to her defense, informing Philip that Ambrose could have fallen to the same malady that his father suffered, a brain tumor.Unwilling to listen, Philip invites Rachel to stay at the estate. When she arrives she is nothing that he thought she would be. It isn't long before he finds himself enchanted by the woman and soon his thoughts of her murdering Ambrose fade away. Providing her with an allowance to live on he ignores warning signs when Kendall informs him that her spending has over reached the amount she's been provided which was considerable.When Philip falls ill he never questions Rachel or consider her behind his ailment, even though she insists on bringing him her home made recipe of herbs. But is she poisoning him? And did she poison Ambrose? Is she truly a woman of loose morals as some have claimed or a victim of circumstance? Even when the film ends you will find yourself unsure of the answers.As I said, the film has been praised for years but I found it difficult to take. It seems that in the two I've most recently viewed (this and the remake of WUTHERING HEIGHTS) they both depended on the stupidity of the men involved and the uncaring attitudes of the women. In both we find a men desperately in love with the women they cannot have and women who claim affection for them yet do everything possible to harm them emotionally.This film is the more disturbing of the two with Burton in his first major American film providing one of his worst performances ever. He's completely over the top from start to finish. Every sequence in which he speaks comes out more like a stage actor unaware of the nuance of film that doesn't require him to speak to the back of the theater of to gesture to do the same. Couple that with the fact that the character seems to be the dumbest person you've ever come across, flipping from massive anger to unbridled love for the same woman, willing to give her all that he has with no guarantee that she will oblige him anything and you find yourself with little sympathy for him.De Havilland as Rachel does a solid job here but again, this is not a character you find yourself sympathizing with. The thin line between guilt and innocence is shifted back and forth so often that you worry if you like her she's really a killer and if you hate her then you're displaying contempt for an innocent woman. The end result is not knowing how to feel and being left in limbo.Twilight Time is releasing the film and providing movie lovers with the best possible version released to far. Fans of the film will be delighted to find this in hi definition 1080p format. Extras are limited to an isolated music track, a radio play of the story and the original theatrical trailer. As always the release is limited to just 3,000 copies so if you are one of the many fans of the film then by all means pick it up before it's gone.

Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland scheme, doubt, and swoon in this Gothic thriller based on a Daphne du Maurier novel. It's a handsome looking production and adequately captures its 19th century setting. But despite the good actors, the whole thing never works up much steam, and what should be a juicy costume drama in the same vein as "The Little Foxes" instead remains fairly tepid.I think the problem is with the casting. Olivia de Havilland is a wonderful actress, but she doesn't have the kind of sex appeal that would make a horny twenty-something go bonkers over her. Without that, Burton's obsession with her doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Burton is good, and if his performance is a bit intensely one note, I attribute that more to the character than any flaw in his performance. He was absurdly nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this film, one of the most flagrant examples of category fraud in Oscar history. He is literally in nearly every scene."My Cousin Rachel"s attention to period production values paid off, as it was also nominated in the black and white categories for Art Direction, Cinematography, and Costume Design, though it went home empty handed.Grade: B

This film is based on one of Daphne DuMaurier's mysterious romances and features one of her most intriguing female characters. Olivia de Havilland as Rachel comes across as an anti- heroine. But even after that determination has been made, that she is no good, one cannot help but think she's been mistook as a villain. That is the ironic beauty of this story--the multiple shades of ambiguity, with no easy answers.Both the novel and 20th Century Fox's faithful version (adapted by Nunnally Johnson) do not provide a traditional resolution. This works because Rachel, like the unseen Rebecca of DuMaurier's earlier novel, hovers beyond the framework of the story. There's no way we can know every innocent or evil detail of her life. We also cannot know every detail of her beloved Phillip's life.Phillip, played by Richard Burton in his first major Hollywood film assignment, is strangely just as mysterious and ambiguous as Rachel. In a great scene, Phillip deliriously hangs between life and death and has a fantastic vision of marrying Rachel. He recovers, only to learn that it was all an illusion. His entire relationship with Rachel may all be an illusion.

The ending. That's what is commented on most and with good reason. Because the resolution is purposely ambiguous, it disappoints or frustrates many.I think the ending, which does not stamp the seal of innocence or guilt upon Rachel, is appropriate to the story. The plot carefully builds two sides to Rachel's character. She is either the sweetest warmest person ever, or a fortune seeker where marriage and murderer are not out of the question. The story builds a strong case for both perspectives. This is the larger point of the story - it's about perceptions, communication and judgments humans make, that we sometimes have to make without the ability to determine the truth and the inherent danger in doing so. This is how life sometimes is - nowadays we call them gray areas. My Cousin Rachel it's not necessarily a mystery story that needs to be resolved, but more truly a comment on the folly of human interactions, especially where money and greed are involved.Yet even if you demand a solid resolution, the ending should not be seen as a let-down. If you believe the story shows her guilt more prominently, then in the end you can argue that fate stepped in, (seconds too late) and justice was done - she paid with her life for murder, as the opening death scene foretold. On the other hand If you believe her innocent, then her murder can be explained in her extremely poor manner of showing and communicating her intentions, leaving highly bad impressions to those it mattered most.I think my reading of the outcome is backed up by the fact then when the author of the novel was asked about the innocence of Rachael, she herself did not know. Solving the mystery was not the author's intention. Brent Chastain top3films.com