United Artists (Walter Wanger)
Oscar Nominations: 6
Picture, produced by Walter Wanger
Screenplay (Original): Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison
Supporting Actor: Albert Basserman
Cinematography (b/w): Rudolph Mate
Interior Decoration (b/w): Alexander Golitzen
Special Effects:: Paul Eagler and Thomas Moulton
Special Effects: Jack Cosgrove, photographic; Arthur Johns, sound
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context:
In 1940, Hitchcock's Oscar winner “Rebecca” competed for the top award with nine other films: Hitchcock's own “Foreign Correspondent” (on of his lesser movies), “All This and Heaven Too,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Great Dictator,” “Kitty Foyle,” “The Letter,” “The Long Voyage Home,” “Our Town,” and “The Philadelphia Story.”
Like Hitchcock, John Ford had two movies in contention: “The Grapes of Wrath,” starring Henry Fonda, and “The Long Voyage Home,” with John Wayne.
In the Academy's history, only two suspense-thrillers, Hitchcock's “Rebecca” (1940) and Jonathan Demme's “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) have won the Best Picture Oscar.
Hitchcock's first America movie, Rebecca,” was nominated for the largest number of awards in 1940, 10, winning two. The other most nominated pictures were John Ford's socially aware class drama “The Grapes of Wrath,” and William Wyler's melodrama, The Letter,” each with 7.
With the exception of Jonathan Demme, no other filmmaker has ever won the Director Oscar for a thriller. Hitchcock was nominated five times, for “Rebecca,” “Lifeboat” (1944), “Spellbound” (1945), “Rear Window” (1954), and “Psycho” (1960). And four of Hitchcock films were nominated for Best Picture, the aforementioned “Rebecca” and “Foreign Correspondent,” “Suspicion” (1941) and “Spellbound.” However, Hitchcock never won a legit Oscar, though the Academy later compensated him with an Honorary Award.
In 1940, “Rebecca” won the Cinematography Oscar (by George Barnes), “Pride and Prejudice” the Art Direction, and “The Thief of Bagdad” Special Effects. Preston Sturges won the Original Screenplay Oscar for “The Great McGinty,” and Walter Brennan won his third Supporting Oscar in five years (a record) for Wyler's “The Westerner.”