Mitchell Leisen’s romantic melodrama, Frenchman’s Creek, set during the Restoration, is based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier (The Birds, Rebecca).
Handsomely shot by George Barnes (who won an Oscar for Hitchcock’s Rebecca), the tale centers on a young woman (Joan Fontaine), who escapes to her family home in Cornwall to avoid a loveless marriage to Ralph Forbes.
While there, she falls for a handsome pirate, Arturo de Cordova, but then her husband and his rakish friend (Basil Rathbone, doing what he does best) show up and put the couple’s lives at risk.
The good secondary cast includes Nigel Bruce and Cecil Kellaway.
Oscar Nominations: 1
Interior Decoration (Color): Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegte, art direction, Sam Comer, set decoration
Oscar Awards: 1
Interior Decoration
