SILVER

Joan Fontaine stars in this recently restored Technicolor adventure from underrated director Mitchell Leisen, based on the bestselling novel by Daphne du Maurier. An attempt to recapture the success of REBECCA (1940) with the same author, star and cinematographer, the film received a well-deserved Oscar® win for Best Art Direction (color). Noblewoman Dona St. Columb (Fontaine), escaping from a loveless marriage and on the run from her husband, leaves London for the coast in Cornwall. She encounters a romantic French pirate, portrayed by Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova. Their brief, idyllic romance is interrupted by the return of the husband and slimy Lord Rockingham (Basil Rathbone), who has his own plans. The New York Times review summed up the experience as more emotional than logical, writing "check your think-cap at the door if you want a two-hour excursion in fancy-pants cloak-and-sword escape." DIR Mitchell Leisen; SCR Talbot Jennings, from the novel by Daphne du Maurier; PROD Buddy G. DeSylva. U.S., 1944, color, 110 min. NOT RATED
4K digital restoration by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation at NBCUniversal StudioPost laboratory from a 35mm three-strip nitrate original cut picture negative preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for their consultation on this restoration.

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