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====Selznick contract==== Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in April 1939,{{Sfn|Truffaut|1983|p=121}} and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood.<ref>{{harvnb|Leff|1999|p=35}}.</ref> The Hitchcocks lived in a spacious flat on [[Wilshire Boulevard]], and slowly acclimatised themselves to the Los Angeles area. He and his wife Alma kept a low profile, and were not interested in attending parties or being celebrities.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=153}} Hitchcock discovered his taste for fine food in West Hollywood, but still carried on his way of life from England.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=154}} He was impressed with Hollywood's filmmaking culture, expansive budgets and efficiency,{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=154}} compared to the limits that he had often faced in Britain.<ref>{{harvnb|Leff|1999|p=30}}</ref> In June that year, ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' called him the "greatest master of melodrama in screen history".<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=19 June 1939 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=b0kEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA66 66] |title=Alfred Hitchcock: England's Best Director starts work in Hollywood}}</ref> Although Hitchcock and Selznick respected each other, their working arrangements were sometimes difficult. Selznick suffered from constant financial problems, and Hitchcock was often unhappy about Selznick's creative control and interference over his films. Selznick was also displeased with Hitchcock's method of shooting just what was in the script, and nothing more, which meant that the film could not be cut and remade differently at a later time.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=152}} As well as complaining about Hitchcock's "goddamn jigsaw cutting",<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|pp= 251–252}}</ref> their personalities were mismatched: Hitchcock was reserved whereas Selznick was flamboyant.<ref>{{cite book|last=Billheimer|first=John|chapter=Hitchcock and Selznick|date=1 May 2019|chapter-url=http://kentucky.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.001.0001/upso-9780813177427-chapter-006|title=Hitchcock and the Censors|pages=59–63|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|doi=10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.003.0006|isbn=978-0-8131-7742-7|s2cid=213530256|access-date=21 November 2020|archive-date=29 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129082758/https://kentucky.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5810/kentucky/9780813177427.001.0001/upso-9780813177427-chapter-006|url-status=live}}</ref> Eventually, Selznick generously lent Hitchcock to the larger film studios.{{Sfn|Truffaut|1983|p=145}} Selznick made only a few films each year, as did fellow independent producer [[Samuel Goldwyn]], so he did not always have projects for Hitchcock to direct. Goldwyn had also negotiated with Hitchcock on a possible contract, only to be outbid by Selznick. In a later interview, Hitchcock said: "[Selznick] was the Big Producer. ... Producer was king. The most flattering thing Mr. Selznick ever said about me—and it shows you the amount of control—he said I was the 'only director' he'd 'trust with a film'."<ref>{{harvnb|Gottlieb|2003|p=206}}</ref> [[File:Rebecca (1940) - Trailer.webm|thumb|Trailer for ''Rebecca'' (1940)]] Hitchcock approached American cinema cautiously; his first American film was set in England in which the "Americanness" of the characters was incidental:{{Sfn|Wood|2002|p=240}} ''[[Rebecca (1940 film)|Rebecca]]'' (1940) was set in a Hollywood version of England's Cornwall and based on a [[Rebecca (novel)|novel]] by English novelist [[Daphne du Maurier]]. Selznick insisted on a faithful adaptation of the book, and disagreed with Hitchcock with the use of humour.{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=150}}{{Sfn|Taylor|1996|p=155}} The film, starring [[Laurence Olivier]] and [[Joan Fontaine]], concerns an unnamed naïve young woman who marries a widowed aristocrat. She lives in his large [[English country house]], and struggles with the lingering reputation of his elegant and worldly first wife Rebecca, who died under mysterious circumstances. The film won [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]] at the [[13th Academy Awards]]; the statuette was given to producer Selznick. Hitchcock received his first nomination for [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]], his first of five such nominations.<ref name=Rebecca>{{cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1941 |title=The 13th Academy Awards, 1941 |access-date=30 December 2017 |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303110034/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/13th-winners.html|archive-date=3 March 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Duncan|2003|p=84}}</ref> Hitchcock's second American film was the thriller ''[[Foreign Correspondent (film)|Foreign Correspondent]]'' (1940), set in Europe, based on [[Vincent Sheean]]'s book ''Personal History'' (1935) and produced by [[Walter Wanger]]. It was nominated for Best Picture that year. Hitchcock felt uneasy living and working in Hollywood while Britain was at [[World War II|war]]; his concern resulted in a film that overtly supported the British war effort.<ref>{{harvnb|Duncan|2003|p=90}}</ref> Filmed in 1939, it was inspired by the rapidly changing events in Europe, as covered by an American newspaper reporter played by [[Joel McCrea]]. By mixing footage of European scenes with scenes filmed on a Hollywood [[backlot]], the film avoided direct references to [[Nazism]], [[Nazi Germany]] and Germans, to comply with the [[Motion Picture Production Code]] at the time.<ref>{{harvnb|McGilligan|2003|p=244}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=December 2017}}
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