Olivia's ambiguous 'Rachel' praised by Dennis Grunes...

"Olivia de Havilland’s cunning performance as Rachel Sangalletti tests the limits of one’s openness to a certain kind of acting. Ingeniously, and with surgical skill, de Havilland plays her scenes so we see how evil Rachel may be and how evil she may not be, except in the eyes of impulsive young Philip Ashley, who, out to prove her the murderer of his cousin Ambrose, whose death has left him rich, himself succumbs to her charms. But is Rachel only after the Ashley wealth she presumed would be hers?

De Havilland has a field day with this ambiguous role, playing nothing, as it were, and playing it brilliantly."

And to think: George Cukor once stated that Olivia "had no mystery" and this was one of the reasons he left the project after hoping to coax Garbo out of retirement and then going after Vivien Leigh. Olivia said she treasured Cukor's comment when, after seeing the film, he changed his mind and called Olivia to congratulate her on her "brilliant" performance.

Personally, I think Garbo would have been all wrong for the role at 47. She turned it down at the last moment, afraid to make another film.


"Somewhere along the line, the world has lost all of its standards and all of its taste."