My fabulous vacation, Hitchcock and Rebecca

I took a 3 day vacation this weekend. I went to see my saintly grey haired mother in West Liberty, OH. We had a good deal of fun together. We watched old Gunsmoke reruns and tried to identify the old character actors. I am amazingly good at picking out people based on their voices, though I did call some incorrectly and totally blank on some others. I did recognize Shani Wallis, because of her voice, though she was affecting a southern drawl, and because she seemed to be wearing a dress stolen from the "Oliver" section of the costume department. We (Mom and I, not Shani and I) took some naps, ate pizza from Michael's pizza in West Liberty, (not affiliated with Michael's pizza in Bellefontaine, OH), and watched a couple of movies. I think I can tell a Gunsmoke from a Bonanza episode with certainty by viewing any 10 seconds of any episode even if I have never seen it and even if it displays none of the stars of either show. Too bad the episode with Festus's evil twin wasn't on.
Mom cooked too. I did a few chores that she had saved up for me when she found I was coming up. There are always lightbulbs burning out, and leaves that collect in the garage. Probably my major accomplishment was destined to be short lived. I spent a couple of hours all told, clearing her totally iced up side steps. Now that the warmer weather is here, most of the snow up there will soon be gone and the steps would have been cleared soon anyway. Such is the nature of work. Organization is temporary. Chaos and entropy will have their way unless restrained. All is vanity and striving after wind, as Solomon put it.
Mom is in her 70s and she had never seen "Rebecca" before. It has only been out since 1940. We watched a little of "Gone With the Wind" prior to "Rebecca" and it is amazing how much Joan Fontaine and Olivia DeHaviland resemble each other. Both play impossibly good women.
Hitchcock's camera work in the boathouse scene is amazingly well done. The camera is a major force in the scene with Olivier and Fontaine. A worse director would have told the story with a flashback. Ah genius!
That was the second Hitchcock movie we watched. On Saturday we saw "To Catch a Thief", and that is a pretty good movie. "Rebecca" is an amazing story, partially because it shows how two people can totally misread each other if they are entertaining the wrong assumptions about each other. I need to add Du Maurier to my reading list.