During the Second World War, a new type of film emerged in Hollywood that became known

as the woman's picture. Films that included women-centered narratives, female protagonists,

and the design to appeal to a female audience. Some of the most successful directors of women's

pictures, through the 40s and 50s, included Douglas Cirque, Max Ofuls, and George Cuker.

But he said there wasn't any letters that I was going out of my mind!

Like going out of your mind. You're slowly and systematically being driven out of your mind.

Why? Why?

Unlike male-centered movies which were frequently shot outdoors, women's films were set in the

domestic sphere. And when it came to the darker dramas or thrillers, a quote-unquote woman's picture

would often focus on female madness, depression, hysteria, and amnesia.

The shy, unsophisticated young girl who dared to follow in the footsteps of the beautiful Rebecca

is portrayed by lovely Joan Fontaine.

In 1940, a critically lauded British director called Alfred Hitchcock made his big break in

Hollywood with a woman's picture called Rebecca, an adaptation of a Daphne-Demorea novel

about an old dark house called Mandalay that was being haunted by the memories of the owner's

dead wife.

The lovely room is not.

The lovely room you've ever seen. Everything is kept just as Mrs. DeWinterlighted.

Nothing has been altered since that last night.

The film went on to achieve huge critical success and won the Oscar for best picture.

A few years later, George Cuker directed a psychological thriller based on a Patrick Hamilton play

about a young woman whose husband manipulates her into believing that she is descending into insanity.

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