133. Rebecca (1940)

Directed By Alfred Hitchcock

Synopsis

You know, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Fall Of The House of Usher... only here there is no ghost or living wife, but something which can be even more insidious, a memory and a secret.

Woman marries De Winter to find herself haunted by the memory of his previous wife Rebecca.

Review

This film won the Best Movie Oscar of 1940, and it is easy to see why. Hitchcock rarely disappoints, the film is expertly directed. While it might at times seem drawn out it is all part of the suspense, of making you want to know what will happen next. The acting is very good as well, Laurence Olivier looks better than he did in Wuthering Heights, having learned his lessons and Joan Fontaine as the nameless second Mrs. De Winter is also beautiful and quite good.

The acting award here goes to Mrs. Davers, however, probably because she has the best and most memorable part as the hallucinated lesbianic sycophantic nutcase governess. The scene where she tries to convince Fontaine to commit suicide is particularly good.

Not having read the book it is hard for me to judge how faithful it is or not, but as a piece of cinema it stands by itself quite perfectly. The only part of the film which I thought was superfluous is the beggining narration, which kind of gives away the ending of the film. Still, superb. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

At Selznick's insistence, the plot of the novel Rebecca was largely unchanged in the film. However, one plot detail in the novel was altered to comply with the Hollywood Production Code, which said that the murder of a spouse had to be punished. In the novel, Maxim shoots Rebecca, while in the film, he only thinks of killing her after she taunts him, saying she is pregnant with someone else's child. She then suddenly falls back, hits her head on a piece of boat equipment, and dies from her head injuries. This is therefore much more innocent seeming than in the book version, as in the book, Maxim has purposely killed Rebecca, while in the film it is seen to be more of an accident.

The protagonists get to know each other: