Rebecca

Rebecca (1940) “Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

Notable cast/crew: Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter.  Joan Fontaine as Mrs de Winter.  George Sanders as Jack Favell.  Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers.  Nigel Bruce as Major Giles Lacy.  Reginald Denny as Frank Crawley.  Leo G Carroll as Dr Baker in the first of six Hitchcock films.

Running time: 130 minutes

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Plot: Our narrator, Mrs de Winter, revisits Manderley in a dream and remembers how she came to live there at one time.  She's working as a travelling companion in the south of France when she sees Maxim de Winter on the cliffs, peering down into the ocean.  She stops what appears to be a suicide attempt and then encounters him again at the hotel.  He's mourning the death of his wife, Rebecca, but, running into the narrator again at the hotel, he takes an interest her and takes her out to the countryside so she can sketch for him.  In making small talk, she mentions swimming in the sea and drowning only to learn later that Rebecca died drowning after a sailing accident.

Mrs Danvers, a darkness within the light

While the narrator's employer is taken ill, Maxim spends as much time as he can with the narrator.  When she is to leave France, Maxim asks her to marry him and return with him to his home, Manderley.  They wed quietly and return home where the staff is not all receptive to the marriage.  In particular, Mrs Danvers, Rebecca's personal maid, resents there being a new Mrs de Winter.

Mrs Danvers has managed the house since Rebecca died, and she sets out to mark her territory and icily intimidate the narrator.  Little details throughout the house still evoke Rebecca's presence: the embroidered linens, the stationery, her room left almost a shrine in the state it was when she died.  Even the good-natured servants, in trying to be helpful, steer the narrator to do things the way Rebecca did: what to eat, which rooms to use, what her schedule should be.  She is so intimidated by them that she responds to a phone call asking for Mrs de Winter by saying she had died a year ago.

In her insecurity, she tries to be more like Rebecca which only serves to aggravate Maxim.  He loves her because she isn't Rebecca.  He simply wants her to be herself.  She begins to assert herself to Mrs Danvers, who is unnaturally devoted to Rebecca's memory, which provokes Mrs Danvers to try to betray her.  Mrs Danvers tricks her into wearing a dress Rebecca once wore which wounds Maxim.  Distraught, she flees the costume ball, and Mrs Danvers tries to seduce her into killing herself.  A cannon firing announcing a shipwreck snaps her out of it.

The discovery of Rebecca's missing boat and body during the course of rescuing the ship brings things to a boil.  Maxim had falsely identified another deceased woman as his wife, and he admits he was the one who scuttled Rebecca's boat with her dead body on it.  Beyond that, he reveals that he hated Rebecca.  Rebecca, despite the hagiographic reverence for her by some, was a wicked woman who thrived on making Maxim miserable.  She cheated on him flagrantly and threw it in his face.  He had confronted her, and she mocked him that she was going to have a child who would be his heir but who he would always know was not his.  She taunted him trying to provoke him, and in their arguing she tripped and fell, hitting her head as she fell, and dying.  Fearing that no one would believe him, Maxim took her body, placed it in her boat, and scuttled it.

Jack Favell, Rebecca's cousin, thinks Maxim killed her and tries to extort Maxim.  Maxim turns the tables on him and reports him to the police.  Favell lays out a theory of the murder, and for motive, suggests Rebecca was pregnant with his child.  When they question the doctor, it turns out she was not pregnant: she had terminal cancer.  The night of the argument, she was trying to provoke Maxim into killing her so she wouldn't have to face her illness.

Mrs Danvers, consumed by her obsession with Rebecca, sets fire to Manderley and kills herself in the blaze.  The loss of Manderley frees the de Winters from the presence of Rebecca once and for all.

MacGuffin: None

Hitchcock cameo: Walking behind George Sanders after he uses the phone

Hitchcock themes: 

• Identity

Verdict: This is not just a great Hitchcock movie; this is one of the great movies of old Hollywood.  It received eleven Oscar nominations and won Best Picture and Best Cinematography (black & white).   It made use of a technique called "deep focus photography" which gave the camera a much deeper field of vision for some of the fantastic interior shots of the house.  It features one of the great opening lines in cinema, and a memorable opening sequence that ties nicely into the end of the film.

 Hitchcock had an A list cast for his first American film after coming over from Britain.  It is stocked with both great leading actors and great character actors in supporting roles.  Laurence Olivier plays the tortured Maxim with subtlety and pathos.  George Sanders is superb playing the oily cad.  His voice and rakish charm steal every scene he's in.  Judith Anderson is eerie and seductively dominating in her role as Mrs Danvers.  There is a suggestion of an illicit relationship with Rebecca that is not explicitly stated but deeply suggested by her obsessive devotion to her memory.  Leo G Carroll is in only one scene, but the great character actor shines as the doctor.  He would work with Hitchcock five more times becoming the actor with the most credited appearances in Hitchcock's films.

Joan Fontaine is perfect as Mrs de Winter.  Her character undergoes a transformation as the movie progresses.  Mousy and awkward, she first is employed to a domineering woman then loomed over by Mrs Danvers.  Throughout the movie, she is overshadowed by Rebecca which is a remarkable accomplishment as Rebecca is never actually seen in the film.  Adding to the lack of identity, Fontaine's character is never named in the film.  It's slyly noted when Maxim's sister meets her that she doesn't know her name, and it reinforces that the narrator is so insecure and obedient to others that her lack of self-confidence extends to not only being unnamed but not seeing herself as Mrs de Winter.  She thinks of Rebecca as Mrs de Winter.  It is the revelation that Maxim loves her because she is not Rebecca, and ultimately that he hated Rebecca, that helps push her into asserting herself and enables her to realize herself as Mrs de Winter.  It's a wonderful performance with some possible undertones of Fontaine's real life as she had toiled in the shadow of her more famous sister, Olivia de Havilland, until this film.  Fontaine would win the Oscar for her next film, Hitchcock's Suspicion, and some felt her win there was really Hollywood making up for her not having won for Rebecca.

If you're interested in seeing the great classics of Hollywood, this is a film you must see.

Out of five bananas, I give it:

Next review: Foreign Correspondent