55. Rebecca

Alfred Hitchcock, 1940

Rebecca, based on a then popular novel, was one of Alfred Hitchcock’s first big hits. It was the first picture he made in Hollywood and the only one of his films to ever win the best picture Oscar. It was also his first picture with producer David O. Selznick. Selznick was, by all accounts, a very overbearing producer. As such, many, including Hitchcock himself, consider this to be a sort of lesser Hitchcock film, in that it is not as much a Hitchcock film as, say, Vertigo. While that may be true, I really don’t give a crap. This a great movie and every bit as suspenseful as many of Hitchcock’s other films. Indeed, I tend to think of the success of this film as a testament to Hitchcock. No one contends that he made it under ideal circumstances. From an artistic point of view, the film was beset with problems and interference from the beginning. Yet, it remains a powerful, effective, and, yes, suspenseful work. I doubt that most directors could overcome such adversity and still make a picture with the skill that Hitchcock is known for, but, here, he succeeds.

Well, I hoped you enjoyed the history lesson. Now, what the hell is this one about? Joan Fontaine plays a woman who is employed by an equally elderly and uppity rich woman to be her traveling companion. Nothing dirty about, just traveling companion. Anyway, while her employer is sick in bed, our heroine hangs around the resort and falls in love with Sir Laurence Olivier’s Maxim de Winter. Maxim is rich, suave, the whole package. The two fall head over heels in love and Maxim asks her to marry him. After that, it’s off to his big ass mansion, Manderly. While at Manderly, our heroine has a tough time of it. She is expect to be the lady of the house and boss servants around and what not, but she’s never done anything like that before. She isn’t allowed to enter certain rooms. She is regularly terrorized by Mrs. Danvers, Judith Anderson giving it her all as the haughty, arrogant head maid who oozes hatred for our heroine. Worst of all, once returning to Manderly, Maxim turns into a real cold fish, never spending any time with his new wife and snapping at her when he does. It seems that it has only been a few years since Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter died. Maxim still seems broken up over it and Mrs. Danvers remains fiercely loyal to her dead mistress. The result is that, while there is no ghost or anything like that, our heroine is haunted by Rebecca as surely as if there was. This is stressed in the filmmaking in a number of ways, like having Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca’s agent of sorts, glide in and out of scenes rather than walk. The best bit, though, is that Rebecca is constantly mentioned throughout the movie. Thanks to the title, hers is the first name we see and, thanks to a monogram on a burning pillow, the last. In contrast, we never learn the name of Joan Fontaine’s character. If she is called anything at all, it is the second Mrs. de Winter. Not knowing her name only adds to Rebecca’s power and to the general sense of foreboding throughout the film.

Most of the suspense in the film comes from that relationship. Our heroine is constantly on edge and shy as a mouse, once even hiding a small trinket she broke rather than throwing it in a trash bin where someone might find it. The best scene of all then, is the major psychological battle waged between the second Mrs. de Winter and Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca’s old bedroom. After Mrs. Danvers shows our heroine the room, she takes her to the balcony where she coaxes our heroine toward killing herself, “Go ahead. Jump. He never loved you, so why go on living? Jump and it will all be over. . .”