Rebecca

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. On and on wound the poor thread that had once been our drive, and finally there was Manderley. Manderley - secretive and silent. Time could not mar the perfect symmetry of those walls. Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, and suddenly it seemed to me that light came from the windows. And then a cloud came upon the moon and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face. The illusion went with it. I looked upon a desolate shell with no whisper of the past about its staring walls. We can never go back to Manderley again. That much is certain. But sometimes, in my dreams I do go back to the strange days of my life, which began for me in the South of France.”

This opening narrative sets up a most unusual drama about love, jealousy, and death. It’s a recipe that made Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 Gothic novel Rebecca such an interesting read when I first found it nearly thirty years ago. At that time I was aware that a film had been made by Alfred Hitchcock, but it was not readily available where I lived, so I devoured this book, discovering what so many had already found within the pages of that masterpiece.

No film, no matter who made it, could hope to live up to that prose. Daphne paints her characters so true to life that they practically leap off the page, especially the unnamed protagonist, the second Mrs. de Winter, who suffers from a great deal of self-doubt. She is surrounded by people who stoke that insecurity, too. Such care and attention to detail would naturally suffer some in a translation to the screen. Alfred Hitchcock, who was just getting started in Hollywood after a successful career in British films, wanted to buy the rights to the novel. He was working on another du Maurier project, Jamaica Inn, at the time but couldn’t match the prices the major studios were bidding for Rebecca. Selznick International ended up securing the rights for the adaptation, but fortune was still on Hitchcock’s side as he was assigned to direct the adaptation.

Hitchcock wanted to make some significant changes to the story, specifically to the character of the second Mrs. de Winter, but David O. Selznick insisted on fidelity to the source material. This led to some butting of heads between the two, as well as some clashes with the Breen office, who enforced the Hays code. Of particular offense was the circumstances surrounding the death of the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca. Elements surrounding her demise were deemed too much for the code and had to be removed from the final script. What we get in the final picture is a bit watered down in comparison but is still quite effective. 

The final project was released in the spring of 1940 to critical acclaim. It was further bolstered by the following Academy Awards, where it was nominated 11 times, winning two, including Outstanding Production. Hitchcock didn’t win for directing, but this helped cement him as one of the great directors, and his name would show up again and again at the various awards shows following that year. Hitchcock should have had more success in that area than he did, but in the end, his talent as a filmmaker rivals that of the best in the business.

Rebecca is named after a character that makes no appearance in the story, yet her influence can be felt everywhere. When the film opens, Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) stands on a cliff edge on the French Riviera, seemingly contemplating suicide. A young unnamed woman (Joan Fontaine) shouts at him to stop him in his tracks. He curtly asks her to walk on. Maxim has recently been widowed; his late wife, Rebecca, was apparently a formidable woman.

Later, at a Monte Carlo hotel, the same young woman, working as a paid companion to the haughty-aged Mrs. Van Hopper (Florence Bates), again encounters Maxim de Winter. Van Hopper is obsequious to the aristocratic de Winter, but her efforts go mostly ignored. When she is taken ill, confined to her room, Maxim invites the young companion to some excursions such as tennis and drives in the country. While she starts to fall in love with him, she is confused by all the attention, believing he is taking pity on her. This thought angers him, and he dissuades her of that notion quickly. Once Van Hopper recovers and intends to leave the French Riviera, taking her companion with her, Maxim finds out just in time and proposes marriage, saving the companion from leaving with Van Hopper.

The two are married and soon return to his palatial home, Manderley. There, the second Mrs. de Winter is thrown into a life she knows nothing about and is uncomfortable with. The head of the house staff, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), particularly intimidates her. Mrs. Danvers adored Rebecca and does everything she can to make the second Mrs. de Winter feel inferior to that legacy. Rebecca apparently drowned in a boating accident, but there is a mystery behind that death, a mystery known only to Maxim, himself. His second wife feels that, as great as Rebecca apparently was, she will never live up to her.

When I first read Rebecca, I knew nothing of the plot. The revelations, therefore, came as a surprise as more of the secrets and backstory came to light. That is how this story should be experienced. Seeing the film afterwards, those revelations are known ahead of time and lose some of the suspense. This is in no way a fault of the director or the writers; knowing the twists ahead of time can spoil the best of films. In this case, though, seeing how this is interpreted for the screen, even knowing the endgame, is nearly as good as not knowing where it is heading. Hitchcock has crafted a film that hews close to the book while being its own thing. Hitchcock had to have known that the story elements were well known, but he stages the film as if it were an original piece. We can look at Maxim de Winter as a man mourning the death of his first wife, not knowing that that assumption is not quite correct.

Joan Fontaine is just brilliant in this. Her character can be seen as weak, in over her head. This element, Hitchcock disliked from the novel. But it is what defines this character and sets her apart from the Rebecca we hear so much about. It also makes her so relatable. This is not a strong-willed woman accustomed to the finer things in life. She is the polar opposite of Rebecca, and that is precisely why Maxim falls in love with her. It’s also what terrifies him whenever he sees her trying to look or act like his first wife. This is a complicated character Joan is tasked with bringing to life. It’s not a perfect portrayal; there are times, especially during the big reveal, when it’s a little overplayed, but she absolutely nails the emotional fragility of this character. 

Judith Anderson is a delight as the deliciously dark and malicious Mrs. Danvers. It’s a rather broad portrayal, but it serves this film well. This is true to the character as written. Mrs. Danvers adored Rebecca and sees the second wife as an interloper best removed from the picture. This comes to a head when she attempts to coax the second wife to jump to her death. Matching her in contempt is Rebecca’s cousin, Jack Fevell (George Sanders), whose screen time is limited, but oozes slime from every pore of his body.

This film was remade in recent years. That version, unfortunately, lacks much of the charm and originality of this version. It also came out at the wrong time. It stars Armie Hammer, who was in the news at the time for all the wrong reasons. While the remake didn’t fail entirely because of him, it didn’t help, either. The film, released by Netflix, was compared unfavorably to the 1940 film and was a flop in its limited theatrical release.

Rebecca is not one of the films usually associated with Alfred Hitchcock’s best works; yet it is one of his best-directed projects and should be ranked amongst such classics as Psycho, Rear Window, and North by Northwest. Most people look at him as a suspense director because of his later classics, but he was a gifted director in a myriad of genres. Rebecca is proof of that. It’s a wonderfully crafted drama with plenty of suspense and mystery. It’s a little hard to find a copy anymore as it is not streaming anywhere, but the effort to find it is worth it. Rebecca is simply a masterclass of filmmaking from a man who had just come to Hollywood and was ready to prove he deserved to be there.  

Academy Award Nominations:

Outstanding Production: David O. Selznick (won)

Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Best Actor: Laurence Olivier

Best Actress: Joan Fontaine

Best Supporting Actress: Judith Anderson

Best Screenplay: Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison

Best Art Direction - Black-and-White: Lyle R. Wheeler

Best Cinematography - Black-and-White: George Barnes (won)

Best Film Editing: Hal C. Kern

Best Original Score: Franz Waxman

Best Special Effects: Jack Cosgrove and Arthur Johns

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Release Date: April 12, 1940

Running Time: 130 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders, Reginald Denny, Gladys Cooper, and C. Aubrey Smith

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock