Tim and I both LOVE Hitchcock movies. I actually hadn't seen this one before and I'm so glad it's on this list! Granted, it's not my favorite Hitchcock, which is a tie between North by Northwest and Rear Window but it is pretty great! It's pretty cool to see Olivier in a Hitchcock movie and he does do the brooding leading man thing very well. My biggest issue with the movie was that the Manderley estate was a miniature. It was really only an issue in the beginning but it's pretty difficult to go from Gone With The Wind, where the production value is so incredibly high to a miniature model of a mansion. (I mean GWTW would've built a real mansion.) I did like that the film was spooky without really being a ghost story. I mean Rebecca de Winter's presence was felt throughout the movie without us ever seeing her. This was elevated with Joan Fontaine's "on edge" performance. I enjoyed the housekeeper, Mrs. Danver's performance. She was so enamored with Rebecca that she had this strange lesbian affection toward her even after her passing. She even tries to persuade the second Mrs. de Winter (who has no first name) into jumping out a window... sketchy. My highlight of the movie is when Mrs. Danvers suggests a costume for Fontaine to wear for a party they are throwing. Of course, Danvers is sabotaging her into wearing the same costume that Rebecca did the year previous sending Mr. de Winter into a bit of a rage. Overall, this is a great mystery drama with just a touch of romance (even though Mr. de Winter is kind of a douche and the second Mrs. de Winter is helpless.)
What Katie says is true: we are both great Hitchcock fans. I asked for the Alfred Hitchcock 14-film Masterpiece DVD Collection for every Christmas and birthday for almost four years before I got it. He's called the Master of Suspense, and it's easy to see why. Rebecca is Hitchcock's first American film, and what a grand entrance to the States it is, including some very tense scenes and excellent little twists along the way. The basic plot of Rebecca's possible "haunting" of Manderley and Mr. de Winter seems like the rough draft or starting point for Hitchcock's masterpiece Vertigo (Katie and I will forever quarrel over whether Vertigo is superior to Rear Window or North by Northwest, but I stand by my choice. I love those other films but Vertigo is in my top 10 of all time. But I digress...) Even the portrait of Rebecca and the foiled suicide attempt of Mr. de Winter at the beginning directly conjures reminders of James Stewart saving Kim Novak at the Golden Gate Bridge. But Hitchcock directed a remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956 with incredibly successful results, so who am I to argue with the Master? Mrs. Danvers was wonderfully creepy but Jean Fontaine's Mrs. de Winter is kind of disappointingly weak and passive until she demands that all of Rebecca's possessions be burned. Hitchcock's famously awful treatment of his actresses (especially Tippi Hedren in The Birds) and his frequent use of weak female characters suggests that he was likely a misogynist, which is a shame yet I can't imagine his films being changed in any way to make them better. Also regrettable is that Rebecca was his only Best Picture Hitchcock would have as he would truly hit his stride about ten years later and for many years after. Nevertheless, second tier Hitchcock is still better than most films and whole careers and Rebecca comes heartily recommended as one of the finest Best Picture winners so far.
Because Laurence Olivier wanted his then-girlfriend Vivien Leigh (from Gone With The Wind) to play the lead role, he treated Joan Fontaine horribly. This shook Fontaine up quite a bit, so Alfred Hitchcock decided to capitalize on this by telling her EVERYONE on the set hated her, thus making her shy and uneasy - just what he wanted from her performance.
Maxim de Winter: I can't forget what it's done to you. I've been thinking of nothing else since it happened. It's gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won't ever come back. I killed that when I told you about Rebecca. It's gone. In a few hours, you've grown so much older.
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