NFR Project: 'Rebecca' (1940)

 

NFR Project: ‘Rebecca’

Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Scr: Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison

Pho: George Barnes

Ed: Hal C. Kern, James E. Newcom

Premiere: March 21, 1940

130 min.

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

Rebecca is a masterful adaptation of a great psychological thriller of a novel, and well deserved its Best Picture Oscar in 1940. More importantly, it was the first American effort of director Alfred Hitchcock, and it cemented his reputation as a popular craftsman and movies steeped in mystery and suspense.

Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel was tailor-made for a film version, and producer David O. Selznick and a squad of writers toiled away to get the script in shape. There were numerous points of the book which the censor deemed inappropriate for filming, so workarounds were made in the screenplay. The result is still deeply disturbing, given Hitchcock’s ability to generate menace even in the most seemingly placid of situations.

In the film, Joan Fontaine plays the never-named protagonist. A paid companion to an obnoxious rich lady, she meets in Monte Carlo the reserved Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier), a rich widower who falls in love with her. They quickly marry, and he whisks her off to his palatial estate Manderley, on the Cornwall coast.

The new Mrs. de Winter finds herself overshadowed and suffocated by the stifling, shadowy presence of Maxim’s late wife, Rebecca, a charming, beautiful, witty, and well-loved woman. De Winter’s housekeeper, the unsettling Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), is obsessed with preserving everything she can of Rebecca’s things, and her way of doing things. Hostile to the new wife, Danvers attempts to sabotage her relationship with Maxim.

Gradually, the new Mrs. de Winter begins to assert herself, and to find out hidden truths about Rebecca. It turns out that Maxim and Rebecca’s marriage was loveless, based on lies and infidelity. Rebecca had drowned in her sailboat – or had she? Revelations come thick and furious, and Rebecca is revealed as a thoroughly evil and vindictive character. As things progress, it seems that Maxim is responsible for her death.

To tell more would be to give away a delightfully twisty tale. Suffice it to say that Hitchcock plays with ambivalences, making the viewer feel always on unsteady ground, along with its heroine. The camera creeps shyly through the great halls of Manderley, where Mrs. de Winter feels overwhelmed by the luxury of the place, the dismissiveness of Mrs. Danvers, and the confessions she is forced to hear.

Cinematographer George Barnes, a mentor to the wonderful Gregg Toland, picked up an Oscar as well for his superb work. The casting is excellent, and includes some of Hitchcock’s favorite supporting actors, including Leo G. Carroll and Nigel Bruce. George Sanders is on hand to play an utter cad, as he was so good at doing. By the film’s spectacular ending, we and the protagonist have been through the wringer.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Bank Dick.