Rebecca is a slow-burning mystery wrapped in a romance, and it remains one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most assured early American pictures. The film, adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, follows a young woman who marries the brooding widower Maxim de Winter and finds herself trapped in the shadow of his dead first wife, Rebecca. What makes the picture endure is not the twist ending but the dread that builds around it, hour by hour.
Trailer, via CRITERION.
The Setup on the Riviera
The film opens on the French Riviera, where Maxim de Winter stands at a cliff edge, apparently ready to jump. A young woman shouts at him to stop, but he cuts her off with a curt command to walk on. Later, at a Monte Carlo hotel, the same young woman serves as a paid companion to the pompous Mrs. Van Hopper. She meets Maxim again, and this time he begins to invite her on excursions, which she hides from her employer. The young woman grows infatuated, though puzzled by his attention.
When Mrs. Van Hopper falls ill, Maxim proposes to the companion unexpectedly. He brings his new bride back to Manderley, his grand mansion by the sea in Cornwall. The house is ruled by its housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, a cold woman who was a confidante of the first Mrs. de Winter. Danvers resents the new Mrs. de Winter, whom she sees as a usurper, and she feeds the bride’s insecurity by showing her Rebecca’s bedroom suite, kept exactly as it was, and by keeping items throughout the house bearing Rebecca’s monogram.
The Housekeeper’s Grip
Judith Anderson plays Mrs. Danvers with a chill that lingers. She is the engine of the film’s dread, constantly reminding the new Mrs. de Winter of Rebecca’s glamour and sophistication. The performance is so committed that it becomes impossible to look at a door handle or a piece of furniture without wondering what it once meant to Rebecca.
Joan Fontaine plays the new Mrs. de Winter as a shrinking violet, a woman who has married far above her station and cannot escape the memory of the wife she has replaced. The role is demanding, and Fontaine carries it with a quiet intensity that holds the film together. She is not a heroine who charges forward; she is a woman who retreats, and the film trusts that passivity as a kind of strength.
Olivier’s Brooding Presence
Laurence Olivier plays Maxim de Winter as a man haunted by his past. His brooding presence dominates the frame, and the film wisely lets him sit in silence rather than explain himself. The result is a portrait of a man who is both compelling and terrifying, a widower who has lost everything and now seems determined to lose his second wife too.
George Sanders appears as Jack Favell, a relative of the de Winters who has designs on the family fortune. His role is smaller but essential, as he becomes the catalyst for the film’s final revelations. Gladys Cooper rounds out the cast as Beatrice Lacy, and Nigel Bruce plays Giles Lacy. These supporting figures give the film its texture, even if none of them ever matches the force of Anderson’s Mrs. Danvers.
The Slow Burn
Hitchcock’s signature cameo comes late, near the end of the film, as he walks, back turned to the audience, outside a phone box just after Jack Favell completes a call. It is a small joke, but it fits a film that is otherwise serious and somber.
The film’s pace is deliberate, and some viewers may find the middle stretch slow. But that deliberate pace is the point. Rebecca is not a thriller in the modern sense; it is a gothic tale of dread, and dread takes time to build. The film spends its runtime establishing the weight of Rebecca’s absence, and it pays off in the final act.
The Critical Reception
Rebecca was released on April 12, 1940, and it became a critical and commercial success. The film received eleven nominations at the 13th Academy Awards, more than any other film that year. It won two awards: Best Picture and Best Cinematography, making it the only film directed by Hitchcock to win the former award.
The film was preserved in the United States National Film Registry in 2018, selected as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
A Masterpiece of Dread
Rebecca is not perfect. The middle portion drags, and some of the plot points feel forced. But the film’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Anderson’s Mrs. Danvers is unforgettable, Fontaine’s performance is quietly devastating, and Olivier’s Maxim is a brooding presence that few actors could match. The film’s central mystery is resolved in a way that feels inevitable, and the final scene, set in the great house of Manderley, is one of the most powerful endings in cinema.
Rebecca is a classic of the genre, and it deserves its reputation. It is a film that rewards patience and delivers a payoff that few movies of its era matched.
KEY FACTS
– Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
– Written by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison, adapted by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan
– Based on Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel
– Runtime: 130 minutes
– Released: April 12, 1940
– Won Best Picture and Best Cinematography at the 13th Academy Awards
– Preserved in the United States National Film Registry in 2018
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