Despite the fact that Hitchcock himself tended to be dismissive about this film (telling Truffaut, "It has held up remarkably well. I have no idea why."), REBECCA is undoubtedly one of his timeless classics - the kind of work which has become so embedded in the collective unconscious that certain scenes, lines and characters are mythic, to the point of parody (think of Carol Burnett's riffs on this story in her 1970s comedy show, or Stephen King's use of Mrs. Danvers' image in his "Bag of Bones"). This is also one of Hitchcock's great crowd-pleasers - when first released, it played in New York for a year - held over repeatedly due to audience demand - and in England the movie went through the roof, running in London for virtually the length of World War II. It's been playing constantly since then in frequent revivals and television screenings. REBECCA's production was fraught with tension and pain: principal photography started only days before the outbreak of WWII, to the great personal distress of the nearly all-English cast and crew; Hitchcock exploited Joan's Fontaine's inexperience by telling her that she was terrible and everyone hated her so as to deliberately keep her in a near-constant state of defensiveness, fear and anxiety which was 100% appropriate for Fontaine's character; and it soon became quite obvious that Selznick and Hitchcock could not stand one another and would be unable to work together in the long run. The resulting motion picture, however, brought nothing but good fortune to everyone connected with it - Laurence Olivier's long-desired Hollywood career finally took off, Hitchcock's reputation in America was secured, Joan Fontaine became an international star overnight, Selznick won his second Best Picture Oscar in a row and dominated world box-office for another year, and Judith Anderson became an icon, just for starters. This is one of those rare instances where a fantastic book was brought to the screen and made into an equally good film. Miss DuMaurier's plot is legendary: On holiday in the south of France, the untitled Cornish nobleman Max de Winter meets and marries a sweet young girl (Fontaine) whose timely attention perhaps stops him from suicide in one of the best meet-and-greets of all time. Mr. de Winter's subsequent proposal ("I'm asking you marry me, you little fool.") rescues the girl from the hell of her life as a paid companion ("I didn't know companionship could be bought," says de Winter) to the Gorgon-like American socialite Edythe Van Hopper (Played with true verve by Florence Bates: "Give me a chocolate quick!" she cries as she stubs her umpteenth cigarette out in a jar of cold cream). After a whirlwind courtship and fast Italian honeymoon, de Winter brings his bride to the ancestral estate of Manderley. The second Mrs. de Winter is not happy in her new home, which seems to be overshadowed by the presence of Maxim's first wife Rebecca, dead for some time in a boating accident. Matters are not helped by her own complete ineptitude in her new position of Great Lady, or the hostility of the housekeeper, black-clad Mrs. Danvers (superbly incarnated by Dame Judith Anderson in the only successful one-note performance in movie history), who seems to have a strange fixation on her dead mistress, keeping Rebecca's clothes, personal possessions and rooms exactly as they were during Rebecca's lifetime. De Winter himself behaves like a different man - brooding, gloomy, temperamental and even verbally abusive. Poor Joan Fontaine blames herself for her predicament, contrasting her awkward plainness with Rebecca's alleged poise, grace and popularity...After a disastrous development during a costume ball, matters seem even more hopeless when Rebecca's previously-undiscovered body turns up out of nowhere, and it seems Mr. de Winter has a lot of explaining to do...Strong plot and performances aside, this film has a truly unique atmosphere - George Barnes' Oscar-winning cinematography transforms Manderley into a Gothic symphony of light and shadow where unseen forces seem about to manifest themselves at every turn. Perhaps the greatest bit of showmanship is the way the dead, absent Rebecca becomes a major character - in the stunning and very perverse sequence ("Feel this...") where Mrs. Danvers shows the new Mrs. de Winter Rebecca's things, you can SEE Rebecca in your head while "Danny" speaks. While the film is quite long (over two hours), you won't want it to be shorter by one second! A classic for the ages which the whole family can watch and enjoy together.
