REBECCA
Rating: Not Rated, but I’d put it in the PG to PG-13 category for general creepiness.
Studio: MGM
MSRP: $24.99 but Amazon has it for $19.99
Running Time: 131 minutes
What’s Going On?
Hitchcock left his native England for an opportunity to work with mega-producer David O. Selznick, whose corral of big-name stars and access to bigger bigger budgets the director hoped to use to his advantage. What immediately followed was REBECCA, based on the Daphne du Maurier novel of the same name, which not only starred some of cinema’s greatest stars, but earned Hitchcock the Academy Award for Best Picture.
After the death of his first wife Rebecca, Maxim de Winter is holidaying in Monte Carlo when he comes into contact with the a young girl who is accompanying another traveler. While her employer is laid up in bed with a cold, Max spends every day with the timid young girl, and she quickly falls in love they marry. From there, the new Mrs. de Winter Coming arrives at his sprawling English estate Manderley and is overwhelmed by the scale of the house and her expectation to become Manderley’s mistress and be in charge of all the household activities and an army of servants. The housekeeper is the Mrs. Danvers who was utterly loyal, bordering obsession, to the previous Mrs. de Winter and can barely mask her resentment at the new Mrs. de Winter. As time passes, the new Mrs. de Winter feels that Rebecca’s ghost seems to hover over the entire estate and over her husband, too. She takes it upon herself to investigate this presence, and what really happened to Rebecca that might have affected everyone in this way.
Who’s In It:
Laurence Olivier stars as Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine is the newly wed Mrs. de Winter (who is never named through the course of the film), and Judith Anderson stars as the head housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who is perhaps a little too attached to the memory of Rebcecca, the former Mrs. de Winter.
If You Like…:
Ghost stories like THE INNKEEPERS or are excited for THE WOMAN IN BLACK this Friday, or like the Gothic elements in the newest take on JANE EYRE or like in novels like Jane Austen’s NORTHANGER ABBEY, then check this out.
Special Features:
Lots of audio related specialness here, with an isolated music and effects track, two Hitchcock audio interviews, and three radio plays: the original 1938 version starring Orson Welles, a 1941 Cecil B. DeMille version starring Ronald Colman, Ida Lupino and Judith Anderson, and a 1950 version with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. There’s also a stuffed with facts commentary with Film Critic Richard Shickel.
There’s a making of Rebecca featurette, which talks about Hitchcock’s move to Hollywood and his struggles, both with David O. Selznick and with adapting the novel on which the film is based.
Lastly, there are screen tests for the film and The Gothic World of Daphne DuMaurier, a profile of the author.
The Technical Gist
I noticed one particularly obvious scratch right in the Middle of Mr. De Winter’s face early in the film, but apart from a few scratches hither and tither (indulge me, that’s not a phrase I get to throw out often), the print looks pretty awesome.
The Verdict
This is a great film both for Hitchcock fans and people who like suspense and tension more than gore and violence in their horror films. The film is also a great example of a quality adaptation of literature, since it’s very faithful to the book but deviates from it in a way that makes sense because of the differences in the medium. MUST QUEUE or UPGRADE. I’d hesitate it buying it, just because REBECCA is already part of the Criterion Collection and it might get the deluxe treatment that a lot of the films in the collection have as they are brought back into print for blu-ray.
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