Rebecca. Such a respected and mysterious name in the home of Manderley. Those who speak it glance away in an unsettling silence and those who do not wish to whisper the name think of her silently. This is only the beginning of the main character's problem in the hit 1940's film classic: Rebecca.
The story of Rebecca starts with the unnamed heroine giving a beautifully given monologue of a dream she had the night before of her entering the enticing mansion of Manderley. Even though her viewpoint of the house is beautiful and exquisite, it is revealed that Manderley is a home in shambles. Thus begins the story of our main character stopping an unknown man from taking his own life from the sea. She returns back to her hotel in Monte Carlo to attend to her paying companion Edythe Van Hopper. As she is seated with Van Hopper, a handsome man introduced as Maxim de Winter who instantly catches the heroine's attention.
Thus starts the story of her meetings with Maxim as they develop a loving relationship. After some time, Maxim proposes to the heroine and takes her away to his home in Manderley. Although the main protagonist has no declared name, she is from that point on called Mrs. de Winter after her marriage with Maxim.
After their honeymoon, Mrs. de Winter believes she will live the rest of her life in happiness with Maxim, but soon starts to realize that her happily ever after will not be so pleasant. As she enters the mansion, Mrs. de Winter is instantly introduced to each of the servants and has an uncomfortable encounter with the maid, Mrs. Danvers. Mrs. de Winter soon starts to find a disliking for Mrs. Danvers due to the fact that she is quite distant and unkind to her. However, this problem only magnifies the main issue of Mrs. de Winters discovering Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winters.
Throughout the movie, Mrs. de Winters hears more and more about the mysterious Rebecca and how loved she was of all the servants of Manderley as well as her relatives. Mrs. de Winter begins to compare herself to Rebecca and finds herself diminished in Rebecca's light. Mrs. de Winter eventually starts to lose faith in Maxim's love to her which escalates when Mrs. Danvers tells her Maxim does not really love her. Before Mrs. de Winter can end her life from the pressure of being the perfect wife, there is a call that Rebecca's boat, (which was presumed she died in)and there is a trial on the reality of Rebecca's death.
Maxim reveals that he killed Rebecca to Mrs. de Winter and after a court preceding, Maxim is found innocent of the charges and heads home with Mrs. de Winter. What they find when they return to Manderley however, is that Mrs. Danvers has burned down Manderley which was the sight seen at the beginning of the movie.
Review
In the summer before my sophmore year, I had the summer project of reading the novel Rebecca and found the mystery/drama quite enjoyable. After discovering the novel had a movie adaptation in the top 100 list, I was intrigued to see how Alfred Hitchcock (the director) had taken the novel to the big screen.
As the movie opened with the opening monologue, I instantly remembered reading the novel and the beautiful chill it created. The reading done by Joan Fontaine (the second Mrs. de Winter) combines not only the elegant poetry of the words, but the chill of eerie reveal of Manderley.
As for how well the movie follows the plot of the book, I would have to say it does so far better than I thought it would have. Seeing the movie was like stepping back in time and rereading the pages once more.
The credit given for the plot of the movie should only be awarded to Daphne du Maurier who was the author of the original book. The plot combines a variety of genres together to create a mysterious, enchanting, romantic, and chilling story of the late Rebecca and how fluental she is of the second Mrs. de Winter even after her death. Although she is not a seen or heard from character from the book, she is one of the most lively because of her tales from those who knew her. Perhaps this is why she could candidate for being the most interesting character in the story.
What won me over however was the acting within the movie. Joan Fontaine plays the role of the awkward and shy Mrs. de Winter perfectly. Somehow she managed to portray the quite and out of place character without going over the thin line of becoming obnoxious. Every moment you see her in the movie you have a sense of compassion for she has to compete for the love of a man with a woman who cannot even breathe.
Laurence Olivier should always be acknowledged for his role as Maxim de Winter. For almost all of the movie (besides the about the last half hour), Maxim is seen as a melancholy widower who has quite the short temper when in reality his morose attitude comes from the murderer he committed so long ago. Even though he hated Rebecca, Maxim still must have felt a weight of grief on his shoulders for every second of his life and Olivier portrays this perfectly.
The woman who amazed me the most in her performance however was Judith Anderson who played the strange and spiteful Mrs. Danvers. Anderson is able to have the haunting sense of distaste towards Mrs. de Winters throughout the whole movie because she knows Mrs. Danvers loved Rebecca like a child and now there is another woman who she believes does not deserve the same rank as her former mistress. The tension only builds between Mrs. de Winters and Mrs. Danvers as the maid eventually makes Mrs. de Winters crack down crying after stating that she will never amount to the level of perfection Rebecca achieved. This moment of the film is perhaps my favorite purely from Anderson's performance. She lets the character of Mrs. Danvers overtake her and portrays the hatred which has built within Mrs. Danvers magnificently.
The tension rises as Rebecca comes back for one final time in trying to sentence Maxim to a life in jail and with the build up from discovering who Rebecca is, how she actually died, and what will result from Maxim's action are what make the plot of Rebecca so enticing. The acting of not only the main actors and the supporting ones makes the movie so enjoyable and entertaining for those who view it. Me personally, I found this movie just as satisfying as the novel it is based off of and give it a rating 5 stars. *****
