48 – Rebecca

Ah so we’ve come to Alfred Hitchcock again. But – and this is something I only found out as I was doing research for this review – he didn’t consider this part of his resume. Rebecca was his first American film and – although he had made plenty of hits in his native UK – he was pretty unknown over in Hollywood. And David O Selznick – producer and studio head of United Artists – had plenty of input as well. Knowing this instantly explains why the two adaptations of Daphne du Maurier stories I’ve reviewed (the other one being The Birds) differ in faithfulness. Hitch did his own thing in The Birds and it barely resembles its inspiration. For Rebecca he had United Artists looking over his shoulder making sure he was staying true to the book. Regardless of the amount of proverbial (and possibly literal) mud slinging that happened during filming – and how much the film went over budget – this marked Hitch’s first (and only) Best Picture win at the Oscars. It’s one of his best remembered films, and I had it hyped for me for years before I finally saw it. My mother – who taught me as much about Alfred Hitchcock as the internet has – has a high opinion of this film and has probably been looking forward to this review the most. So shall we go to Manderley?

Daphne du Maurier began work on her fifth novel when she was thirty, after she had married a man she nicknamed Tommy. The man had been engaged before – to a woman far more glamorous than she. As such she developed a story where we got to know the first wife through the perspective of the second. Rebecca never once appears in the story, and in the film you never see a picture of her. And yet she’s as much a character as the heroine…who has no name. In the book it’s just said that her name is uncommon and people usually spell it wrong. People have suggested she was going to be called Daphne – which was never a common name (until Scooby Doo anyway). So I thought long and hard about exactly what I was going to call the heroine while writing this review. Most just call her ‘the second Mrs de Winter’, which kind of spoils the first thirty minutes.

Apologies, Joan.

It’s fitting that Joan Fontaine got cast as the second Mrs de Winter. She like the character had lived a lot of her life in the shadow of another woman. In this case it was her sister Olivia de Havilland. Olivia had always been the favourite sister, and their relationship can be summed up with this line she wrote in a will when she was a child:

“I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan, for she has none…”

At this point in time, Olivia was already an established star in Hollywood – with an Oscar nomination for her work in Gone With The Wind. She had been groomed by the family to become an actress, which is why she got to use the family name. Joan had to settle for her stepfather’s name, and she had a harder time climbing up the ladder. Still, it was this film that got her there and her first Oscar nomination. It is her voice that opens the film with the classic line:

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

Manderley is one of those grand English mansions that either holds a lot of gold or a lot of ghosts. It’s shown in ruins, before our heroine takes us back to the event that brought her there in the first place. It all started in Monte Carlo…

The heroine sees a man standing on the edge of a cliff. Thinking he’s about to jump, she calls out for him to stop. After some awkward exchanges, they go their separate ways. But I doubt the man will remain separate from her for long, considering he’s played by Laurence Olivier. The man has a reputation as one of the greats, so y’all be prepared by my super controversial opinion…

He’s okay.

I have the utmost respect for a man who directed himself in several different Shakespeare films but the difference in acting styles is no more obvious than in his performance here. It’s…fine. Not bad. But fine. Some scenes he’s better in than others, but whenever he has to be adorably romantic he falls unbelievably flat. Maybe that’s because he wanted his wife Vivien Leigh to play the lead role. And I’m sorry but no.

Just…no…

See that glamorous beauty? Could you for one second buy her feeling insecure that her husband doesn’t love her? If a bunch of snobby upper class twits called her plain, would you believe it? Scarlet O’Hara and Blanche DuBois were right up Vivien’s street – because it was part of their characters to be glamorous and alluring. Hell, if Rebecca wasn’t an offscreen character, Vivien would have been perfect for that part. I don’t want y’all to take this as a knock on Joan Fontaine.

I don’t for a second think she was ugly or plain. She was indeed a classic Hollywood beauty. But a different sort. This has always been a crafty little trick used in film and television; I’ve taken to calling it a ‘perfect seven’. An actor who is attractive but – to put James Cameron’s description of Sarah Connor – “in a flawed, accessible way” – so that the audience can imagine they’re seeing inner beauty. When really they’re just looking at outer beauty. Joan Fontaine also has that natural shyness to her – that serves to make her cute instead of vampy. This does tie in with the Madonna Whore Complex – where an Ingenue lead has to be a Madonna so that she still feels relatable.

That battleaxe in the above picture is Mrs van Hopper. Our heroine is here in Monte Carlo as her paid companion – and presumably the job description involves daily dressing-downs courtesy of the old nag. The man from the cliff reappears, and Mrs van Hopper explains that he’s a wealthy aristocrat called Maxim de Winter. He seems charmed by our heroine, although Mrs van Hopper doesn’t see it. She says that he’s been sad ever since the death of his beloved wife.

Mrs van Hopper falls ill with a cold, so the heroine has to dine alone is free from her at last. Maxim takes her sketching and through a cute coincidence it turns out he owns a house the heroine admired once when she was in Cornwall. He goes very quiet when she babbles on about swimming, and she discovers why when she return to Mrs van Hopper: his wife Rebecca drowned.

In spite of this, Maxim still wants to see her again. While Mrs van Hopper is stuck in bed, Maxim takes our heroine dancing and driving but she’s still insecure. She seems to think he’s only taking her out to be kind – and this scene would prompt nothing but hilarious chuckles if Vivien Leigh were playing it. But Maxim assures the girl that he really wants her company. So naturally she’s horrified when Mrs van Hopper gets news that her daughter’s engaged – and they have to go to New York!

Maxim is out until noon and they’re in the car ready to go when the heroine rushes back inside just to say goodbye. He asks if she’d rather go to New York or Manderley with him. She asks if he wants a secretary and he responds “I’m asking you to marry me you little fool”

Mrs van Hopper is less than thrilled that this has happened – and she gives the heroine a bit of a telling off. She doesn’t think Maxim is marrying her for love, so she’s got her work cut out for her. Even so, the actual wedding goes off without a hitch and it’s time to go to Manderley. Although it’s raining when they arrive, Manderley is quite a sight to behold.

After the popularity of the novel, ‘Manderley’ became the name of several real life houses. The singer Enya famously bought a castle in Ireland and renamed it Manderley in honor of the film. Maxim and the new Mrs de Winter arrive to find the whole staff waiting for them – which is quite overwhelming for our salt of the earth heroine. She also gets introduced to…

Mrs Danvers – creepy housekeeper extraordinaire. Adding to the freak factor is the mention that she first came to Manderley when the first Mrs de Winter was a bride. The book goes into a lot more detail about Mrs Danvers’s backstory – where she had helped raise Rebecca since she was a child. In the book she’s also much older – whereas Judith Anderson was only in her forties when she played her. I’ll go into more detail about Mrs Danvers’s character later on in the review. Right now let’s enjoy the first of many shots that use shadows in a great way to set the gothic atmosphere.

This part of the film consists of Frith the butler showing the heroine around Manderley – also allowing the viewer to eat the eye candy as well.

These scenes may seem like just an excuse to show off the architecture of Manderley or to have fun with the light and shadow – but they’re very important for the heroine’s character. Whenever she passes through one of the rooms, there’s always a shot that captures as much of the room as possible while making her look like she’s being swallowed up by it. All in the name of showing just how overwhelming this environment is for her. She’s also overwhelmed by the rest of the servants constantly telling her what Rebecca’s morning routine was. I swear if this story had been set in the 80s, Rebecca probably would have had her own workout video.

The heroine gets some relief when she meets Maxim’s sister Beatrice. She’s one of the rare things in this movie known as a rich person who doesn’t have a stick up their ass. But she does explain why Mrs Danvers seems a bit cold towards her; she “simply adored Rebecca”. She also lets on that Maxim has changed in the last year – as he was normally very particular about clothes and appearances, which he isn’t with his new wife. He is however a bit particular about visiting a little spot on the beach. When the heroine follows the dog Jasper down there, she finds a boat house that’s fallen into disrepair.

Maxim is very annoyed that she went inside and not much is left to the imagination – since subtle acting wasn’t a thing in 1940. When the heroine asks the family lawyer about it, he says that the boat house was Rebecca’s. And it hasn’t been used since she died – as she was drowned while she was out sailing. When she asks him to tell her more about what Rebecca was really like, he replies “she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw.”

The heroine’s attempts to look more glamorous for Maxim fail, and the two are forced to admit that there is a problem in the marriage. She thinks she’s too common, too dull and not experienced enough to be the mistress of the house. He meanwhile thinks he’s too old to give her an exciting life. If Maxim in the film is the same age as in the book, he’s in his early forties and the heroine is early twenties. So there is an obvious power imbalance in the relationship – where she feels like a child and he feels he can’t relate to her. Perhaps it’s for the best that he has to go away on business for a while. But while he is away, the heroine sees someone in the West Wing.

She also hears whispered voices, and catches a man called Favell sneaking out of the window. He says he’s Rebecca’s favourite cousin, and that it would be nice if Maxim didn’t know he was here. After he leaves, the heroine is feeling especially daring and goes to visit the West Wing. And I just played the music from Beauty & the Beast over this bit and it fits unbelievably well. Mrs Danvers catches the heroine inside the room but instead of being mad as we’d expect her to – she gives the grand tour.

Everything is kept as it was when Rebecca was alive. Even her hair brush is in the same position it always was. Mrs Danvers talks lovingly about how she would wait up for Rebecca to come home, listen to her stories about the parties she’d been to and brush her hair before she went to bed. She shows off all Rebecca’s clothes, including her nightgown…

If you’re starting to wonder about Mrs Danvers’s feelings towards Rebecca…you’re exactly right. It’s not just in the fact that she comes to the room just to remember what it was like when Rebecca was alive; very important is the way Judith Anderson delivers the whole piece. The way it’s written it could be challenging or confrontational – designed to freak the heroine out. But Judith talks about Rebecca quite tenderly – the way someone would describe a former lover. The coding is there but just enough in a way that the censors could say she was being motherly to the woman instead. But casting a younger actress and eliminating the backstory makes it even more obvious that Mrs Danvers had an attraction to her former mistress.

This little incident prompts the heroine to get rid of all Rebecca’s personalised stationery – as well as announcing that they’ll have a costume ball to properly re-open Manderley to the public. The heroine decides she’ll design her costume herself to surprise Maxim, but she’s having trouble coming up with a suitable one. Mrs Danvers suggests copying one of the paintings in the hall.

When the night of the party comes, the heroine refuses to let anyone see her in costume because she wants to surprise Maxim. She won’t even let Beatrice see her. Oh lord, anyone with a knowledge of 90s teen media can imagine how this will go.

Some fans (myself included) misunderstood what she’s been tricked into doing. She was not dressing up as Rebecca; she was just wearing something Rebecca had worn before at a costume ball. Even so, Maxim is freaked and the heroine is humiliated. One person who is happy is Mrs Danvers – who boasts about her plan the whole time. She urges the heroine to kill herself with the movie’s famous line.

But the moment is interrupted with news that a ship has washed up on the shore. Yes it is indeed Rebecca’s – the one she was drowned in. The heroine discovers even more when she finds Maxim in the old boat house. A body was found on the ship. That body was Rebecca’s. The woman who Maxim identified and buried in the family crypt wasn’t her. And he knows because he put her body on the ship. But in the heroine’s priorities, the more important reveal is the following.

It turns out that Ms Perfect was far from it. Rebecca de Winter may have been loved by her housekeeper, but the real woman was a nasty vindictive witch with a capital B. She was having her affairs too – the man Favell who came to the house was one of them. The night Rebecca died, she revealed she was pregnant. And in the argument with Maxim, she fell and knocked her head. In the original book it was actually…

Yep, Maxim shot her. The Hays Code insisted that Maxim couldn’t do this and remain a sympathetic character – so Rebecca’s death was an unfortunate accident. In the book Maxim being a murderer does make his character a bit more ambiguous. As we never get confirmation about what Rebecca was like from any other characters, there is the possibility that he was lying. But in the film there are subtle clues from Beatrice to what Rebecca was like, and with the death changed it gets rid of a lot of the ambiguity. You’d think that would weaken the movie but it actually makes it stronger in my book. Maxim goes from being a potential Bluebeard-esque serial killer to being a brave survivor of abuse. And after years of being emotionally abused by his rotten wife, he finally meets someone more like him and gets a second chance at love. Which honestly makes him feel much fresher than the likes of…

The watch sadly becomes a bit of a slog after this. With the heroine’s arc being that she’s worried she can’t live up to Rebecca, that conflict is resolved. But there’s still a good half hour in the film – and it almost feels like a sequel that’s been stitched onto the end of the first film. In some ways I wish Maxim’s revelation happened later in the film, or the third act was shorter. But then again I have no way of imagining how you could get the heroine to go along with covering up Rebecca’s death without knowing that Maxim never loved her. So because this act drags on a bit, I’ll just quickly summarise what happens.

Police realise the body on the boat is Rebecca’s, but Maxim is just assumed to have made a mistake.

In the course of the trial they find that the boat was sunk from the inside – meaning it going down wasn’t an accident.

Favell shows up trying to bust Maxim for murder, but some digging with a doctor Rebecca saw the day she died reveals that she had just been diagnosed with cancer – so she wasn’t pregnant after all.

Now it looks like everything is wrapped up nicely. Rebecca’s cancer diagnosis and something she said to the doctor as she left now make it look like she had committed suicide on the boat after all. But if you think the film’s going to end neatly, we go back to Manderley as Mrs Danvers stands ominously over the heroine.

Maxim arrives back at Manderley to find it on fire! Mrs Danvers has gone mad and burnt it to the ground. Don’t worry – the heroine is okay. Even the dog Jasper is safe. Mrs Danvers can be seen standing in the West Wing as the house burns. In the book she ran off and her fate is unknown. But the Hays Code insisted she be punished, so of course she burns to death along with the house. It’s a change I’m all for because it makes for a satisfying ending – after this plodding third act. In the musical she even dies wearing Rebecca’s nightgown! Hitchcock had to fight tooth and nail to prevent David O Selznick ending the film with a giant R burning over Manderley – so we get the following final shot as a compromise.

Rebecca proved to be Hitch’s breakthrough in Hollywood, getting a Best Picture win. But not a Best Director one – which is one of the reasons why he didn’t really count it. Everyone else got Oscar nominations but no wins. The good work was done and Joan Fontaine was established as an equal star alongside her sister. Hitchcock would direct her again in Suspicion the next year, this time to an Oscar winning performance. And her friggin sister was one of the other nominees. Don’t worry – Olivia eventually got an Oscar too.

Rebecca remains one of Hitchcock’s most visually striking films. While I think The Birds has a better story, Rope has a great amount of tension and Psycho is the ground-breaker – the look of Rebecca alone makes sure that it won’t be forgotten any time soon. The slog in the third act doesn’t bother me as much as it normally would because the atmosphere is just so intense. It’s the quintessential Gothic story – although it’s more romance than outright horror – and there have been nods to it many times over the year. Guillermo del Toro’s 2015 disaster Crimson Peak was a clear attempt to send up this little subgenre. But it’s a perfect example of how visuals can’t carry a film completely on their own. Rebecca doesn’t only look nice; it sucks you completely into the world. Both the house and the offscreen former occupant become main characters in their own right thanks to some first-rate direction. What could have been a hammy melodrama in the hands of another director ends up one of the most unique films to have ever been made. While Hitch didn’t think much of it, he had to admit that:

“It has stood up quite well over the years. I don’t know why.”

You’re overwrought, readers. I’ve started some grading for you.

*Story? That third act is bringing the grade down. I’d like to blame someone for this but the first two acts were so solid and it ends on a high note, so it’s not going to keep me up at night. Mrs Danvers on the other hand…B

*Characters? Some truly excellent characterization all around. Maxim has just the right bit of mystery around him so that you want him to be innocent but worry that he might not be. The heroine herself has a great arc and it’s pretty thrilling to see her evolve. Mrs Danvers too is mysterious and menacing. A+

*Performances? Joan Fontaine’s natural shyness probably comes from Hitchcock telling her that everyone on set hated her – but I feel that’s selling her acting talents short. Old Larry was fine, and his is a performance that doesn’t thrill nor bore me. Judith Anderson really should have got an Oscar. George Sanders also made the third act that much more watchable. A-

*Visuals? I want to give multiple pluses for this but I have a reputation to maintain! A+

*Anything Else? When you can make a house and a woman who’s been dead for a year feel like developed characters, you know you’re doing something right. A

I hope you’ve brushed up on your 50s music because we’ve got Stand By Me up next.