The Cool Channel DVD Review: Rebecca Posted by J.D. Dunn on 10.05.2006
Hitchcock's first great achievement in cinema still stands as an enigmatic portrait of lust and haunting obsession.
Rebecca (1940)
D:Alfred Hitchcock W:Philip MacDonald, from a novel by Daphne Du Maurier Starring:Joan Fontaine, Lawrence Olivier, Judith Anderson, George Sanders and Florence Bates. MPAA: NR Runtime: 130m.
The Film:
Depending on how you look at it, Alfred Hitchcock's first American film is a lush romantic melodrama, a superb ghost story, a psychological thriller, or a disturbing character study. What is nearly unanimous is that it is one of Hitchcock's most complex and satisfying films and one of the greatest films ever made.
After turning in hit after hit in his native England, Hitchcock caught the eye of uberproducer David O'Selznick. A quick series of negotiations later, and Hitchcock left his home country for more financially free America. No longer would he have to worry about budgetary considerations. O'Selznick had created some of the most lavish films ever made. What he would have to worry about, though, is O'Selznick's legendary yen for complete control. Despite the strong personalities at work during this era, it must have worked because Hitchcock produced three of his best films under O'Selznick's watchful eye.
O'Selznick ensured that Hitchcock followed Daphne Du Maurier's popular novel closely without taking the usual liberties Hitchcock enjoyed with the novels he adapted. Instead of stunting Hitchcock's creative prowess, though, O'Selznick's control of the film seemed to channel it and created a film greater than the sum of its parts.
Fontaine is a mousy, single girl who is a paid traveling companion for loud-mouthed debutante Edyth Van Hopper (Bates, in a film-stealing performance). Van Hopper isn't just a woman, she's a dominant force, pushing our heroine around at every turn and scolding her for her look and manner.
Thankfully for our heroine, Mrs. Van Hopper gets laid up with one of those diseases that only seem to strike old women with a lot of free time on their hands. That's when our heroine forms a tentative friendship with brooding millionaire Maxim de Winter (Olivier). When they first meet, he's standing on a high cliff looking down over the crashing waves of the ocean. He seems entranced and close to jumping over the edge when she shouts at him to be careful.
"Instead of stunting Hitchcock's creative prowess...O'Selznick's control of the film seemed to channel it and created a film greater than the sum of its parts."
Their relationship is, at times, awkward but rather sweet. Maxim is an emotionally distant man who is old enough to be the heroine's father. She constantly feels intimidated and foolish, but she's also attracted to him. When Mrs. Van Hopper is called away to a wedding, our heroine briefly escapes her sight to say goodbye to Maxim. Much to her surprise, Maxim asks her to marry him on the spot.
Faced with the prospect of staying with domineering Mrs. Van Hopper or domineering Maxim de Winter, the heroine chooses the romantic, mysterious millionaire. Mrs. Van Hopper waits until she has the girl alone and sourly warns her that she's just not woman enough to replace Maxim's first wife.
After a whirlwind engagement and marriage, Maxim takes his new bride home to Manderlay, a lavish, remote mansion in the English countryside. Manderlay is beautiful but vast and foreboding as well. At first sight, the new Mrs. de Winter is overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the mansion.
That overwhelmed feeling continues as she meets the staff, including the cold, emotionless Mrs. Danvers (Anderson, in a chilling performance). Mrs. Danvers is polite but distant and dismissive of the new Mrs. De Winter. After a long period of adjustment alone in Manderlay, the heroin begins to learn about the former Mrs. De Winter, the "Rebecca" of the title.
By all accounts, Rebecca was a stunningly beautiful woman who Maxim doted on while she was alive. A faux pas by one of the dinner guests lets it slip that Rebecca drowned in a boating accident. There was no inquiry, and the body was never found, but an old, crazy seahand who lives near the beach house (Leonard Carey) was (and still is) scared to death of Rebecca.
"In a film filled with people who bully our heroine around, the one who intimidates her the most is the one who she can never confront. Rebecca's shadow looms large over Manderlay."
Inside of Manderlay, many of the rooms are a veritable shrine to the former Mrs. De Winter. Mrs. Danvers shows the new Mrs. De Winter Rebecca's old, personal bedroom. Most of the room's effects dwarf our heroine. She's being overwhelmed again, this time by the memory of a woman she can't possible compete with.
The new Mrs. De Winter also meets Jack Favell (Sanders), Rebecca's old "friend." He still pays the occasional visit to talk with "Dani" (his pet name for Mrs. Danvers) and antagonize Maxim. It's obvious, though, that he and Rebecca were more than just friends.
As the new Mrs. De Winter learns more about Rebecca she realizes Maxim is becoming more of a mystery. He bristles at Rebecca's name, gets angry when talking about her, and broods seemingly at his own whim. The new Mrs. De Winter fears he's growing tired of her.
But that's not the worst of her worries. Rebecca's boat and body are eventually found, and it raises more questions than answers. It seems the damage to her boat was intentional and not the result of an accident. As with all suspicious deaths, it doesn't take long until the investigation targets Maxim.
Rebecca de Winter
In a film filled with people who bully our heroine around, the one who intimidates her the most is the one who she can never confront. Rebecca's shadow looms large over Manderlay. Her effects are untouched even a year after she's died. A large painting of her hangs at the top of the stairway, reminding everyone of her presence. Maxim is always distant and gruff whenever anyone mentions her name, and "Dani" dotes on her possessions. Make no mistake, Rebecca is the dominant woman in this story.
"Hitchcock would deal with censorship throughout his career, and it's part of what made his films so entertaining. He was constantly looking for end-runs around the stringent moral code required for films from the 1930s through the late 1960s."
Despite the fact that we never meet her, Rebecca remains an intriguingly complex character. Like another character Hitchcock will explore in "Rope," Rebecca seems to detest everyone in her life. She's emotionally withdrawn and only finds pleasure in manipulating Maxim (who, one suspects, she got stuck with for reasons beyond her control).
She also finds carnal pleasure in unlikely places. More on that in a bit. Jack Favell is understandable enough. He's an arrogant cad that Rebecca has no feelings for, but he's there and he's interested, so Rebecca uses him to escape the life she's trapped in.
Rebecca was also a proud woman. The final act that leads to her death comes about because she can't live with the prospect of losing her beauty and being unable to live the kind of life she's become accustomed to. Her other option was a long and painful death, and even though her actions were wholly unacceptable in the 1940s, she was going to die on her terms. It's this kind of dominant personality and control that makes her such an overbearing presence in a film in which she never appears.
Mrs. Danvers & Lesbianism
From our heroine's arrival in a driving rainstorm, Mrs. Danvers emotionless glares have put our heroine at unease. Dani is constantly sizing the new Mrs. De Winter up and comparing her to Rebecca. The new Mrs. De Winter is a simple, natural beauty, but she's not Rebecca. Rebecca was glamorous, bold, and sexual, facts not lost on Dani, who was Rebecca's closest confident.
Hitchcock was specifically instructed by the Hayes Board that, under no circumstances, was there to be any hint of lesbianism with Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca. Hitchcock would deal with censorship throughout his career, and it's part of what made his films so entertaining. He was constantly looking for end-runs around the stringent moral code required for films from the 1930s through the late 1960s. It probably shouldn't be surprising then that when censorship was replaced by the ratings board in the late 1960s and content was liberalized, Hitchcock found it hard to deal with the new era.
In Rebecca, it is not Maxim's obsession with Rebecca that leads to tragedy (that's the McGuffin). In fact, it's Dani's inability to let Rebecca's memory go that drives her destructive actions at the end of the film. Hitchcock had to find a way to secretly imply lesbianism, though, and he does so deftly in the scene where Danvers takes the new Mrs. De Winter on a creepy tour of Rebecca's untouched bedroom. Dani hypnotically recounts the times she brushed Rebecca's hair before bed as if she were doing it all over again. It's not at all unusual, but set against the backdrop of Dani's obsessive actions, the act takes on a whole new meaning.
Watch closely as Dani shows our heroine the breathtaking negligee Rebecca was fond of wearing to bed. You'll note that as Dani is talking about Rebecca's preparations for bed, she gently slides her hand up the bottom of the negligee as she displays it for the new Mrs. De Winter. It's something that goes unnoticed by most viewers (and film censors), but it was quite intentional.
This kind of deviant sexual obsession, which Hitchcock would explore several more times in "Rope" and "Marnie," is what makes Mrs. Danvers one of Hitchcock's most fascinating characters.
The Heroine, Maxim & Manderlay
Because of the intriguing relationship between Rebecca & Dani, few film scholars pay much attention to our heroine and Maxim's relationship. True, it's not as sexy (no pun intended) as the relationship between the two women, but it's still quite fascinating in its own right.
It's significant that our heroine is never named throughout the film. The only moniker she ever receives is "Mrs. De Winter", "the second Mrs. De Winter", and occasionally "you little fool" or "you little idiot" from Maxim. She lacks a true identity of her own. She's been so consistently bullied, first by Mrs. Van Hopper, then by Maxim, then by Dani and the memory of Rebecca, that she doesn't have time to find out who she is. At the climax of the film, Dani nearly convinces her to jump to her death because she will never live up to Rebecca's memory. Who is our heroine? How can we know when she doesn't even know?
When she leaves Mrs. Van Hopper for Maxim, she's really just replacing one parental figure with another. Van Hopper is a barking, nagging mother figure, always trying to ensure that our heroine maintains her reputation. The heroine's relationship with Maxim, on the other hand, is far from sexual. At one point, he kisses her gently on the forehead, like a father dropping his daughter off at her first day of kindergarten. The viewer doesn't doubt that there is some kind of love there, but it's not the burning, lustful attraction that plagues most Hitchcockian couples.
Maxim defies analysis almost as much as he defies other characters in the film. Throughout the film, his brooding, depressed nature seems to imply to his new wife (and us) that he's dwelling in the past, still hopelessly in love with Rebecca. We learn that it's not love that drives his obsession with her but hatred. The strong feeling Rebecca has inspired in Dani are also present in Maxim, but twisted and corrosive. At first, we're led to believe he's a precursor to Jimmy Stewart's "Scotty" in "Vertigo," replacing one tragically lost love with another, but instead we learn that he's haunted more by thoughts of his own naiveté than from love.
Manderlay itself also figures in strongly as a character, dwarfing our heroine and ensuring that she will never feel comfortable and in control. Like the Wuthering Heights property in the book of the same name, it seems to be haunted, cursed by the memory of Rebecca. It's not that there are actual ghosts, rattling their chains in the attic at night. Instead, there has been so much hatred, so much vitriol, betrayal and disgust in that house that it corrupts its inhabitants. It takes a pure soul, invading the house and exposing the repressed hatred and violent thoughts in the house to bring Manderlay down to cinders.
The 411: While "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes" were both masterpieces in certain respects, this film leaves them in the dust in terms of richness of character, depth of story, and intriguing execution. Hitchcock scholar Donald Spotto was uncharacteristically short with the film, calling it "straightforward" when it's anything but. If anything, "Rebecca" requires multiple viewings simple to appreciate the many layers of emotional discord between the major players. Oh, and lest you think "Rebecca" requires some sort of degree in psychology to enjoy, it doesn't. It's also a damned fine soap opera entertainment film. Simply put, they just don't make 'em like this anymore. A+
