Rebecca

Rebecca

Hitchcock's first american production. 1940. Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

Edythe van Hopper (Florence Bates) is spending time in Monte Carlo for some time with her paid companion (Joan Fontaine) to accompany her. The handsome widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) arrives to the same place, and he fall in love with the young woman who accompany the chatty Edythe.

Soon, Maxim marries this girl, who's from then called Mrs. de Winter. He brings her to his country house in Cornwall, the big house called Manderley. But the servants aren't exactly nice to the new Mrs. de Winters.

Especially unpleasant and cold is the frightening Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), who was very fond of the first wife of Maxim's; Rebecca. The new Mrs. de Winter realizes very fast that she's always compared with Rebecca.

Mrs. de Winter decides that she has to find out what all this mystery about Rebecca is really about. Why does Laurence not want to speak about Rebecca, when it's obvious that he's thinking of her very often. What's the secret that everyone at Manderley seems to be very anxious to not let the new Mrs. de Winter know of?

This film is really good. It's sometimes very unpleasant and sometimes almost frightening. Joan Fontaine is veyr good in her role as the shy Mrs. de Winter who finds herself lost among the cold servants and her husband who turns as cold as the others when she as much as mentiones Rebecca.

The scenes with the frightening Mrs. Danvers are sometimes almost scary, because you're not sure of what she's really hiding. This film is very good because it sometimes make a sudden turn in the plot, which makes it all more exiting. But the grade isn't better then 3 of 5. But it's a really good film.